Around the World Challenge: January & Global Domination Challenge: Africa

Giraffe Days is hosting the Around the World in 12 Books Challenge. 

The objective is to read a new book from a different country for each of the 12 months in a year.

Time for my January review:

Spud by John van de Ruit

John Milton has a lot on his plate, as any 13-year-old boy does. He is heading off to a private, all-boys boarding school, thanks to a new scholarship and his beautiful singing voice. While he's excited to be leaving behind his crazy and embarrassing parents and eccentric grandmother he calls The Wombat, he's terrified to discover what awaits him at school - things like being nicknamed Spud because his balls haven't dropped yet, having a crazy bunkmate who only talks to inanimate objects and pulls out his own hair, and getting caned after getting caught with the rest of the Crazy Eight (his first-year dorm mates) sneaking out to go midnight swimming. He also meets both The Mermaid and Amanda (2 girls! While attending a boy's school!), trounces and gets trounced on and off the cricket field, decides to become both an actor and an activist, and explores the complexities of forced friendship and loyalty. With no punches pulled, no description too graphic, from the heights of love to the depths of loss, Spud captures it all in his diary, fully chronicling his first year at boarding school.

All of this takes place during the 1990s, making the backdrop issues of apartheid, the release of Nelson Mandela, race relations, class relations, and other related social issues. It's a bit crazy to think the 1990s are now "historical fiction," but Spud does a great job of capturing a White teen perspective at the time - learning about issues that didn't seem important until they suddenly are, struggling to catch up and make meaning out of political history, living in an accepting mixed-race environment at school but dealing with blatant racism at home, etc.

AND

Spud: The Madness Continues by John van de Ruit

Surprise! I read two books for this challenge this month. I had forgotten that Spud, my original book choice, has 2 sequels! I was only able to get my hands on the second book, Spud: The Madness Continues, but I've requested my library purchase the third, so stay tuned to see if I ever get a chance to read it.

In Spud: The Madness Continues, the madness of the Crazy Seven (Seven due to a loss of one boy in Spud; then Eight, when a new boy comes; then Seven, when the new boy leaves; then Eight, when they induct Roger the Cat as an official member; then Six, when two of the boys get expelled; then Seven, when one of the boys gets back) really does continue. Spud is going to turn 15 during this year, is no longer in his first trembling year at the school, and has high hopes for both ball dropping and hair appearing in that same region. Despite his optimism (and the eventual voice-cracking, ball-dropping accomplishment), Spud soon finds that with both enemies and allies still at school, this year will not be any smoother. Still writing in his diary, the Spud of this year will chronicle his mother's plans to emigrate, The Wombat continuing to lose her mind, and his father's moonshine business; his first breakup, first ball hair, and first trip to England; the Crazy Eight's torture attempts at the Normal Seven (the new batch of first years); his actor career hitting a snag when he's cast as the Dove of Peace in a disastrous school play; and all the usual adventures of midnight swimming, cricket matches, brews, books, and broads, with just a hint more seriousness this year than last.

Let's see if I followed the guidelines:

1. Books must be set in the country. - Yes, all over South Africa, with a brief stint in England in book two.

2. Books should be by an author of that country, if you can find/get hold of one. - Yes, John van de Ruit is apparently quite a big deal over there.

3. Books must be fiction or memoir. Children’s books count too. - This is children's historical fiction, perfect for advanced tweens and early teen readers.

4. Books can count towards other challenges. - As I'm also participating in the Global Domination Challenge over at Insatiable Booksluts, I will count this for my Africa read.

Stay tuned for next month: FEBRUARY: Bangladesh - Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins

For my complete book list, click on my original post or the challenges tab.

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by

The Story Siren.

So many books, so little time! Last week, I received:

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef 

by Gabrielle Hamilton

Despite the lack of an Oxford comma in the title, this still caught by eye when advertised. Random House was nice enough to send me a copy. 

Description: Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a prickly marriage that nonetheless yields lasting dividends. By turns epic and intimate, Gabrielle Hamilton’s story is told with uncommon honesty, grit, humor, and passion.

Restoration
by Olaf Olafsson

Okay, in the first place, great name. Then you add love stories, war, Tuscany, and I'm hooked. Ecco books, an imprint of HarperCollins, sent me a copy at my request.

Description: Having grown up in an exclusive circle of wealthy British ex-pats in Florence in the 1920s, Alice shocks everyone when she marries Claudio, the son of a minor land-owner, and moves to San Martino, a crumbling villa in Tuscany. Settling into their new paradise, husband and wife begin to build their future, restoring San Martino and giving birth to a son. But as time passes, Alice grows lonely, a restlessness that leads her into the heady social swirl of wartime Rome and a reckless affair that will have devastating consequences. While she spends time with her lover in Rome, Alice's young son falls ill and dies, widening the emotional chasm between her and her husband-and leaving her vulnerable to the machinations of a nefarious art dealer who ensnares her in a dangerous and deadly scheme. Returning to San Martino, Alice yearns for forgiveness. But before she can begin to make amends, Claudio disappears, and the encroaching fighting threatens to destroy everything they built. Caught between loyalists and resisters, cruel German forces and Allied troops, Alice valiantly struggles to survive, hoping the life and love she lost can one day be restored.

Embrace
by Jessica Shirvington

There's a very cool story to this book - I belong to the Young to Publishing Group, Boston chapter, and Sourcebooks reached out to us as a group in the industry and sent us ARCs. I got a package in the mail at work - how cool is that?

Description: On her 17th birthday, everything will change for Violet Eden. The boy she loves will betray her. Her enemy will save her. And she will have to make a choice that could cost not only her life, but her eternity.

(And a big thank you to Book Stacks On Deck for the mailbox pinup!)

Top Ten Historical Fiction Titles

The Broke and the Bookish, a brilliant book blog, 

hosts a weekly top ten list meme.

I like this meme because I like lists. I like this meme because it reminds me of the Top 5 lists from High Fidelity (by Nick Hornby as a book, starring John Cusak as a movie). And I like this meme because it causes me to think long and hard about book-related topics. So here goes:

Top Ten Historical Fiction Titles

(Quick note: Thank all that is holy I've started categorizing the books I've read on Goodreads. It was SO helpful to be able to look through my "historical fiction" list.)

Forgive me as I've needed to create two lists, one for adult fiction and one for children's/YA fiction.

Adult

1. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley

Hands down my favorite book of all time. Some of you may know that already. For those who don't, this is the New York Times bestselling authorized sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. Don't be put off by the romance novel-esque cover (unless you like romance novels in which case, go ahead and like that aspect of it); there is no bodice-ripping to be found. Instead, all of the potential that Scarlett shows in Gone With the Wind is fully realized in this 400+ page novel that picks up right where GWtW leaves off and ends when Scarlett has finally grown up, thankfully without losing her impish charm and backbone of steel in the process.

 

2. Letters from an Age of Reason by Nora Hague

Definitely #2 on the list of favorite historical fiction titles (apparently this list really IS going in order of appreciation). The sweeping epic is a dual-narrator epistolary novel switching between the perspectives of a White American young woman who has been taken away to live in the UK following a scandal in US society and a high-yellow former slave from New Orleans who has also made his way to Great Britain. Encompassing racial politics on the verge of the Civil War in the US, as well as the spiritual medium craze of that time in the UK, coupled with a political and social commentary on society's rules and expectations of young women, this brilliant book is sadly the only one published by Ms. Hague and is currently out-of-print but is SO worth the find.

3. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon

Spanning the 40 years between the 1960s and the 21st century, this is a story about 4 people and the lengths they will go to protect the innocent, uphold promises, and believe in love, set to the backdrop of the history of mental institutions, racial tension, and the raising of a child. Read my review here.

4. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

This is, in my opinion, the best thing Geraldine Brooks has ever written. I have tried, again and again, to read her other books (and have finished most of them), but none of them are as well-written, thought-provoking, and engaging as this one. The historical fiction chapters in People of the Book come close, but I think that one is ruined by the contemporary storyline that weaves throughout. Regardless, this tale based on a true story of a village that chooses to close themselves off to the rest of the world to contain the plague outbreak, all told from the point-of-view of a village housemaid, is heartbreaking and beautifully told. Read my review here.

5. Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh

Let's discuss epic, shall we? The first two of this incredible trilogy are out, and I can't decide whether to advise you to wait until #3 has come out to begin reading or to run out and grab the first one right away. Both, I guess. These novels are almost unbelievable in the scope of what Mr. Ghosh is trying (and succeeding!) to accomplish. So many characters, so many styles of writing and speaking, so many dialects, so many countries, so many plot points! I admit it's hard to keep them all straight but this is definitely a series that makes that small headache worthwhile. Centered around the opium trade between India and Great Britain, with China as a major port of transfer, everyone from the poppy growers to the opium traders, British gardeners to escaped convicts, there is no one too large to too small to not be fully explored in these books. It would take me days to read a chapter and yet every time I put the book down, my head almost spinning with the assault of plot and unfamiliar language, all I wanted to do was pick it back up again to be literally swept away, immersed in so many sensory experiences that were nearly unbelievable to me. Mr. Ghosh is a true genius in how he is able to bring so many people and threads of plot together. I am greatly anticipating the final book but fear I will have a few years to wait.

6. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The entire Flavia de Luce mystery series, really, as they are all so charmingly written and perfectly present the village life of post-World War II British countryside, including the land-rich, cash-poor local gentry around whose family manor the stories center. Read my review of Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie here and my review of I am Half-Sick of Shadows here.

7. Serena by Ron Rash

Ooh, Southern writer creates a truly reprehensible character that you can't stop reading about in Serena. Set in North Carolina just before the Great Depression, the story centers around a lumber town and has great political and social commentary about logging and environmental protection efforts, all with a backdrop of murder. Read my review here.

8. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Confession: It has been too long since I've read this to give it an in-depth blurb here. Second confession: I have been unimpressed with any Anita Diamant book I have picked up since. But, I do remember reading this, really enjoying it, sharing it with my BFF and my mother, and so I recommend it to you.

9. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Though its historical context is not a main plot point in this novel, and there are fantasy elements - certainly magic exists - that may make some people question it being on this list, it is so wholly enjoyable, and so delicately described, and so fully imagined, that I dare anyone to read it and not enjoy it.

10. Miss Timmins' School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy

I, myself, was surprised how much I enjoyed this book, knowing nothing about it when I picked it up, but it quietly sneaks in and grabs hold of you with its descriptions of places I've never seen, feelings I've never felt, rules and expectations I'll never have to live by, and a point-of-view change that enhances that unusual foreign sensibility rather than detracting from the story. Read my review here.

Children

1. Thunder Rolling in the Mountains & Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O'Dell

I believe Scott O'Dell to be the preeminent children's historical fiction writer. Also, Native American history (and present) is a personal interest of mine, so I was always on the hunt for books that at least tried to present Indian history in a truthful and culturally sensitive way. Thunder Rolling in the Mountains is about the sad plight/flight of the Nez Perce and Chief Joseph's niece, while Streams is Sacagawea at her fictional best (with a hopeful ending imagined for her and her child).

2. Anne of Green Gables (series) by L.M. Montgomery

Do books like this count? Because they technically weren't really historical fiction when they were written? Well, there will be a few more on this list like that, just to warn you. The first 4 books and #8 (Rilla of Ingleside) are my personal favorites.

3. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Not just my favorite, this Printz Medal winner is a wonderfully imagined experience of an American teenager caught up with her British cousins in wartime in England. Brutal and brilliant, self-sacrificing and exploring first-love, the writing style will spare no emotional punches as you run from scene to scene, experience to experience, leave and are brought back to the hope and love that binds the cousins together.

4. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Another medal winner, this time the Newbery, this middle grade novel tells the fictionalized true story of the courageous attempt of Denmark's citizens to help save their Jewish population. As a Jew, this made a HUGE impression on me as a child, and continues to be meaningful in my life as an adult.

5. The Agency (series) by Y.S.Lee

This is a new series, only books 1 and 2 are currently available, but they've captured my attention with the plucky heroine and society of secret female spies. Also, though I love romantic tension, I equally love it when the storyline ISN'T focused on the girl getting the guy. Plus, who doesn't enjoy a little cross-dressing? Racial tension between whites and Chinese, class warfare, and political intrigue abound in this thrilling YA historical spy series. Read my thoughts about it here.

6. The Little House on the Prairie (series) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Do I really have to explain this? I hope not. Also, please do begin with Little House in the Big Woods, which is the real first book in the series, despite the series title taken after book 3.

7. Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice and Matilda Bone and Alchemy and Meggy Swann and pretty much any other book with a female protagonist set in the Middle Ages written by Karen Cushman

What is so engaging about all of these titles is how easy it is to relate to each character, even as they experience life so very differently than how we experience it today. That, and the amount of factual information, the truly impressive amount of accurate historical detail that is put into each novel, is in itself worth noting and praising. Read my review of Alchemy and Meggy Swann here.

8. Sorcery and Cecelia, or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer

Delicious and delightful. A teenage regency romance that operates under the supposition that magic exists. Some people have it, some people don't. Two cousins - Kate and Cecelia - write letters back-and-forth as one spends the season in London and the other spends it in the country, both working to solve the mystery of the enchanted chocolate pot (and possibly find husbands in the bargain).

9. Eight Cousins and A Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

Both were childhood favorites and continue to be, I believe, some of LMA's best writing. Eight Cousins is about one girl, on the cusp of young adult-hood, sent to live with her Uncle, some aunts, and 7 boy cousins after having been raised an only child attending a prestigious school for girls. She's got a lot to learn (and luckily, to teach) as she and her cousins figure out just what to do with each other. A Rose in Bloom is what happens once the cousins are grown up.

10. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

This is my all-time favorite young adult novel. Another one of those, not sure it can be considered historical fiction because she was writing about her own time period, sort of books, GSP published this first in 1904. GSP was a pioneer in her own time, being one of the first female nature photographers, one of the first females to work in the film industry in CA, loved and was married to a man she did not share a residence with, published both fiction and non-fiction with themes way ahead of her time but that spoke to millions, etc. An all-around amazing woman who wrote some incredible books. This one, in particular, tells the story of Elnora Comstock, a poor farm girl who lives out of town near the Limberlost, who overcomes all sorts of adversity on her quest for education.