June Book Club Pick

May's Book Club pick was M's pick, The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. This book was so good. I've known that Adriana Trigiani was a pretty popular author for a long time but I'd never picked up any of her books. After reading The Shoemaker's Wife I've started picking up her books at the library bookstore, because I want to read a lot more of her.

Image from Goodreads 

The writing was so beautiful. The way she described the Italian Alps was amazing. She walked a very fine line between perfect description and over description and managed to stay on the side of perfect. Her characters were unforgettable, Enza's whole family were amazing and I could read a whole book just about the nuns that Ciro grew up with. The romance story was the slowest slow-burn romance I think I've ever read. The story followed how Enza became the shoemaker's wife and it took about a decade for them to finally get together, but it was so worth it.

The only problems I had with the story were that it seemed to go on a bit too long. The majority of the story was, as I said before, how Enza became the shoemaker's wife. Once they were married and off on their life together there was a perfect spot to end the story, with Ciro and Enza walking off into the wilderness of Minnesota to follow their dreams together. But it didn't end there, and I really feel like it should have, the rest seemed like it got chopped off of a different book and tacked on to this one just to fill the word count.

There was also one point where I went 'Wow. Someone's trying too hard.' and that was when Ciro went to Italy to visit after WWI. He was having some internal monologue about how it wasn't his Italy anymore, and how years of poverty had taken it's toll on the people and they'd latch on to the next ideology to come along. And of course that's exactly what happened, Mussolini and the rise of Fascism, was the next ideology to come along. It just seemed so out of place for a young man, even a well read young man, who just left a war zone and was seeing his brother for the first time in over a decade to be sitting in a cafe, smoking and contemplating ideology.

This was a great pick, and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars!

June's pick is from C whose last pick was I am Malala. C always seems to have the most thought provoking picks and this new pick fits right in. For June the pick is The Color of Water by James McBride.

Image from Goodreads

The Color of Water is the story of the authors mother, the daughter of a Polish Rabbi who married a black man in the early 1940's and raised 12 children in the Projects of Brooklyn, I don't know much about it besides what I read in the blurb but it sounds good and I can't wait to read it!


Next month is supposed to be J's pick but she's going to be out of town so I get to pick! I'm pretty excited about it and I think I have my book chosen already, although it might change before the next meeting.

Review: The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Image from Goodreads

One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale

She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.

She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.

She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.

She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.

The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller combines romance and action, steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.

(Blurb from Goodreads)

I picked this book purely based on the cover. I love the cover, and was happy that the book lived up to it. There were some really unexpected elements to this story that I ended up really enjoying, the steampunk element being the most surprising. 

I usually try to avoid steampunk. I've read a few books with steampunk in them but never really enjoyed it. The ones I read were just too illogical for me to be able to buy into the story, and now I just try to avoid them. This book went pretty light on the steampunk elements, just a few things here and there to let you know it was part of the story, you know, horseless carriages, a personal flying machine, no giant half-machine half-blue whale things flying around bombing the shit out of small towns or anything. 

It was light on the romance. This is a big one! The romance didn't really come into it until the end. I mean through out the book it's clear she's trying to deny feelings for Kiaran, there's a couple of points where I was sure they were going to kiss, but of course they didn't. I can see where the author is trying to get the whole 'love triangle' thing going on but I didn't really get that vibe from Gavin. Like I could see him being gay and them being really good friends but not a love interest. 

This book was a bit frustrating though. There were parts where I was just like "Tell the fricking truth, the whole truth!!" It would have avoided some frustration for the characters and Aileana does start doing that towards the end. 

This book is pretty sterotypical YA fantasy. The main character is beautiful, but she doesn't know it. She's clumsy, except when she's fighting gracefully and effortlessly killing monsters, She's tired of her life being caged in by society, but she's not ready to ditch her comfortable life in order to change it. If you've read a lot of YA you've probably read a lot of books like this one. Fortunately for me, I happen to love books like this and I think this main character manages to set herself apart with her interest in engineering, she builds her own weapons and vehicles, and I love that.  Also, the violence! This main character lives for the rush she gets from killing and the way it is written is wonderful, there are more eloquent prose about killing faeries then there are about the romance elements and I love that even more!

The thing I love/hate most about this book? The ending. OMG THE ENDING! I was reading and all the sudden it just stopped in a place where no book should stop. What? What! WHAT?! I was not happy and I loved it at the same time. It is certainly a cliff hanger and I'm so looking forward to the next book!

As for a rating, this book is not perfect, but I loved it anyway. 4 stars out of 5.
Note; I received this book for free, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review of The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley

Image and blurb from Goodreads.com 

The year is 1517. Dismas is a relic hunter: one who procures “authentic” religious relics for wealthy and influential clients. His two most important patrons are Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony and soon-to-be Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz. While Frederick is drawn to the recent writing of Martin Luther, Albrecht pursues the financial and political benefits of religion and seeks to buy a cardinalship through the selling of indulgences. When Albrecht’s ambitions increase his demands for grander and more marketable relics, Dismas and his artist friend Dürer conspire to manufacture a shroud to sell to the unsuspecting noble. Unfortunately Dürer’s reckless pride exposes Albrecht’s newly acquired shroud as a fake, so Albrecht puts Dismas and Dürer in the custody of four loutish mercenaries and sends them all to steal Christ’s burial cloth (the Shroud of Chambéry), Europe’s most celebrated relic.

On their journey to Savoy where the Shroud will be displayed, they battle a lustful count and are joined by a beautiful female apothecary. It is only when they reach their destination that they realize they are not alone in their intentions to acquire a relic of dubious legitimacy. Filled with fascinating details about art, religion, politics and science; Vatican intrigue; and Buckley’s signature wit, The Relic Master is a delightfully rich and intelligent comic adventure.

I've read a lot of historical fiction over the years. It's one of my favorite genres, but rarely is historical fiction funny. This book was funny. There was one particular reference to 'man-jam' that made me actually set down the book so I could belly laugh without loosing my page. I loved the fast pace and the short chapters, it made the whole thing go by very quickly. Most of the characters were very well written and by the end of the book I cared as much about them as they did each other. Even the German mercenaries who had been sent with Dismas and were relatively flat characters, were very endearing by the end of the book, as their loyalty and friendship to each other, and eventually to Dismas and the others, really showed who they were. 

What I loved the most was the time that The Relic Master was set at. It's set in 1517-19. I could tell you all about what was happening in England at that time. Henry VIII was preparing for the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the summit where the entire English court would go the France and meet with Francois 1 near Calais in 1520, he was still happily married to Catherine of Aragon and his affair with Betsy Blount was just ending since she was pregnant with his son in early 1519. But for all I know about England in that time period, my knowledge of the rest of Europe, and the world for that matter, is almost nothing. So to get to see a view point of the rest of Europe during that time was very interesting for me. The fact that there wasn't even a mention of England was pretty cool for me because it put those events into perspective. The whole of Europe was not focused on the royal court of England, which is easy to loose sight of when that's all you read about. 

As far as things I didn't like; I bought into Dismas being desperate and all that as for making the shroud in the first place, but once he was in Savoy and they had a plan in place, it seemed like there was an easier way to do what they were trying to do. I kept wondering why they didn't just tell Albrecht they'd switched the shrouds and leave the Chambery shroud where it was since Dismas was so sure it was fake anyway. The plan itself was a problem for me too. It was never really a clearly defined plan. They bought the fabric in Basel, but then never talk about a plan again, and when to get to Savoy it's never really talked about either. I felt like the reader was left to figure it out through conjecture, and while that works sometimes here I felt like I was just left out and standing on the edge with no idea what was going on. Thankfully this book was entertaining enough that it didn't matter much and I didn't really think about it much until I was done reading.  
I also thought, that with the back drop of Luther and the religious climate in the book one of the main characters would go through some kind of religious awakening and decide to follow Luther on his reform, but that never happened. Luther was discussed often and Durer seemed to side with him as far as the church went but no ones attitude or religious beliefs were affected by the events in the book. Dismas went on being skeptical, Durer quietly supported reform and kept being a good catholic, and Magda's  beliefs were never mentioned. 

The things I liked far outweighed the issues I found with this book. Also it gets extra credit for using the word 'man-jam' which I'm still laughing about. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction, has a good sense of humor, and doesn't mind a bit of rough language and religious jokes. If you liked Lamb by Christopher Moore, you will probably like The Relic Master. 

Rating; 4 saints jaw bones out of 5