The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

First sentence:

"It was November."

Description:


"All children mythologize their birth. . . .So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself--all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I liked this book about tales, both personal and literary. I especially liked how Margaret learned the truth about Vida's life.

Date read: 9/9/2011
Book #: 22
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0743298020
ISBN-13: 9780743298025
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2006
# of pages: 406
Binding: Hardcover
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The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

First sentence:

"'Everyone in Venice is acting,' Count Girolamo Marcello told me."

Description:

"Venice--a city of masks and riddles, where narrow streets and passageways form a giant maze that confounds the uninitiated and deepens the sense of mystery. As captivating as it is elusive, the city teeters in precarious balance between endurance and decay. Architectural treasures crumble--foundations shift, ornaments fall--even as efforts to preserve them are under way. In The City of Falling Angels, John Berendt, author of the record-breaking bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, unveils the enigmatic Venice as only he can.

The story opens on the evening of January 29, 1996, when a sensational fire destroys the historic Fenice Opera House. The loss of the Fenice, where five of Verdi's operas premiered, is a catastrophe for Venetians, made worse by the revelation that arson might have been the cause. Arriving three days after the fire, Berendt inquires into the nature of life in this remarkable city while gradually revealing the truth about the fire. In the course of his investigations, he encounters a rich cast of characters: a hard-as-nails prosecutor who blushes when he's angered; the First Family of American expatriates facing the loss of their palace on the Grand Canal after four generations of ownership; a contemporary Venetian surrealist painter known locally as an outrageous prankster and provocateur; a twenty-first-generation master glassblower whose sons are locked in a dynastic war; and numerous others--pigeon trappers, scapegoats, hustlers, sleepwalkers, a believer in Martians, the Plant Man, the Rat Man of Treviso, and Henry James.

Berendt tells a tale full of atmosphere and surprise as the stories build, one after the other, ultimately coming together to portray a world as finely drawn as a still-life painting. The fire and its aftermath serve as a leitmotif that runs through the book, contributing to the ever-mounting suspense and revealing the city of Venice in all its magic, mystery and decadence." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book about Venice - its history, people and events, especially in the late 20th century.

Date read: 8/29/2011
Book #: 21
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 1594200610
ISBN-13: 9781594200618
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Year: 2005
# of pages: 398
Binding: Trade Paperback
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TBR Challenge 2011!

Another year has gone by, and it's time to post my list of books to read for the TBR Challenge 2011! I selected 12 books plus 12 alternates/extra credits.




Here they are (in no particular order):

• John Sandford. Chosen Prey -- finished 1/30/2011
• Douglas Clegg. Dark of the Eye -- finished 3/2/2011
• James Lowder. Knight of the Black Rose -- finished 3/6/2011
• Robert Goldsborough. Murder in E Minor [substitute for Icon] -- finished 3/6/2011
• Michael Koepf. The Fisherman's Son [substitute for Native Tongue] -- finished 3/17/2011
• Robert Tine. Desperate Measures -- finished 3/18/2011
• Hugh B. Cave. The Restless Dead - finished 3/26/2011
•  Michael Reaves. The Shattered World -- finished 3/29/2011
• Ruth Rendall. End in Tears -- finished 5/28/2011
• Michael Bishop. Unicorn Mountain -- finished 7/12/2011
• Stan Pottinger. The Final Procedure [substitute for Upside Down] -- finished 7/15/2011
• Iain Banks. The Wasp Factory [substitute for The Gilded Chain] -- finished 7/22/2011

Alternates / Extra Credit:

• Michael Crichton. Sphere
• Angela Knight. Master of Wolves
• C.J. Cherryh. The Pride of Chanur
• Robert C. Fleet. Last Mountain
• Dave Duncan. The Gilded Chain
• John Ramsey Miller. Upside Down
  
• Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep
• Patricia Wallace. Lullabye
• Robert Heinlein. The Green Hills of Earth
• Greg Iles. The Footprints of God

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

First sentence:

I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped.

Description:

Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim.

That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again.

It was just a stage I was going through.

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book about discovery, treasure and manipulation.

Date read: 7/22/2011
Book #: 20
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2011
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0684853159
ISBN-13: 9780684853154
Publisher: Simon and Shuster
Year: 1984
# of pages: 184
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Final Procedure by Stan Pottinger

First sentence:

"He heard a soft voice, a little girl's voice, singing quietly in the operating room."

Description:

"HE'S TRAINED IN THE SCIENCE OF EVIL...

Christmas Eve in Auschwitz, 1944. Hitler's Angel of Death, Dr. Joseph Mengele, and his brilliant young protégé, Adalwolf, are on the verge of a nightmarish medical discovery when the war brings it all to an end. But Mengele's insane visions for the Third Reich live on.

SHE'S SKILLED IN THE ART OF THE HUNT...

More than half a century later, FBI agent Melissa Gale's mission is to bring Adalwolf to justice before it's too late. He's emerged from the shadows of history to resurrect a biological terror and unleash it on the world. But tracking him is easier than Melissa imagined. Because for years, Adalwolf has been tracking her.

BUT WHICH ONE IS THE PREY?

Melissa and her unborn child have something Adalwolf needs--a genetic history that holds the key to his success. As a dance of death is engaged between hunter and hunted, Melissa realizes how far the last Nazi will go to fulfill his dark dreams for his Ultimate Solution--and just how far she is prepared to go to stop him..." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this thriller about the past coming back to life. I especially liked Melissa gradually learning who Adalwolf is and how strong she could be.

Date read: 7/15/2011
Book #: 19
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2011
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0312997256
ISBN-13: 9780312997250
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 2003
# of pages: 342
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Unicorn Mountain by Michael Bishop

First sentence:

"Libby Quarrels was standing at the produce bin in the gigantic Safeway grocery store in Huerfano, Colorado, scrutinizing the bell peppers and hefting bag after cellophane bag of brown-edged celery stalks and runty carrots."

Description:

"KAR'TAJAN

Unicorn Mountain is the story of four people whose lives are transformed by a herd of unicorns. Libby is divorced, just getting by and unsure about how to react to the fact that she sometimes sees unicorns. Bo is dying and has no one to turn to until Libby takes him in. Sam is estranged from his wife and child and feels he probably deserved supernatural punishment. Paisley, Sam's daughter, is haunted by a recent personal tragedy.

Into their lives come the unicorns. Sam and Libby have seen them but are unsure of their reality. Then Bo begins to receive television transmission from another dimension that reveal that the unicorns are dying from an equine disease. Someone has to do something here, in this world, to save them...

Written with realism and compassion, Unicorn Mountain is a beautiful novel in which the magic works to make everything better. It is a deeply affecting story about salvation that will lift your spirits - and make you think again." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very moving book about unicorns, AIDS, and learning new things about oneself and others. I liked how Libby, Bo and Sam gradually got to know each other better over time.

Date read: 7/12/2011
Book #: 18
Challenge: TBR Challenge 2011
Rating: 3*5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0586206175
ISBN-13: 978058206171
Publisher: Grafton Books
Year: 1988
# of pages: 495
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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North by Roger Hubank

First sentence:

"In Washington, towards the end of the nineteenth century, in one of the fine town houses that lined three sides of an elegant square, six men were sitting down to dinner."

Description:

"In the fading years of the nineteenth century, five men meet in one of Washington's most elegant townhouses . They are all powerful men - with one exception. For Washington's finest have gathered to plan an expedition to the North Pole and they have chosen William Parish, a studious and quietly spoken Lieutenant, to be its leader.

As Lt Parish sets off into the unknown, he leaves behind him a young wife, Martha. Isolated and at first oblivious to the political machinations of those backing the expedition. Martha soon discovers the treachery of those in whom she has placed her trust. Meanwhile, as Parish struggles to hold his party together, each man is confronted with the darker side of his instinct to survive.

Based on a true story and winner of a Special Jury Award at the Banff festival, this is a powerful novel about what has been called 'one of the most shameful episodes in American Arctic history.'" -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

Polar exploration is one of my favorite historical topics. So, I found this fictional account of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition very moving. Parish, the fictional version of Adolphus Washington Greeley, and his men were brave as they faced struggles that could have been partly avoided except for some people back home not understanding what the expedition was going through.

Date read: 6/172011
Book #: 17
Rating: 3*5 = good
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0753817691
ISBN-13: 9780753817698
Publisher: Phoenix
Year: 2004
# of pages: 344
Binding: Trade Paperback
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