LUCY PICK BOOKS

Cool, I won an award for blogging from my pal Julianne over at Writing the Renaissance. Now I get to nominate some of my favourite blogs in a wonderful blogging-pyramid scheme that will bring us all lots of lovely links, hoorah!

I have a vague idea that these are supposed to be historical fiction blogs, but since a lot of my favourites have already been named, I am going to pretend I do not know this and just nominate as my whimsy takes me (and by the way, there are at least five blogs called, “As my whimsy takes me.” I’m surprised it’s not more.)

LadyTess — Historical romance, Canadiana, and we went to college together. How can you lose? And if you hurry over there right now, yes right now, she has a photo of a deer in her very top post.

Plotters & Manipulators United — Sherry Thomas doesn’t post very often, but when she does it is always interesting, especially when she writes about the craft of writing. Actually, the reason I am giving her this is to nudge her into posting more. Nudge, nudge.

Whatever — John Scalzi writes SF not HF, but world-building is world-building and I visit every day. Mostly, I confess, for the cat photos and the political rants. No, with his billions and billions of hits, he does not need my blog award, but he’s up for a fan writer Hugo this year (oh, and: best novel), and I thought maybe if he didn’t win that, the Blogger Excellence Award might be some small consolation.

Into that world inverted… — I think I have been reading too many “how to write” books because what I want to say is that I love Sarah Rees Brennan’s blogging voice. And it seems strange to talk about voice on a blog, but I suppose it shouldn’t be. Read her blog for a while, and then I defy you not yo buy her book when it comes out.

Smart Bitches <3 Trashy Books — Another blog that doesn’t need my link to get hits, but these smart, feminist romance novel fans are my guilty pleasure and I might as well come clean about it. It’s been a long time since I read a romance, but it doesn’t matter. As they say, “Come for the Dominican bitches — stay for the man titty!” Oh lord, what kind of search strings am I going to end up with now?

And one food blog, for good luck:

Gastronomy Domine — Just don’t click the link if you’re feeling hungry. You’ve been warned.

Yeah, I know everyone’s seen it already. And it’s a beer commercial. But have a happy Canada day anyway, eh?

You’ve finished all your Ken Folletts and Dorothy Dunnett is dead and you’re sad because you’re thinking you’ve already read every historical novel on the planet that is set in the Middle Ages? Fear not, for the good people at medieval-novels.com are here to show you just how unlikely that is. The post that will make your head explode (but in a good way) is this one which lists all the medieval novels in alphabetical order with amazon.com links to each one. They have a separate section for medieval mysteries right here for all your Brother Cadfael/Dame Frevisse needs.

So don’t tell me you’ve got nothing to read.

As I mentioned below, the moment I saw the announcement for this book in Publisher’s Marketplace, I thought it would be something I’d like and, believe me, that is something that happens far less often than I would expect.  Now I have finished it, and thought I would share some thoughts.

I have read a number of novels about the French Revolution that I have liked — Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety remains a favourite. While many of these use real and invented characters to tell the story of the revolution, Delors’ book is quite different. It’s not the story of the revolution, but rather the story of the minor noble Gabrielle de Montserrat, and it is her experiences and reactions that remain paramount. I think this is a huge strength. Delors’ Gabrielle experiences the cataclysmic events of her time the way most of do our own, as spectators and as victims, without the power to change the turbulence around her but with the strength to endure its effects. As Gabrielle experiences it, the unfolding of the revolution seems to have an inevitable quality about it, which is surely how it must have seemed to those buffeted by its currents.

Delors avoids one of what I think is one of the pitfalls of first person historical fiction: she gives Gabrielle a reason for telling her story. The book is written as Gabrielle’s memoir, written by her in England, in English, long after the events she relates are over. This allows Gabrielle to “tell” of many things that both her imagined historical audience and her audience of contemporary readers wouldn’t know, but better than that, the voice is perfect. The book truly reads like it was written by a Frenchwoman writing for an English audience. That is probably because, erm, it was.

My favourite part of the novel wasn’t, in the end, the broad movements of history, or even the tragic love story at the book’s heart, but rather the story of Gabrielle’s relationship with Villiers. Without being in the least anachronistic, their relationship has a very contemporary resonance. He’s the wrong guy, the one you date though you know you shouldn’t because he wants it so much, and then he utterly fails to be what he has promised. As she transacts this relationship of compromise and tries to make it work, Gabrielle’s character emerges, both innocent and wise. I loved how she checked the value of the diamonds he gave her before they began their liaison.

I wanted more. I know in an earlier incarnation this book was longer, and I think I wanted that version, publishing constraints and norms be damned. I guess I’ll just have to wait for her next one!

While my sister was visiting me this past week, we spent a lot of time together judging books by their covers. This cover, for Lauren Groff’s The Monsters of Templeton was one we both loved, and though neither of us bought it, I am sure I will one day soon. Almost as good as the cover is the groovy map inside. I am a sucker for maps.

My sister said she prefers covers that have illustrations, and she is winning me over to her point of view. Best are covers like Groff’s, which were drawn specifically for the book. I also think of the covers for the hardcovers of Dorothy Dunnett’s Niccolo series (at least the ones I have, which were bought in Canada). In second place, and more common, are paintings and drawings that are reused as illustrations for book covers. We both enjoyed Sarah Johnson’s gallery of reused cover images for works of historical fiction. Sometimes the images were totally transformed in reuse and sometimes … well, let’s just say that certain covers could cause a lot of confusion.

Welcome to my new web site!  I am going to be using it as a place to discuss my own writing, as well as the books I love to read, and possibly, if I am lucky, my adventures in publishing.  And if there is any time and space left over there may be occasionally a teeny-tiny post about food.