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Alethea

Alethea

has 48 followers and is following 32 people

I am a devotee of Jane Austen, but I also love anything to do with Victorian literature, Shakespeare, and Tudor history. I also enjoy a good dose of "chick lit." I try to read a diversified selection of books, and I tend to stick to 18th and 19th century British historical fiction, but truly, anything goes - suspense, thrillers, historical... more »
  • member since September 30, 2008

Reviews

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Displaying 11-20 of 632 reviews
  • Ghost Hunters
    • Rated 2 stars

    “From the reviews I had read online, as well as the description of this nonfiction work, I assumed it would be more “case study” driven, with stories of hauntings and mediums performing incredible feats. Instead, it was a rather boring back and forth with a group of physicists and psychologists who could never quite decide if they believed in the supernatural or not. William James himself, the titular investigator, falls into that category, a man who joined the Society for Psychical Research but never truly embraced the belief. The book mainly focuses on the scientists’ study of a pair of mediums from different parts of the world, and despite their sometimes incredible work, they are never truly declared official. The only interesting quote I took from this was along the lines of “why is it respectable to research where man came from, but not where he goes?” That made a good deal of sense to me, as the “science” of paranormal investigation is still fairly derided socially. Overall, however, an unexciting dip into the history of paranormal science.”

    Alethea wrote this review Thursday, April 25, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Without a Summer

    Without a Summer

    by Mary Robinette Kowal
    • Rated 5 stars

    “I've been able to read this series almost back to back, having come upon it with the first two novels published and this third due in early April. Back are Sir and Lady Vincent, the equals in both marriage and glamourism. The novels have gained in complexity as they go, branching out into less "Austenesque" territory and into the realm of mixing history with fiction. This installment focuses on the coldmongers in London, believed responsible for the seemingly endless winter that set in in England in 1816. This is a true historical occurrence, caused by volcanic ash from a live volcano eruption, a fact which was not understood for years after. It was a perfect setting for Kowal's fictional coldmongers, and their growing discontent at their ill treatment, landing Jane and Vincent squarely in the midst of treasonous plots and machinations, and we also are introduced to Vincent's quite evil father, who is the author of all the unrest in the novel. Very enjoyable.”

    Alethea wrote this review Sunday, April 21, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Ashford Affair
    • Rated 5 stars

    “This novel is Willig's first stand-alone, unrelated to her PINK CARNATION series. She is so good at the latter that I admit to having had some trepidation at the thought of her branching out. My fears, however, were totally unfounded. This was a wonderful book, about two cousins, Addie and Bea, who have a lifetime connection of submission on Addie's part and manipulative control on Bea's part. The girls grow up in Edwardian England; the focus shifts to Addie's granddaughter, Clementine, and then back to the 1920s. Addie is in love with Bea's husband, and she takes a trip from London to Kenya to visit them on their coffee farm. Bea subsequently vanishes, presumed dead, while on safari, and Addie ends up marrying Frederick, Bea's husband. The novel keeps you guessing about Bea's true fate until the end. Willig did a fantastic job of delving into the 1920s expatriate community of English aristocrats in Kenya, blending seamlessly with Clemmie's modern-day NYC tale. Fantastic display; I'm excited for Willig's next stand-alone.”

    Alethea wrote this review Sunday, April 21, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Brontes
    • Rated 5 stars

    “Juliet Barker is renowned the world over as THE scholar on the Bronte family. I have listened to one other book of hers on the family, A LIFE IN LETTERS, as an audiobook over a decade ago. This particular account of the family was tremendous, over a thousand pages, and was a second edition of a former book published in 1994. New information and documents had come to light which necessitated a second edition, and it is one of the most thoroughly researched and lovingly truthful accounts I have ever read of this strange, genius-filled family. Barker does not shy from the Bronte siblings’ oddities, nor does she stint in their praise. I have never felt more honestly dealt with as a reader by a biographer. This is THE definitive read on the history of the Brontes.”

    Alethea wrote this review Tuesday, April 16, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Glamour in Glass
    • Rated 5 stars

    “This novel is the follow-up to SHADES, which I finished only yesterday. Despite the elegance of the original, the sequel was much more fun, in that it involved Jane and Vincent on their pseudo-honeymoon in Brussels, visiting a fellow glamourist with whom Vincent learned his art. Napoleon escapes exile and begins his march with his army, and Vincent must finally tell Jane that he is not in Brussels as he originally explained to her, but as a spy for the English Court, sent there to find out about a small group of Bonapartists who are in Binché. Jane’s pregnancy, which commences shortly after their arrival, leaves her unable to work glamour and extremely depressed at the prospect of nine months without it, and without the work companionship of her husband. However, despite her limitations, she is able to rescue Vincent when Napoleon’s army captures him to learn the technique of his Sphėre Obscurscie. The rigours of the rescue cause her to miscarry, but life goes on, and she is at least happy that she can return to working glamour with her husband. Very exciting follow-up, and I look forward to the third in the series, to be published in April.”

    Alethea wrote this review Thursday, March 28, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Shades of Milk and Honey
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This was an enchanting book, the tale of Jane Ellsworth, twenty eight years old, gifted not in beauty or grace but in the art of glamour. This JA-esque (and inspired) tale is set in the world of Regency England, with one difference – that the world is full of glamour and those who can manipulate it, creating almost any illusion desired. Jane is naturally gifted with this, and she meets a celebrated glamourist named Mr. Vincent, in her neighborhood to create a glamural for a neighbor’s home. He is aloof, set apart, interested only in the craft at which he is so talented. Jane feels his aloofness. He, however, is, as his art, deceptive. He has fallen in love with Jane, and with her abilities to naturally manipulate glamour in the ether. Their love is slow to kindle but quickly begins to burn. Kowal wrote this as the beginning of her “Glamourist Histories” series, which follow Jane and Vincent, her eventual husband, through their lives traveling the world as glamourists. Lovely, magical little book.”

    Alethea wrote this review Wednesday, March 27, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Behind Jane Austen's Door

    Behind Jane Austen's Door

    by Jennifer Forest
    • Rated 4 stars

    “This was a very, very short “trip” through the Regency household. I do wish it had been longer, as it was quite interesting, but I am sure there are other nonfiction accounts of the Regency home which can be found. Forest simply places us in the character of a visitor to another’s home and leads us through what would be expected of such a person in such a place at such a time. What the Regency home’s rooms were used for, how, when, and by whom, and putting us in such a situation as we can best observe how they would be utilized. Extremely interesting, but, again, quite too short.
    ”

    Alethea wrote this review Tuesday, March 26, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Matters at Mansfield
    • Rated 5 stars

    “I am a big fan of Bebris’s Darcy mysteries. She is quite talented at seamlessly interweaving the characters from various JA novels. In this installment, on their way back to Pemberley, Lizzy and Darcy are detained in the neighbourhood of Mansfield Park when Anne de Bourgh elopes with Henry Crawford to avoid another unwanted engagement set upon by her mother. Henry Crawford is then believed to be found dead on the grounds of Mansfield; a few days later, however, he shows up on a horse and claims he is a man named John Garrick, an assumed character he used in another day and time, and under which he married another woman, Meg, who is also at the inn with the Darcys and the rest of the assembled cast. Suffering from amnesia, he apparently goes back to the grounds of Mansfield and is this time most certainly murdered (the prior body had been that of another man). A good mystery, difficult to solve, and a very fun read.”

    Alethea wrote this review Tuesday, March 26, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Swamplandia!
    • Rated 0 stars

    “Did not like; did not finish.”

    Alethea wrote this review Monday, March 25, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
  • Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly
    • Rated 4 stars

    “I expected this dual biography to focus more on the two titular women, and not so much on the Lincoln presidency; however, I suppose Lincoln’s being president is what caused the two to meet and develop a relationship. Elizabeth Keckly was born a slave and spent most of her young life as one. She purchased her and her son’s freedom when she was in her late thirties and then moved to Chicago, beginning a highly lucrative dressmaking business. She was introduced to Mary Todd Lincoln by a mutual acquaintance and after that, Mary would have no one else fashion her clothes. Ms. Keckly knew how to manage white women, having spent the majority of her life doing so, and Ms. Lincoln had grown up mothered by a black female slave, so she naturally clung to Lizzy as a maternal figure. Their relationship was complicated and bizarre, but at times you see the depth of longing and sadness in Mary Todd Lincoln’s life for which she had little outlet. Lizzy seemed at times to be her only lifeline. A sobering picture of the lives of these two women and a well-researched biography.”

    Alethea wrote this review Thursday, March 21, 2013. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 11-20 of 632 reviews

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