Mercury Pictures Presents (by Anthony Marra)

Really wonderfully written epic, with an amazing setting (Italy and Hollywood in the late 1930's and early 1940s) and a fabulous main character in Maria. (I also loved her love interest, Eddie Lu.)  Yet somehow it took a long time to get through it for me. 

Maybe it's just long and I'm out of practice or something. Maybe it is the narrative switching from stories I was engrossed in to other characters who I found less interesting. Maybe it is the flash-forwards that often removed some of the suspense for me, as the narrator just tells us how things will turn out from time to tie.

But I was really into it at the beginning and the end, and I love the writing, the verisimillitude, the characters, the ending, the plot. So much to love! Just maybe.... it could have been shorter.  Still, I think it's going to be a ToB contender, so I'm glad I read it.

The Killer Angels (by Michael Shaara)

I read this for the "read an award-winning book from the year you were born" category: The Killer Angels, an historical novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in the year I was born.

Not sure how I landed on this book as I am not usually a person who reads war books or historical novels or books with only white men in them, plus this has a ton of battlefield description (and I hate descriptions of scenery) yet this was so compelling I couldn't put it down. It is written from the perspective of some of the key players at Gettysburg, both Union and Confederate, and is completely vivid and humanizing.  

I did have to look up the author's assertion that Robert E. Lee was "against slavery." He wasn't. There are some issues with how the author engages on the topic but "the South claims this war isn't about slavery but it's totally about slavery" is definitely articulated.  But Shaara is more interested in exploring the battle itself and the heroic actions of men on both sides and on those terms, it's a compelling story.

This is like, the opposite of a book I thought I would read and enjoy. And yet, I loved reading it.

Matrix (by Lauren Groff)

I loved this historical novel, set in the 12th century during the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, centering on Marie of France, a semi-obscure historical figure who lived out her life in an abbey. Groff envisions her as a mystic, a leader, and a writer.

As In This House of Brede shows us, the interior life of a community of women can be fascinating. (In this case, Marie's desire for other women is also a thread running throughout the book.) She uses her position in the abbey to claim power in one of the only ways available to women at the time, and this exploration of female power is the center of the book.  

I also love Groff's writing style, present-tense omniscient, and how she drops in references to future events seemingly without holding anything back. And yet removing the suspense doesn't make the book any less compelling. Looking forward to discussing this one in the Tournament in March!

The Lacemaker And The Princess (by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley)

Category is: "a middle grade book that doesn’t take place in the U.S. or the UK" and thus I read this middle-grade historical novel about a young lacemaker named Isabelle who encounters Marie Antoinette one day, and becomes a companion to her daughter. This is based on a real story about a commoner who did become a companion to Marie-Therese at Versailles.

This novel shows the French revolution from both sides: on the one hand, Isabelle lives in the palace, where the royal family is kind to her; on the other she lives in relative poverty, and Isabelle's brother George has revolutionary ideas and works for the Marquis de Lafayette (who I definitely did not envision as Daveed Diggs, similarly to how I definitely did not envision Marie Antoinette as Kirsten Dunst).

This was a solid middle-grade offering, which made me want to go back and reread Antonia Fraser's biography of Antoinette and also visit Versailles. It's 2020, so I can do the former, but not the latter. Someday!

Catherine, Called Birdy (by Karen Cushman)

A historical young adult novel set in the 1200s, in which Catherine narrates her fourteenth year.  She's rebellious (insomuch as she can be in the 13th century) and resisting being married off by her father, while commenting on feudal life and the people around her. 

The diary format and general charm and self-possession of Catherine reminds me a bit of Cassandra and I Capture the Castle. The well-researched historical details makes this immersive and fascinating. It gave me a glimpse into medieval life that managed not to be too anachronistic in a portrayal of a  young woman and her social world. Great read!

Bring Up the Bodies (by Hillary Mantel)

A little late for the Tournament of Books, but I just finished the sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies. This one essentially covers the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn from Thomas Cromwell's point of view, with Mantel's characteristic attention to dialogue, detail, and metaphor, and with Cromwell being as inscrutable and ambiguous as ever.

I would not have read it if someone hadn't told me that Mantel fixed the pronoun thing that drove me so crazy with Wolf Hall, and she did! There are a few awkward "he, Cromwell" constructions, but it's better than "he" just floating around by itself in the confusing way that it did in Wolf Hall. So this book is an easier read for sure.

It's also just as gripping as Wolf Hall if not more so, since we know Anne Boleyn is doomed, and we're waiting to see how it happens. Mantel does ascribe a strange motive to Cromwell (which is that he's getting revenge on five men specifically for a play they were in years ago) which apparently does not square with history.  I also feel that whole section of the trial and arrests and so forth is somewhat rushed, and I don't get a clear sense of the characters of some of the men. (That's probably my fault for not being aware of their names beforehand, as I'm sure they're mentioned throughout in nicely subtle dramatically ironic style.)

Mantel doesn't really take sides on whether Anne Boleyn was guilty or not, which I think is done well. (I've read some complaints from the pro-Anne contingent, but I think Anne is nicely ambiguous and not unsympathetic here.) As usual, this left me wanting to re-read Wives of Henry VIII, but this time I am also eagerly anticipating the third book in the trilogy. Bring on Jane Seymour! Bring on Anna of Cleves!