Hello and welcome to another reading roundup. I’ve clearly been on a bit of a social history kick lately – all of the books I’ve read and/or listened to in the last couple of weeks have had social change as a strong theme. Let me tell you about them. [book-info]The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson is a slice-of-life look at an English town in the summer of 1914, just before the First World War. This conflict had a profound impact on British life, especially in terms of the class system and women’s role in society and so this particular period of time about which Simonson writes is a real turning point. The author clearly has a strong knowledge of and interest in social history and it comes across very well in the book. Add to this wonderful, engaging characters (I’m heavily invested in our protagonist Beatrice Nash and young Snout) and this is a great read. I’m about two thirds of the way through the audiobook and enjoying it very much. Fiona Hardingham is undertaking narration duties and does an excellent job of distinguishing all the characters. [book-info number=1]The second social historical audiobook I’m enjoying is Julian Fellowes’…
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld is the fourth in the Austen Project of modern retellings of Jane Austen’s novels and attempts to bring her classic Pride and Prejudice into the 21st century. Having read the other three Austen adaptations, I was intrigued to see how Sittenfeld would update the story of Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane and Bingley. From experience I know that Austen adaptations, when done well, can be wonderful. (check out The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube if you don’t believe me.) I really, really wanted to like this book – I love Jane Austen, and the pre released teaser sample sounded excellent – but no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t sit well with me. In the interests of fairness, given how well known and beloved Pride and Prejudice has become, it was always going to be one of the trickier ones to adapt. Let me talk about what I liked first. What I liked The modernisation. Many things in the update worked surprisingly well. The transfer of the action from Hertfordshire to Cincinnati was seamless and gave a very similar flavour of the small town mentality that caused Darcy’s snobbish attitude. The Bennet family’s future being at risk…
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon is the fourth in the time travelling historical fiction series following our protagonists Claire and Jamie Fraser as they attempt to start a new life in the American Colonies. Weighing in at nearly 900 pages, or 44 hrs and 54 mins of audiobook, this is a real behemoth of a book. It’s also the book on my shelf that’s taken me the longest to read. GoodReads tells me that I finished the previous book in the series, Voyager, back in April 2015, and I started Drums of Autumn around that time. This means that Drums of Autumn has taken me almost a year to finish. I read it in chunks. I would read a large section – usually when the Outlander TV series piqued my interest again – and then struggle to continue and put it aside for other books. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it; I simply struggled to maintain my interest to read 800+ pages over a short period. What I liked The characters. I love the characters in the book, particularly Claire and Jamie and their unconventional romance. Gabaldon has said that she wanted to show a mature relationship…
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson is the first in a young adult historical fantasy following the story of Leah Westfall, a young woman from Georgia with the gift of sensing gold. Circumstances lead her to seek her fortune in California as part of the 1849 gold rush. This first book deals with Leah’s departure from Georgia and the first part of her journey west. I really enjoyed this book. I was highly invested in Leah’s story and loved the depiction of the trek across the country. Upon finishing it I immediately preordered book two, entitled Like a River Glorious, due out in September 2016. And can I just say, isn’t that a gorgeous cover? What I liked The protagonist. I really enjoyed reading from Leah’s perspective. She is a young woman with a good heart, and a strong mind. It’s clear though the toll her secrets are taking on her. I liked that Leah does sometimes does make mistakes and errors in judgement – it keeps her real. The supporting characters are also very engaging and in many cases have significant character development. The historical detail. I admit that this is a period of American history about…