Show Me 5 Saturday

Hosted by Alipet813 at That's A Novel Idea.

A brief description of a book you have read or reviewed during the week.

Each Saturday you will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

1. A book you read and/or reviewed this week (you name 1 book)
2. Words that describe the book (2 descriptive words)
3. Settings where it took place or characters you met (name 3 places or characters in the novel)
4. Things you liked and/or disliked about it (4 likes or dislikes)
5. Stars or less for your rating?
1.Conceit by Mary Novik (2008)
2.Historical fiction
3.17th century Elizabethan England; Pegge Donne (John Donne's strong-willed youngest daughter), John Donne's family and associates.
4. Rich in historical details of food, clothing, social customs, court gossip etc. Recognizable quotes from the literature and great writers of the times. An intelligent woman's experiences of major historical events such as the Great Fire of London in 1666, and changes in the monarchy. Smooth writing that is easy to read and puts you right there. There is nothing about this book that I did not thoroughly enjoy.
5.Five stars. The best historical fiction I've read for quite some time. Highly recommended. Don't miss this one.

Comments, questions, opinions, reading recommendations, or links to reviews are welcomed. I'd love to read them. No Spoilers though please.

The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover - Review

The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover

Historical fiction, 227 pages, Paperback

Harper Collins (December 30, 2008)


Abraham is a devout Italian Jew of the sixteenth century. He travels to strange and exotic places as a jewel trader for his uncle's business. No matter how far from the eyes of fellow worshippers or in what circumstances he find himself, he continues his morning prayers and religious rituals. He deals honestly in business and tries to be kind and tolerant even in unusual circumstances. When he reaches the Burmese port city of Pegu in 1598 he expects to remain the man he is. But a shocking stumbling block to his faith will be put squarely in his path and how he handles it will affect his being tolerated in this strange kingdom and how well he will do in business. He struggles fiercely against compromise for some time.

Told entirely through the daily letters home to his beloved cousin Joseph, it is at once an adventure and a compelling story about what is really important to us. How far would we would go to experience and keep true love? When the pressure to follow the local custom of deflowering young brides to bring luck to the families becomes intolerable he reasons with himself "The law and my heart must be one. How could I follow my heart and betray the law and still call myself a Jew? But how could the law demand I betray my heart? I would be lost if I had to do either." The Jewel Trader of Pegu is not about sex as some have imagined. It's about the moral dilemma of a man who wants to do the right thing. The choice Abraham makes will change his life forever.

This is sensitive story telling, often with profound philosophical or spiritual insights into the differences of religion, culture and social customs. Abraham slowly realizes that it's not really his place to judge these people who tattoo their legs with grotesques images, or scar their faces and blacken their teeth. He is surprised to find himself beginning to view their customs and Buddhist thinking in a different light. Though he will be happy to finish his uncle's business and leave for home. Then war, along with looting and reprisals threaten the town. All other foreigners have reasonably fled for home but Abraham has suddenly and unexpectedly found, in a young widow named Mya, a reason for staying and risking everything.

This is one of the best novels I've read this year. A gem of a story, I give it five stars and my highest recommendation.

Jeffrey Hantover's web page

Thank you to Danny Goldstein at Harper Collins for the review copy.

Also reviewed at:

Devourer of Books
Everything Distills into Reading
Bleeding Expresso

I welcome questions, comments, dissenting opinions, or links to your reviews of this or any book discussed on this blog.

Any followers who comment before midnight Monday July 27 qualify to be entered to win my gently read copy of this book. Please indicate that you wish to be entered and that you are a follower.

*Added on July 28: The winner is teabird.

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Fiction, Paperback 180 pgs.

Harper Collins

This was my first novel by Helen Humphreys. I have read her previous book, The Frozen Thames, which deserves its place as a #1 national bestseller in non-fiction. This woman certainly knows her history.

In deceptively simple language Humphreys here portrays the night of November 14, 1940 and the bombing of Coventry , England during World War Two. Harriet has been a widow since the First World War. Through her eyes we experience unending hours of destruction and terror, but there is kindness and love too. She starts out on fire watch on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, which does not survive, and ends up with Maeve who searches for her son throughout the city that is burning and reduced to rubble.

This is a novel with heart, a story of shared tragedy. So much is lost to the people of Coventry, life will never be the same for any of them. Humphreys' writing is beautiful, as when Maeve, rushing home from the bomb shelter hoping to find her son there, sees tin soldiers in formation on his bedroom windowsill and realizes that they are young Jeremy's " last station of childhood ". He had tried to enlist but was turned down because he is colour blind. He was on fire watch with Harriet and they spent some hours helping with the injured where they could and dodging falling incendiaries and collapsing buildings in an attempt to get home.

The details of the history are accurate and the novel ends with an epilogue about the dedication of the newly rebuilt cathedral some twenty years after the war. I wanted to begin reading this book again as soon as I'd finished it, not something that usually happens with me. I will be rereading it to enjoy the way language is used in the story, and I look forward to reading her other novels. A very satisfying read that I can recommend to everyone. Five stars.

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Thank you to Deanna at Harper Collins Canada for providing me with a review copy.

Other Harper Collins books I have enjoyed recently:

Breath**** by Tim Winton (Australia)
Day**** by A.L.Kennedy(UK)
Broken Colors**** by Michele Zackheim (US)
Skeletons at the Feast**** by Chris Bohjaian (US)
Atmospheric Disturbances**** by Rivka Galchen
The Letter Opener***+ by Kyo Maclear
The Line Painter**** by Claire Cameron
Run by Ann Patchett****
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett****
The Yiddish Policemen's Union**** by Michael Chabon

Guernica by Dave Boling

Review and Giveaway

Guernica by Dave Boling

Fiction, hardcover, 367 pgs.

Bloomsbury USA

Author's site: http://daveboling.com/

Guernica is a wonderful story, beautifully written. The history alone is fascinating, and told from the perspective of a tough but loving and loyal Basque family in the Spain of the 1930s, it becomes entirely alive to us. Justo Ansotegui and his two brothers grow up without the benefit of parents. One brother becomes a priest, Justo's daughter Miren marries Miguel Navarro, a woodworker. They are a strong family who together experience the squeeze of food shortages, arrests and disappearances of dissenters, threats of war. They stick together through it all. Then tragedy strikes.

Considerable research has gone into the telling of this story. Many of the figures of the time are real: General Franco, President Aguirre, Wolfram von Richtofen, brother of the famous Red Baron. The latter is the one who organized the bombing of the Basque village, which had no military targets. It was a Nazi experiment that remains a shocking example of innocent civilians attacked for the sake of testing strategy. The world was horrified. The author deliberately "tried not to tax the reader with elaborations on the complex and volatile politics at the time-especially the strange and sometimes shifting alliances, parties, and labels-but rather to establish a general context of the poverty, oppression, instability, and disenfranchisement that common citizens would have felt."

It is the personal story that interests us. How the Basque culture and language were outlawed in Spain. How they fiercely and loyally resisted attacks from all factions, smuggling those trying to escape from the Nazi's across the mountains out of France, or helping downed Allied pilots escape and get home again.The shipping of the Basque children to England is true and tenderly told. There is heartbreak in this story but there is so much love, and hope too, even after the worst kinds of suffering.Guernica is a story that needs to be told. Five stars, highly recommended. You owe it to yourself to read it.

I have arranged through Bookmooch to acquire TWO copies of Guernica to give away to my readers. They are in very good condition, gently read. This is a giveaway I am proud to have.

Entry is open worldwide until midnight Saturday, November 8, 2008 as part of Book Carnival Giveaway: http://bookroomreviews.wordpress.com/

For an entry:
1) Consider subscribing or following my blog, or putting a link to Fresh Ink Books on your blog roll. OR just leave a relevant comment on one of my previous book reviews. * If you already subscribe or follow me and would like to win Guernica, just remind me in your comment and you're entered!

2) Blog about this giveaway and put a link back to it and I'll give you a SECOND entry. If you don't have a blog, email 4 friends telling them about this giveaway copying me at sfuhringer(at) sympatico(dot) ca.

CLARIFICATION: You must qualify for the FIRST entry before you can earn a SECOND. Blogging about it or linking to this giveaway alone will not get you an entry. Sorry, but I'm interested in readers and commenters, not traffic.
Please leave a contact address if you're entering the giveaway and don't have a blog where I can contact you.

Winner will be announced on Sunday, November 9, 2008.

The Twice Born by Pauline Gedge

The Twice Born by Pauline Gedge

Fiction, Trade paperback, 554 pgs.

Penguin Books

The Twice Born is Pauline Gedge's twelfth novel, eight of which were inspired by Egyptian history. It's another of her richly detailed portrayals of the lives of farmers, slaves, nobility and priestly classes of ancient Egypt. Several of her novels have won awards so it's no surprise that her books have sold over six million copies worldwide and been translated into 18 languages. The Twice Born is the first of a new trilogy about Huy, son of Hapu. Known in history as Amunhotep, he was a real and significant figure in Egypt whose achievements were inscribed and survive to this day. But his personal life and origins remain unknown. Pauline Gedge has imaginatively created this story of his early years and development into a seer. The story begins when Huy, son of Hapu, is barely four years old. We follow him through school with nobles' children and friendship with the governor's son Thothmes, and his sisters. Well-written and full of fascinating details of the daily life and customs about food, drink, clothing, jewelry, oils and perfumes, medicines, games, funeral customs and much more, the story keeps us engrossed. Then a shocking transformation occurs following a fatal accident while he is still a boy that will determine his future fate. Some family and friends fear the changes in him while many of the common people and priests will revere him for his new powers of insight. Huy is a likeable person who longs for the simple life even while he knows he's been chosen to serve Egypt in a much greater capacity than the farmer's son he is. He will experience love and disappointment, struggling in the final years of his youth to accept his own destiny as Seer of Egypt. The readers in this family are waiting intently for the continuation of the story. No one does ancient Egypt like Pauline Gedge. Treat yourself and read it, I recommend it highly. Four and a half stars out of five.

The second book of the trilogy is entitled Seer of Egypt and will be released in November 2008. Watch for my review.

Pauline Gedge's homepage:http://www.paulinegedge.ca/

Thank you to Melissa Robson of Penguin Group for the reviewer's copy.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - Review

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Fiction, Paperback, 274 pgs.

Dial Press (July 2008)

I really enjoyed this story about England's Guernsey Island in the years following its occupation by the Germans during World War Two. The personal experiences and memories of several islanders in letters to a English writer tell the story and it's a very interesting one. Rationing and food shortages, getting along with the Germans-or not, subversive acts, serious and not so serious, the entire absence of children for two years; they had been shipped to the mainland for safety before the invasion. These are some of the details that make this a fascinating and sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes humourous story.

The title refers to a book group, started inadvertently under clandestine circumstances that lasted throughout the war and beyond. This is one book group I'd like to have belonged to. Interesting literary references, lots of history, a warm and poignant story of hope and heartbreak, I liked it all. A lovely cover too. A nice gift book, especially for those with memories of the time period. Four and a half stars out of five. Highly recommended.

Also reviewed by wordlily and Embejo.

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Mary Ann Shaffer worked as an editor, a librarian and in bookshops. This was her first book , written with the help of her niece Annie Barrows who is is a well-known author of childrens books in California.

Thank you to Dial Press and LibraryThing for providing me with a review copy.

If you've read or reviewed this book please leave comments or links. I'd love to read them.

Next review: A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato.
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