Once Upon a Bookshelf

I know a lot of people who really enjoy Georgette Heyer’s books. In fact, I have never heard a bad thing about her books. So, when Sourcebooks e-mailed me asking me if I wanted to read and review one of her books on my blog, I was definitely interested. As it turns out, Sourcebooks is re-releasing a selection of Heyer’s titles this year. (In all honesty, I will admit that I am surprised that they’ve waited this long what with the number of different publications of Austen’s works one can find in the bookstores currently.) Black Sheep will be released in June.

Black Sheep centers on Abigail Wendover, a 28-year-old single woman living with her sister and niece in Bath. Fanny, Abby’s niece, is not yet of-age, and yet finds herself “in love” with Stacy Caverleigh, a fortune hunter trying to regain his own lost fortune. In an attempt to prevent an elopement between Fanny and Stacy, Abby enlists the help of Stacy’s estranged uncle, Miles Caverleigh who has recently returned to England from being exiled to India by his family in his youth. Unknown to everyone in England, India agreed with Miles quite well, and he has gained his own fortune, but he is still considered to be the “black sheep” of the Caverleigh family, and not a suitable husband for anyone from a good family. Long story short, as to be expected from this sort of book, Abigail and Miles fall in love, though Abby is torn between her love for Miles and her relationship with her family (who claim they will disown her if she marries Miles).

The characters were wonderful, and the dialogue was witty and amusing. It was predictable, but that is what you would expect from this type of book. Of course the girl’s going to get the guy, everyone’s problems are going to work out wonderfully and all will live happily ever after.

As my first foray into Heyer’s Regency romances, it was certainly successful. I finished the book feeling the complete satisfaction that only a good read can leave you with. I can see why Jane Austen fans really enjoy her books, and I will definitely be reading more of Heyer’s works.

The Spanish Bow is the story of Feliu Delargo. Born in 1892, the book follows his life as he grows up in a small Spanish villiage, follows his journey to becoming a world-renowned cellist, and follows his life trying to use his fame to try to make his world a better place. We get to see how WWI, the Spanish Civil War, and WWII all effect his family, his professional life, and his friends.

First, let me say that this book has one of my two favourite opening hooks that I’ve managed to stumble across this year:

I was almost born Happy.

I positively love that sentence. It goes on to talk about how the main character was almost named “Feliz”, but really it could mean almost anything as a first sentence. It just completely sparked the imagination, and dragged me into the book immediately. Unfortunately, about a third into the book, I found that it started to drag a little bit. But the last third of the book really picked up again.

This book was certainly more of a character-driven book than plot-driven. It does of course help that the book follows one man from birth through until he is about mid 80’s, but even the other characters were all so well developed too. I love that two of the main characters who performed so brilliantly together were the opposite in every other respect - manners, personality, political stances, etc. It certainly gave different perspectives to everything that was happening in their world.

But by far, my favourite was everything relating to Aviva - a young woman who is a bit of a violin prodigy. She struck me as a very Ophelia-ish character. I don’t want to spoil anything about her, but suffice to say we do get to watch her go a little mad.

It’s hard to believe that The Spanish Bow was Romano-Lax’s first novel. She does have roots in journalism, and you can see that in her writing, but still. I’ll definiely be looking forward to more of her books.

The Chess Machine is the story about The Mechanical Turk, a chess-playing machine that was invented in the late 18th century. The machine was supposed to be powered by gears turning, similar to clockwork, but in reality there was enough room in the main body of the “machine”, with enough hidden compartments and sliding doors, that a small man could hide in there and power the machine without anyone ever seeing him.

After seeing an illusionist at the Holy Roman Empress’ court, Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen claims that he can create a machine that can think. During six months absence from court in order to develop this thinking machine - a machine that plays chess - Kempelen finds Tibor, a chess master, who has been thrown into prison. Kempelen will pay this man’s bail in return for Tibor’s help in the deception of the Empress and her court. Thus begins the story of The Chess Machine.

What had been expected to be a one-time exhibition of the chess machine in front of the Empress soon becomes much more than that. Kempelen is asked to show the chess machine to all of Europe. Things go smoothly until one evening - a countess who is alone in a room with the chess machine is murdered, and people start believing that the Mechanical Turk is behind the murder.

Penguin sent me an ARC for this book. I always get a little bit worried when reading and reviewing an ARC that people will assume that I’m only writing good stuff about the book because I got a free review copy. Please keep in mind that I would definitely have said the same things about this book had I bought it, and had I not received the ARC for this book, I definitely would have bought this book when I stumbled upon it at the store.

I expected court intrigue, lots of lovely descriptions of costumes worn in Vienna by the nobles, deception of the world at large, but this book had so much more than that. Most specifically, it showed some of the darker sides of humans - how there are people who would do absolutely anything to impress those higher in rank in hopes that it will bring them more success in life, and how people will do absolutely anything to save their own skin. The book was a little dark at times (the cover design is rather misleading as it’s bright yellow and black, but I won’t go any furthur into that), but in a delicious, making-you-want-to-read-more, sort of way.

The way things were described (the first time Tibor lays eyes on The Mechanical Turk, for example) were fabulous - there were parts that sent shivers up my spine. And while in most books that have a bit of a gothic feel to it have a secret that isn’t revealed until the end, the reader is in on the majority of the secret from the beginning of the book.

The Chess Machine also gave me pause to think - all the skeptics of the chess machine that Kempelen created said that machines could not think. What would these people think if they could see the kind of technology that we use today? What machines can do these days… our computers would completely blow their minds.

I’m happy I had a chance to read this book; it was a page turner, and I had a hard time putting it down all weekend (especially the last third of the book). I’m hoping that this won’t be Löhr’s only novel, that I’ll get the chance to read more of his books in the future.

The Lambs of London is based on the Shakespeare Forgeries by William Ireland.

In the late 18th century, a young man, William Ireland, “discovers” a number of deeds, letters and manuscripts belonging to Shakespeare. He claims that he has a patroness who wants to remain completely anonymous; this patroness had these documents in her possession, but had no need for them. While at first the public embraces these documents (including a “lost” Shakespearian play - Vortigern), they soon begin to doubt the authenticity of them.

Charles and Mary Lamb are two people who get into the middle of the events going on. They are introduced when Charles buys a book from the shop William works in that has Shakespeare’s signature in it. Mary forms an immediate attachment to William, and is quite enamored with all his talk and knowledge of Shakespeare. William quickly takes Mary into his confidence by telling her all about his “patroness.” Things soon start going downhill - Mary starts suffering from bipolar depression, and William is trying to keep up the pretense that the documents he has forged are real.

This really was the perfect time for me to read this book. It’s been sitting on my stack for a couple of years, since my aunt (or was it my grandmother?) handed it to me and told me I’d enjoy it. I don’t think I even read the back of the book until a few days ago, so had no clue whatsoever what this book was about. Otherwise, I would have read it much sooner. (I have to admit that I was totally turned off by the cover art.) But I’m happy I kept it until now - I’ve seen a couple of Shakespearian plays recently, and it’s almost time to pull out A Midsummer Night’s Dream to read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, so it was good to immerse myself in a world where the characters love his works so much.

This was quite an easy read, and had some of the most wonderful passages in it, that just rang so true. My favourite was:

What is the sweetness of flowers compared to the savour of dust and confinement?

And of course, when the characters started talking about how wonderful Shakespeare is, I couldn’t help but smile.

“He is our true parent. Chaucer is the father of our poetry, but Shakespeare is the father of our stage. No one truly fell in love before Romeo and Juliet. No one understood jealousy before Othello. Hamlet, too, is a great original. . . Yet the people of his uncultivated time never understood his genius.”

So of course, this book gets cool points for talking of Shakespeare like that.

I had a hard time liking any of the characters at the beginning of the book. Actually, as the book went on, I didn’t like any of them any more than I had started out, but at least I understood them by the end. What motivated them, why they ended up how they ended up…

I had wondered exactly how much of this book was true to fact, and so have spent a bit of time on Wikipedia, reading up on Mary Lamb, Charles Lamb, and William Ireland. I am rather disappointed by one of the things that the author changed; I suppose it makes the ending of the book a little bit more poetic than if he had stuck to what had really happened, so I guess it makes sense, but it’s still a bit of a disappointment.

Only two more unread Hornblower books after this one! (Oh, plus The Life & Times.) I must savour them, because I don’t know what I’m going to do afterwards. I’m going to be at a bit of a loss. (I know, I know, there’s always O’Brian’s Master & Commander, but… it’s just not Horatio.)

I think I enjoyed this book more than all the other Hornblower books I’ve read so far. This time, Hornblower is a Commodore and has a whole bunch of ships in his command. Of course, Bush is there. Bush has to be there, just for the fact that he’s Bush. Hornblower is involved with Russia - doing everything he can to prevent Napoleon from taking over even more of the world than he already has. (Oh wait, isn’t that what he’s supposed to do for a good portion of this series?) Of course, a twist is thrown in when one of the men of Hornblower’s crew unsuccessfully attempts to kill the Prince of Sweden and the Czar of Russia.

Hornblower was much more enjoyable as a character in this book. Not to say that I don’t usually enjoy him, but he’s actually loosening up a little bit, and allowing himself to not be all stoic in front of other people. He’s growing much more fond of those who serve in the navy with him, and it’s really rather endearing.

You know what I really, really hate? (In hopes to be not too spoilerish for those who haven’t read this but plan on it…) When I’ve just started to like a character when BAM! He’s dead. It’s different than if I had liked the character all along - I feel at least like I’ve appreciated my time reading about him. But if I just started to like the character? I feel so betrayed by the author about the fact that this character is now dead. How could you make me just start to like someone and then kill him off?! I mean, really. Totally unfair and I get totally bitter.

(Oh, I totally love that Bush has his own Wikipedia entry. That makes me all giggly and fangirlish!)