Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

Another wonderful book of historical fiction about Tudor England by Gregory! I regret listening to it instead of reading it, as the audio recordings are abridged, and I miss all the descriptive detail provided by Gregory. This book took a look at the childhood and early years of Katherine of Aragon - daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, married to Arthur, prince of England, who dies within five months of their marriage. She holds out until she can marry prince Henry, and only then it dawned on me that she was the first wife of the many wives of King Henry VIII.

As always, there were so many things that fascinated me about the historical facts and lives of the people of those times, which Gregory brings forth in such rich detail. Among them - Queen Isabella was an amazing woman, warrior and leader in her time. I need to read more on the conflict between the Spanish and the Moors. The Moors had a higher level of knowledge in healing and probably other things, which the Spanish lost when the pushed the Moors out of Spain. (When Katherine is forced to ask a Moor doctor for help to bear a healthy child, she has to fight an inner battle to accept his help.) When descendants of royalty are betrothed in their cradles, it leads to a strange non-courtship and husband - wife relations. The whole process of public bedding on the wedding night seemed strange. This can be a very ackward time for the couple, as Gregory shows in both this book and Earthly Joys. The importance of virginity and consumation of marriage is incredibly important in those days and a key to Katharine's story. The importance of bearing an heir, a male heir, is so great, that it is considered the main, if not only responsibility of the queen of England.

I liked that Katherine had learned the organization of war campaigns from her parents, so when Henry is ready to take off and do battle, she prepares the supplies needed, trains the soldiers, get the ships ready, etc. And while he is in France, she does her own battle with the Scots, defeats them, but doesn't destroy them and creates an alliance instead, insuring peace (at least for a while.) This is in sharp contrast the totally unprepared campaign described in Earthly Joys, where the King and Lord Buckinham set sail totally unprepared, without supplies, with great delays, at the wrong time of year, etc.

The book ends with Katherine walking into the court room proud and tall, though we all know that this is where Henry VIII will get permission to divorce her, and her life will change profoundly, but Gregory leaves her in that state of hope. (Listened May 2006)

De-coding Da Vinci by Amy Welborn

"The facts behind the fiction of The Da Vinci Code." I was looking for a well rounded discussion about what is and what isn't true in Dan Brown's book, and this was the only book still available on the library shelves, but this didn't do it for me. Though the author has a depth of knowledge in this field, she loses her credibility with me through her non-objectivity, like her repetition of the Bible as the most accurate description of Christ's life. I have not researched this field, but I am quite certain some of her facts were not accurate, e.g. there were quite a few cultures around the time of Christ who created similar myths around their spiritual leaders.

The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction - not accurate historical fiction that I often like, but an alternative historical fiction. What if... Jesus was married and had a bloodline preserved to this day? I don't care if it is true, I like the speculation. And to deny that Christianity is patriarchal - mostly from the church leaders throughout the centuries is ludicrous. It is not enough to have the Christ's mother mentioned occasionally. I understood her power while visiting the Cloisters (in NY) while pregnant and looking at all the Madonna paintings and sculptures. I was very drawn to them and understood how important she was to women, as very little else speaks to women directly. I don't remember her emphasized in the Lutheran church in which I was raised. The "sacred feminine" is important and mostly denied by Christianity, even persecuted. Looks like I will have to look further for discussions of The Da Vinci Code. (May 2006)

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I read (listened to) this book when it first became popular and promised myself I would buy it when it came out in paperback. Well, I ended up spending as much, or even more than I would for the hardback, but I got the illustrated version - and love it. I am always frustrated when books talk of paintings or architecture and I would like a visual to see what the characters are seeing. This was perfect for an illustrated edition, as it mentions so many works of art and architecture. For example, I had seen pictures of the new I.M. Pei pyramid addition to the Louvre, but to see the inverse pyramid in the lower courtyard helped me visualize the after hours activities in the Louvre described in the book. When I first read the book, I went looking for the Leonardo Da Vinci paintings mentioned, especially the Last Supper. I also have a wondrous childhood memory of going to see the Mona Lisa in some museum in New York, waiting in long lines to see this small, but significant painting.

Though I remembered the basic plot, I still enjoyed all the twists and turns in Brown's book. I am also very sympathetic to the basic premise, that the feminine or "sacred feminine" as Brown calls it, was squelched by the male leaders in Christianity. I don't care very much if Jesus was married or if some of his descendents are still alive today, but I am angry at all the women that were persecuted by the church, and how so many natural processes became sinful.

One thought that converged in my mind while simultaneously reading this and the Constant Princess (to be entered into the blog soon), where a Spanish princess is forced to receive treatment from a Moor doctor, who knows so much more than the English or Spanish about herbs and natural healing. When the Spanish forced the Moors out of their land, they also lost that knowledge and many became sick. So too the church fought so hard against the wise women throughout the lands, and later the "medical profession" fought against midwives, thus losing a wealth of knowledge about healing that we are trying to regain today.

I liked the characters of Robert Langdon, that tweedy academic, and Sophie Noveu, the French cryptologist who is the granddaughter of Jacques Sauniere, the curator of the Louvre. Sauniere is killed in the prologue and leaves a series of cryptic messages for his granddaughter to decipher, with the help of Langdon. It is an exciting mystery novel, so that I could even tolerate it when it started getting too preachy.

This book has created lots of controversy. We even had a discussion with one of the critics, a religion professor at our university. I actually read one of the criticisms (see next entry), but found I really didn't care for the arguments. Some are faith based, so if you don't believe in the basic premise, the criticism doesn't make sense. I liked the speculation in the book. This is a work of fiction, so it is not expected to reflect all truth. I think am intrigued enough to do some more reading on this.

(Finished reading 5/1/06)

Howard Carter: Searching for King Tut by Barbara Ford

After reading the Tomb of the Golden Bird, I was interested in learning a bit more about the excavation of King Tut's tomb, and I found this book for young readers (though it was in the main stacks of the university library) about Howard Carter, the man who found the tomb and did the excavating. I just wanted to tease apart fact from fiction presented in the mystery. Interestingly, Carter had no formal education, but was just fascinated with all things Egyptian from a private collection in England that he had seen. He had learned to be an artist from his father, an important role in archeological excavation, as I learned in both books. Though they also seemed to use photographers to document what they found (maybe not in color in those days - the find was in 1922 and took 10 years to excavate), seems that each archeological team also included at least one artist to draw the items found, the placement of them, the paintings on the walls, etc. Carter had the opportunity to get to Egypt as one of these artists and learned about archeology from Flinders Petrie, who developed a scientific approach - noting the location of each item and keeping even the smallest fragments. It turned out that it was a fact that Carter and his benefactor and a few closest colleagues did sneak into the tomb before it was officially opened. I understand curiosity completely. I guess I will have to read more before going to see the exhibit coming to Chicago soon. (Read 5/3/06)

Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters

I've read mysteries by Peters before and haven't been thrilled, but they are OK. This one was no different. They mystery itself was a non-mystery, and I didn't really care for Amanda Peabody, the main character. I guess there are a whole series of her books. But the historical setting was great - Egypt at the time of finding and opening of King Tut's tomb. I liked the archeological details and that there seems to be a whole subculture of Englishmen drawn to Egypt at the time. I wonder if there are still English there now and how active is the archeological community there or have they moved on? I am not sure how accurately Peters portrayed the relationships with the local Egyptians, but they seemed OK. I could definitely get into the excitement of finding the first almost untouched tomb and all its wonderful treasures. I have seen the books, but not the treasures themselves. They are coming to the Chicago Field Museum soon. Amanda's large bustling family and friends was enjoyable, though Amanda herself often grated on my nerves, especially her penchant for matchmaking. But it got me excited about King Tut again and I even read another short book about Howard Carter, the man who found and led the excavation of the tomb. (Listened to in April 2006)

Life Studies by Susan Vreeland

Susan Vreeland writes about artists in beautiful fiction that leaves me fulfilled in some way. My favorite book in this genre is her Passion of Artemesia. I also like the Girl in Hyacinth Blue, both of these read before I started this blog. So I picked up her Life Studies as an audio book, but found myself frustrated, that I couldn't get to an image of the painter's work while I was listening, so I returned the audio book, checked the book from the library, and since it is not one continuous story, but many stories about many artists, I read it over time. I would find the artist's work on the Web or in some art book, so I could visualize the paintings described.
The first half of the book called "Then" consists of eight stories about famous artists from 1876 to 1939: Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet (1879 and 1907 stories), Berthe Morisot, Eduard Manet, Paul Cezanne, van Gogh, Modigliani. As Vreeland writes in her afterward, these are fictional, but based on research about the artists.
The "Interlude" is a delightful story "The Adventures of Bernardo and Salvatore, or, The Cure: A Tale", written in the style of a tale about two Italians, one who is ill and the other his friend, who wants to cure his friend and takes him on a pilgrimage to Rome to see and be inspired by the art. This is set some time ago, when there were no museums, so the men have to go to churches or bribe servants to let them into rich people's homes to see the art. (Part of the tale and magic.)
The last part "Now" is a series of stories about art in people's lives instead of about famous artists. A man who doesn't understand his art loving girlfriend, a woman working in clay, a woman daring to be a nude model for a sculpture class (my favorite of this series), a mother and son participating in a pagent, where famous paintings and sculptures are reproduced life-size with real people posing against painted backdrops.
The stories are not focused on the art, but on the people and their lives. Art is just a major part of those lives. I love it!
(Read 4-25-06)

Erotic Utopia by Olga Matich

This book caught my eye with its intriguing title and subtitle: The decadent imagination in Russia’s fin-de-siècle, while I was ordering Russian literature books. I read most of the introduction and conclusion, but ended just skimming the rest, as it required a much more in depth knowledge of Russian literature and culture than I possess. I especially liked the term "erotic celibacy" that was used throughout. Otherwise it was quite theoretical, looking at the lives Russian authors, their relationships and ideas and how they portrayed them in their works. Modernism and psychopathology were applied.
(Read April, 2006)

Archangel by Sharon Shinn

I love this author! I read a couple of her young adult books, but this was the first adult fantasy book I've read. Shinn has created a totally new world with humans and angels. Angels seem to be human like, but they have huge wings with which they can fly and their blood runs hotter, so they can take the cold in the high reaches of the atmosphere. They are supposed to mate with humans. The angels are responsible for communicating with Jovah on behalf of the people through singing. Every 20 years a new Archangel is appointed, and he (or she) has to have Jovah's chosen partner to sing with him/her once a year at the Gloria or the god will be angered and destroy their world. Gabriel is the up and coming Archangel, who has been reluctant to find his woman, and once he finds out it is Rachel, he can't find her, and once he finds her, they don't get along. There is a corrupt Archangel to be replaced, slavery to be erased, and other inequities to be righted. I can't explain why this book was so intriguing to me, but there are more in this series, which I will just have to buy.
(Read over spring break, finished 4/10/06)

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

This book was so disconcerting to me, that I had to go to other book reviews to see what other people thought. This is considered a brilliant first book by Goldberg, and I have to admit it was well written and drew me into the lives of these four family members. Eliza the 5th grader is the catalyst for the whole story. Though she is an average student, she surprisingly wins a series of spelling bees. Her father Saul starts working with her on her spelling, neglecting his son Aaron in the process, who looks elsewhere for guidance and happiness. Her mother is a lawyer, who is distant from the family, but gets her kicks from shoplifting. Though I was intrigued, I had a hard time listening to what seemed like the total falling apart of this family and the individuals in it. One of my colleagues had written a book review of this and felt it ended on a hopeful note. I think the note was too quiet to give me any real hope for this family. I also found the discussion of a book club on this book online, and found their thoughts and concerns aligned with mine. For instance, they felt they did not know enough about Jewish mysticism, to be able to evaluate some of the events in the book. This book club was also disconcerted by the ending. I did like the inside view of the spelling bee competitions. The New York Times book review commented, that Goldberg seemed to approach spelling bees like beauty pagents for nerds.
(Finished listening to 4/11/06)

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

I don't believe I read another economics book, but with the subheading "a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything ", I was intrigued. Dubner is a journalist, that helps Levitt pull together many of his findings and presents them in a very understandable manner. After a conference this past week, where I was sometimes lost in statistical talk, I found myself amazed at what can be learned from smartly applied statistics. Well this book was all about looking at data and teasing out the real reasons behind certain phenomena. The one that I can't get out of my mind is the fact that since abortion was legalized, and the appropriate time has passed since those unwanted babies would have grown to teenagerhood, the crime rate has dropped drastically, at a rate that cannot be explained by the usual - improved policing methods, economic upswing, etc.
Finished listening to 4/1/06.