The Princes of Ireland follows the story of several Irish families, from the year 430 to 1538. Their stories are set against the larger backdrop of important battles and events in the history of Ireland.

This really felt like three novels in one. The transitions between generations were very abrupt. I liked the first story, but the other two were just okay. They could have been part of a book entitled, A History of the English in Dublin. It was interesting to see what Kings Henry II and Henry VIII got up to in Ireland, but I really wanted to know what was going on in Ireland itself.

The female characters were terrible. They were almost all willful to the point of stupidity, impetuous, blind to anything they didn't want to see, and driven by some insane need for revenge.

One other thing that bothers me in all books that skip around in time: if the author isn't going to give me some sort of obvious clue like, "Forty years later, Henry VIII did this...", I really wish that he or she would put dates at the beginning and end of the chapters. I find myself flipping back and forth a lot, because after 60 pages, I've forgotten what year I was in last.

This was good enough, I just expected something different. If you want to know a little about Ireland as it changed from a druidic religion to Catholicism, and a lot about the way the English influenced events in Dublin, go ahead and read this. Just don't expect a lot of independent Irish history.

Reviewed August 17, 2009

Read an excerpt.

Find author Edward Rutherfurd on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Buy The Princes of Ireland at

Malaprop’s | Better World Books

Friday Flashback Reviews are a weekly feature here on The Introverted Reader. These are old reviews I wrote on GoodReads. Thanks to Angieville and her Retro Friday Reviews for the inspiration and encouragement!

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

Synopsis from GoodReads:

With the premiere of two new film versions of the Snow White tale, Blackstone enters the fray with its own adult, edgy, and not altogether serious full-cast exposé of fairy-taledom. At last it can be told! Was Snow White really as pure as the driven snow? Did her allegedly wicked stepmother get a bum rap from the Grimm brothers? What went on behind the closed Dutch doors of the dwarves' cottage? How many handsome princes does it take to screw in a light bulb? These and other burning questions may or may not be answered in this new pseudogothic audio play that Blackstone commissioned from award-winning author and audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky

I chose to listen to this because it showed up in my digital library's "recently added" lists and I recognized it as having been nominated for a couple of Audie awards. "I can't go wrong with something that's been nominated for an award, right?" I reasoned with myself.

Wrong.

It was terrible.

Had it been any longer than two hours, I would have stopped after about 30 minutes. I felt the writer was trying way too hard to be funny and as a result, the whole thing just fell flat. The plot, such as it was, would circle miles out of the way to set up a joke that didn't even make me smile.

The basics are here--the evil stepmother, Snow White, the mother wishing for a child fitting Snow White's description...I guess that's about it. There were tons of other fairy- and folk tale creatures dragged in by the skin of their teeth, which I should have loved, but I didn't. I mostly didn't see any rhyme or reason for who was included and who wasn't. I honestly can't even remember what happened to most of them.

Snow White was super annoying. I believe that was kind of the point, but man, she set my teeth on edge. She's supposed to be about fifteen but she's voiced by Sandra Oh, who is at least as far from fifteen as I am, and she generally acts about two years old. Temper tantrums? Seriously? Not attractive or enjoyable.

I could go on but I won't. I'm sure there's an audience for this, I just don't know who it would be. If you're interested, don't let me dissuade you from trying it out; at two hours long, you don't have much to lose.

Listen to an excerpt.

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

John Steinbeck and his poodle Charley take off in a modified RV for a trip around the country.

Will the real Jennifer G please stand up? I seem to have lost myself somewhere along the way.

When did I become a fan of Steinbeck? Because I now have to admit that I am. I held a grudge against him for years because of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, both of which I was forced to read in high school. I've been in denial for a couple of years but I just re-read Grapes and actually liked it. And looking back through all the passages of this book that I flagged, I realized that I love the way this man writes.

I still don't forgive him for Lennie and can't imagine that I ever will, but if we both ignore that, we get along just fine. Better than fine.

It's been almost two years since I read this, but I do remember that Steinbeck's observations, conversations, and chronicles of daily left held me pretty much spellbound. I'll even let you in on a secret: the man had a sense of humor. Steinbeck! Dark, depressing Steinbeck! I literally laughed out loud several times as I read this. I remember a passage about hunting in New England (I think) that had me in stitches. Another section I had forgotten but flagged was about introducing Charley to sequoias and redwoods. "But from the start I had withheld from him any information about the giant redwoods. It seemed to me that a Long Island poodle who had made his devoirs to Sequoia sempervirens or Sequoia gigantea might be set apart from other dogs--might even be like that Galahad who saw the Grail. The concept is staggering."

Originally published in 1962, many of Steinbeck's observations still hold today. I was shaking my head at how little things change in the fundamentals.

"It occurs to me that, just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we many not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat."

"With all the polls and opinion posts, with newspapers more opinion than news so that we no longer know one from the other...."

I recommend this for a slice of American life in an earlier time and for a different look at an author who many seem to label as depressing.

I read this book but I can only find an audio excerpt, read by Gary Sinise.

Buy Travels with Charley in Search of America at

Malaprop’s | Better World Books

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

Famous puppeteer Rupert Porson rolls into Flavia's village with his assistant in tow one day. His van has broken down and they are stranded. The vicar and Flavia help the pair out and the vicar asks Rupert to put on a show for the townspeople. He reluctantly agrees.

The first shock of the show comes when the puppet of Jack appears. He looks just like a young boy who died in the village. The second shock comes when Rupert, not the giant, comes crashing down onto the stage, dead. Flavia can't resist investigating.

This didn't quite have the charm and originality of the first book, but it was still good. I think this one felt a bit too dark for me. I typically steer clear of books that involve children's deaths. I know it happens, but I prefer to read in a world where it doesn't. I guess I like to keep my head in the sand.

The mystery twisted and turned and I had absolutely no idea whodunnit. Once the big reveal arrived, I completely bought it. It was very well done.

I still adore Flavia de Luce. She is so smart and funny and prickly but she is hurting inside. Her sisters get downright vicious when she pushes them far enough. And I think that is part of her problem. She wants some attention and pushing their buttons is the only way to reliably get it. That makes her sound like a needy brat and she's not; she's mostly happy tinkering away in her chemistry lab alone. But we all need human contact now and again, even self-sufficient Flavia.

In my review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I wrote about my love/hate relationship with narrator Jayne Entwistle. She had grown on me by the end of that book so I continued in audio with this second installment. Now that I'm used to her, I can't imagine reading these books in any other format.

I recommend this series for readers who like precocious, strong female narrators. Flavia is a character I will always remember. I will definitely be continuing with the series.

Read or listen to an excerpt.

My 4-star review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Find author Alan Bradley on his website.

Buy The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag at

Malaprop’s | Better World Books

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

It's Monday!  What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Posted:

The Novel in the Viola (aka The House at Tyneford) by Natasha Solomons: Review--3.5 Stars

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker, read by Carrington MacDuffie: Review--2.5 Stars

The Curse of the Pharaohs by Elizabeth Peters: Review--3.5 Stars

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: Review--3 Stars

Read:

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister









Die, Snow White! Die, Damn You! by Yuri Rasovsky, read by Sandra Oh, Simon Helberg, Kate Burton, et al.

Currently Reading:

The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E. B. Hudspeth

The Ivory and the Horn by Charles de Lint (re-read)

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, read by Jonathan Davis

Blood Faerie by India Drummond

Up Next:

I haven't even really started some of my "Currently Reading" books, so I'm sure I won't be looking for anything new.

What are you reading this week?

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site. My opinions are completely my own.

Nick Carraway moves from the Midwest to Long Island to try to make a living after World War I. He is curious about his neighbor and the extravagant parties he throws every weekend. Eventually the two meet and become something like friends. The neighbor, Jay Gatsby, is shrouded in myth and legend and no one seems to know where he came from, how he made his money, or anything at all about him for that matter. Gatsby has a very specific reason for living where and how he does and his personal struggle pulls several others into his wake.

Like many others, I decided to re-read this before the movie comes out. I disliked it in school but I've changed my mind about almost all the other classics I've bothered to re-read, so I thought I might change my mind about this one too.

Not really.

If you follow my reviews at all, you know that I am a very character-driven reader. Give me an awesome character and I'm happy. But there is not one likeable character in this novel. I think I kind of liked Nick in high school but now I don't even like him. He's by far the best of the bunch but that's not saying much.

Gatsby himself is kind of pitiable. He's worked hard, being pushed constantly by an overweening ambition. He seems to have been born with a desire for more than he has but circumstances cause him to push himself even harder. He surrounds himself with people who don't bother to know him and seems to think that this is what gives a man a full life. Or rather, he thinks its a step on the way to fulfilling his deepest desire. He just made me feel tired and sad. He could have had so much but in reality, he had nothing. The one sentence that sticks out for me is this: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made...." Gatsby, being self-made, doesn't realize this about people with old money and that is his undoing.

We must have watched the old Robert Redford movie in school because I kept picturing him as Gatsby. That's just fine by me; I'd rather imagine a young Robert Redford than Leonardo DiCaprio any day!

This is a short read and I think I'm going to find it a little haunting this time around. It's beautifully written, so if you're interested, go ahead and give it a go.

The movie is released today! Will you be seeing it in theaters or waiting for it on DVD? My husband and I will probably head out to the theater sometime.

Read an excerpt.

Buy The Great Gatsby at

Malaprop’s | Better World Books

photo credit:
Love Of Books by George Hodan

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

*Possible spoilers for Crocodile on the Sandbank*







Amelia Peabody and Emerson have married and had a son, Ramses. They've decided to stay home in England with him and live a quiet life, at least until he's older. They're both going slowly crazy. Emerson has been reduced to practically begging the neighbor to let him dig in his barrow. Then an opportunity in Egypt presents itself that they just can't turn down. Leaving Ramses with his aunt and uncle, they take off.

Someone is determined to undermine the expedition. Emerson was called in because the original financial backer of the dig was found dead under mysterious circumstances and the chief archaeologist has disappeared. The mysterious events continue under Emerson's supervision, as do the deaths.

I didn't like this book quite as much as the first, but I still enjoyed myself immensely. I remembered how much I like Amelia Peabody, but I had forgotten why. I knew she was a practical woman who had no qualms about taking charge but I forgot how often she messes things up. Not that she would ever admit it. But she's fierce in her love of Egypt and Emerson and she unintentionally left me giggling.

The rest of the characters were a hoot too. I adore Emerson and, despite his legendary temper, he must be a bit of a saint to put up with Amelia. He orchestrated one scene that had me howling with laughter. I didn't know Emerson had it in him! Madame Berengeria, a crazy widow who attaches herself to their party, positively cracked me up. I would have been tempted to wrap my hands around her neck in person but on the page--! I love that Emerson is practically terrified of her. There are several young men flocking around Madame Berengeria's daughter but I have to admit that I had trouble keeping their names straight. One was a persistent reporter who manufactured news when he needed it. I didn't like him at all at first but I came around. The other two were kind of forgettable until one sets himself well apart late in the book. Oh, and while I'm at it, I cannot wait to see more of little Ramses. He may be the match of Amelia and Emerson combined. I can't imagine what kind of holy terror he's going to be.

I never had any idea how the mystery was going to turn out, I just enjoyed the wit as I turned the pages.

I recommend this series for anyone who likes a healthy dose of humor mixed in with their mysteries and an indomitable female lead.

My review of the first in the series, Crocodile on the Sandbank

Find author Elizabeth Peters on her website.

Be sure to check out the Amelia Peabody page.

Buy The Curse of the Pharaohs at

Malaprop’s | Better World Books

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.