Monthly Archives: November 2017

Review: House of Shadows

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House of Shadows
by Nicola Cornick
4 stars

This is my first read by Nicola Cornick. The summary greatly interested me and I love historical fiction, especially dealing with any member of royalty. I love finding new authors and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cornick has several other books and series.

House of Shadows is told from three different time periods: the 1600’s with the Queen of Bohemia, Elizabeth Stuart; Lavinia Flyte, a courtesan in the 1800’s, and Holly Ansel from the present day whose brother has disappeared after researching his family history. Despite the hundreds of years between the characters, they are all connected. I think Cornick did a great job researching for this book. The setting is beautifully written, and I could imagine it in my mind.

The mystery and superstition was very well done, as well as the alternating different time periods. I love that she used real characters mixed in with fictional ones. I love to research whether parts of the story were true after I finish the book. I enjoyed how everything started tying together in the last quarter of the book. I loved that this inspired me to research parts of history that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of on my own.

 

Read-alikes

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse

Review: Turtles All the Way Down

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Turtles All the Way Down
by John Green
4 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

I did not let this book sit unopened very long. Green hooked me, and I got caught up in Aza’s life, wondering about her romance with her old childhood friend Davis and whether she would solve the mystery of the disappearance of Davis’s father. Since I am an Indianapolis native myself, I love the references to White River, Pogue’s Run, 465, and the Applebee’s at 86th and Ditch. (Very few people could make me want to eat at Applebee’s, but John Green may have done it.)

Green writes about his character’s issues with anxiety and obsessive compulsion with the kindness of a healthy friend who understands what it’s like to live in an unhealthy mind. I find the illustration that Green uses very fitting- that dealing with severe anxiety is like trying to find your way through complete darkness, but typically the flashlight of sanity can come back on and light the way. And so it is with this book – we get awash in Aza’s downward spiral of anxiety only to get brought back up by the pull of the story of her life. And also unexpectedly find out a fair amount about tuataras at the same time.

 

Read-alikes

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Review: Lab Girl

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Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren
5 stars

Lab Girl is a memoir that follows the life and career of Hope Jahren. At the time of her writing, Jahren was working in Hawaii as a geochemist/paleobiologist (she currently works at the University of Oslo). Lab Girl details her childhood, studies, and personal life in honest (and sometimes painful) detail. She is eloquent in ways we don’t often associate with scientists.

Intermixed with her autobiography are beautiful descriptions of plant life. Jahren weaves metaphors an tells stories that will change the way you look at the world around you – and isn’t that the best quality a book can have?

If you listen to audiobooks (we have a copy available online, through Overdrive) Jahren reads the book. She pauses and cries at points, creating an atmosphere of near-reverence for the listener. At several points, Jahren discusses her manic-depression, a cycle that often benefitted her work-centric lifestyle while sacrificing her health. Hearing her read these passages, imbued with such raw and honest reflection, seemed almost like an honor.

If you’re science-minded in the slightest and appreciate a good memoir, this book will knock your socks off.

 

Read-alikes

Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils by Lydia Pyne

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

Review: The Little Ice Age

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The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850
by Brian Fagan
4 stars

Reading or watching the news over the past decade or two, you cannot escape talk of climate change. Brian Fagan’s short book The Little Ice Age, despite being about a cool period starting from the late middle ages to the 19th century, fits right in with modern times with the book’s emphasis on how climate has affected the human civilization in the past and, ultimately, continues to do so today. His book focuses on European history, but North America, Asia, and Africa get a few mentions as well. I read this book for the History Roundtable’s Natural Disasters-themed October meeting. And there are a lot of natural disasters mentioned! The most explosive is Mt. Tambora in Indonesia which is considered the deadliest volcanic explosion in human history. Its effects included the “year without summer” in 1816 in the eastern United States and in Europe when crops failed and famine and disease weren’t far behind in some countries. Fagan writes clearly and concisely making what could be an esoteric topic understandable by the layman.

Read-alikes

Beyond the Blue Horizon: How the Earliest Mariners Unlocked the Secrets of the Oceans by Brian Fagan

The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History by Brian Fagan

The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History by William K. Klingaman