Hidden in Plain View Thursdays

Monk's Hood: A Medieval Whodunit

By Ellis Peters

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, pick a random book from your library and tell us:

• title, author, #of pages, edition, (tags, and collections if LT)
  
• why that book is in your library, (how and when you acquired the book)
• whether you've read it or not
• if so did you like it and why;
• if not, do you plan to read it?

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes.

Can you spot today's book?  Answer at the bottom.


Ellis Peters' Brother Caedfael series is a favorite of mine and my husband.  We got hooked on them over 25 years ago when we found them in a bookstore in HongKong.  We had read one of them, and when we spotted the whole series, we gobbled them up.  This week's random pick is Monk's Hood, no. 5 in the series.

I'm refreshing my memory here from other reader's reviews on LT, but the story involves a rich nobleman who is murdered by poison (Monk's Hood) stolen from Caedfael's own dispensary.  When Caedfael  begins to help investigate, he discovers his first love (from his pre-monastic/pre-crusade days) is the newly widowed spouse of the deceased.  All the usual players are present- the sheriff, the abbot, and several colorful townsfolk.

These mysteries are excellent, almost but not quite cozy, with well developed plots, well researched early forensics, and characters who stay with the series and grow as you read each book in the series.  You can pick up any of them without reading the others, but they are all worth a peek.

They're also great videos to watch on a dark and snowy night...we often check them out from Netflix.  Derek Jacoby does an outstanding portrayal of Caedfael.  Either reading or watching, they're both enjoyable.

Now --did you find the hidden book.  It's the 4th to the left of the center bookend on the very top shelf. here's what it looks like.

Review: The Saint and The Fasting Girl

Anna Richenda sent me this richly worded story of a group of women living in England during the time of the early Reformation.  She asked if I would be interested in reviewing it, and I agreed to read.  I had recently finished Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth so I was familiar with the period and thought it sounded really fascinating.  I apologize to Anna for not getting to it sooner. 

I realized also as I went to post this review, that this book fits really well into this week's Banned Book theme.  I'm sure that somewhere, sometime, this book is going to be challenged and some group will ask to have it removed from circulation.  In my view, that means more people will want to read it to find out why some people don't like it and want it banned. More on this as I go on.

This book has great descriptive text.  Through her writing, we are transported to a time and setting of awful stenches, steaming piles of mud and manure, bone-numbing cold, gruesome starvation, teeth-chattering rains, blood and sweat and urine soaked straw mattresses, fleas, spiders and other bugs, and every other physical hardship that can be dreamt of.  

As the story progresses, there are action scenes worthy of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart – lots of blood, gore, pounding hooves, waving swords and pikes and bishop’s staffs; children, horses, pigs, oxen and pregnant women being beaten, whipped, dragged away, burned and hanged;  and lots of trauma (as in chopping off) of various body parts.

The chapters are well defined and divided into easy-to-read-in-one session pieces, but with chapter titles that seem, with a few exceptions, to have nothing to do with the text that follows.

I have done other reading (albeit fiction) set in this period, and have spent time literally traipsing through the area of England she talks about, so I from my limited perspective, I’d say that her historical settings are accurate portrayals of the times and places.

All that said, I need to preface the rest of this review with the caveat that I don’t like fantasy, or paranormal activity in my reading, so I really had a hard time with a lot of this.  These points are exactly why it IS an important book and why it will be challenged and why some people will want it banned/burned/removed.  While I regret to say that I couldn’t figure out the point of this book, that doesn't mean that others won't.  It's not my bag, but it should be looked at and available to others who will read and enjoy it. Here are some of my issues:

• First of all, the main character Georgia? Jane? has (had?) many lives (incarnations?) with different names, and has (had?) been killed many times but keeps coming back to be the bearer of the relic of St. Iselda. This rebirth issue made it difficult for me to get an accurate picture in my mind of what this woman looked like…something I find necessary if I’m to read a story about a main character.
•  The next character "Lo" is said to be the "Chooser" but I never figured out what she was to choose.

• I never figured out what St Iselda is supposed to do (other than restore these women to power? – power over what? Men?)or when she's supposed to do it or why these women are following (worshipping?) her.  Shades of Christ coming to save the world, but then again not.
• The ‘followers’ of the saint (they keep emphasizing “we’re not nuns”) go through quite a bit of persecution on the part of both the Roman and Protestant Catholics, who see any woman as a threat, nuns as whores, and treat women as chattel but why this is any different than treatment of any other group of religious at the time is not really clear.
• I know that during medieval times there was quite an emphasis on appealing to saints for protection, and relics were big big big, but never once in this book did I hear a prayer being sent heavenward to any deity…only female saints.(Right there....that'll get it on the Banned Book list! )
  
• Every chapter builds to a new battle with some MAN or other, and often involved some struggle to find the relic (which kept getting stolen but without the men realizing what they had?).For the first 150 pages or so, this constant distress and see-sawing held my interest; after that, I began to find myself saying ‘Oh no, not again….when is this ever going to end?’ It went on for a full 300+ pages. And maybe that’s the point? Was her point that for women, this never ended?

For me, all the aforementioned descriptive text provided way TOO MUCH descriptive INFORMATION with too little real plot or denouement. Ok …it smelled bad…it was cold…nobody took a bath…ok…I get it, but I didn’t like having to get it over and over again. And I didn't like wondering where it was going.

If her point was to demonstrate that woman were treated poorly in Merry Olde England, she’s done that in spades. In fact, seven no trump. If the point was to portray the customs and lifestyle of this particular cult of woman, she did that too…sorta…but I found I had to stop in the middle of the book, go to the web page listed in the acknowledgments and read about Anchorites and their practices for any of this to make sense. And this pointer was buried at the end of the book in acknowledgments---not in the front, where the reader could have used it.

Then there’s this whole issue of being reborn. I saw resonances with the tribal memories we saw in “Clan of the Cave Bear” but this was quite different…this was a reincarnation theme that had the main character coming back ….and back…and back…and bringing memories with her and dragging, and I mean drrrrrr….aaaa…..ggg…….ing this Saint into everything.  Often, these revived memories appeared to have been drug induced or the result of sleep deprivation, so I found myself not accepting their validity.

As I said, I never could figure out who the Saint was (other than the owner of the blood in the relic) or what she had done to merit such devotion, or what on earth power she had that was going to turn the whole world into one dominated by women where men weren’t needed. 

And I never did figure out which of these ladies was ‘the fasting girl’ – I think there was more than one, but….?

As I said, I don’t normally read in the paranormal genre, nor do I read or enjoy fantasy.  This book, though billed as historical fiction, reads much more like fantasy. There were times when  I half expected Wonder Woman to rise from the bubbling stream of muck! Or a unicorn to come bounding out of the woods to rescue the princess or girl or nun or whatever she was!  I probably wasn’t the right person to review this.  I think this book would have been helped immensely by putting some background material at the beginning. If I hadn’t gone and delved into her reference on the Internet, I’d never have finished it.

So....If you’ve never heard of Anchorites (and that term was NEVER mentioned in the book itself—I had to discover it on the internet), if you’ve no experience of religious women living in community (I was educated by nuns from 1^st grade through college and I still have trouble understanding it), and if you’ve never read anything else about this period, this is probably not the book to start with. 

On the other hand.... If you’re well versed in Reformation England history and its religious battles, and enjoy adding to your knowledge of the period, if you like some fantasy mixed in your fiction, you may find this to be a welcome addition to your library.  It would in fact, make a great Reading Group discussion book for those who like this genre.

They're Everywhere!!

As you can see , my TBR shelf is full--in fact it's grown to four shelves.

Since I confess to being someone who likes to seem like I'm in control, I decided to take today to prioritize things so I could leave town next week with a clear conscience:

• I have my sister Cheli lined up to do a guest review of one of the books she 'borrowed' from my TBR pile
• I'm taking my last 999 book (Saudade by Katherine Vaz) with me to finish while cruising (or flying over the Atlantic)
• I've been trying to straighten up the office and blog space because my daughter is going to house-sit/vacation/work here, and I'd like her to have a place to put a coffee mug at least.

So what happens when I return on Labor Day?

Although I'm participating in several personal reading challenges, I'm going to give priority to ARCs and Early Review copies I've agreed to read and review.

First priority: I have four books that I personally received from the authors:

• Susan Vaughan, a local author who has written several suspense romances, gave us a copy of her latest book Primal Obsession. Knowing how difficult it can be for Indie presses to get wide coverage, I offered to review for the blog. It's first up when I get back.
  
• Sam Moffie offered me a copy of No Mad. I confess it wouldn't be something that I would normally go out and buy, but I have been trying to expand into new genres and this looks like it will be interesting.
  
• Circle of Souls was sent by Preetham Grandhi -- another story with a young psychiatric patient with visions, her pyschiatrist, a murder, art therapy; the book cover calls it a "Stunning pyschological thriller". After reading The Rapture I think I can handle this and am looking forward to it.
  
• The Saint and the Fasting Girl was sent by the author Anna Richenda. It arrived just as I finished Sacred Hearts and I wanted to put some space between the two. It will be an excellent read for my 2nd 999 challenge's Historical Fiction category.
  

Then there are two Early Reviews I received from LT-- they will be the next up. Both are books I really wanted because the suspense thriller is a genre I am coming to enjoy more and more.

• Rizzo's War by Lou Manfredo
  
• Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini
  

Shortly after those, I have to get to ARCs I've received from publishers, and I'm going to try to behave myself and not request any more (unless they are to die for!) until I get this pile under control. In no particular order they are...

• The Maze Runner, by James Dasher - due out in October. I'm trying to expand and read more YA, and fantasy: genres I don't normally read. This one really caught my attention.
• The Weight of Silence, a book about children lost in the woods by Heather Guedenkauf. After I survived reading Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,I guess I can do this one without fainting.
• Half-Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World by Douglas Hunter. I love biography, and this book is a topic that really interests me.
• The Boy who Harnessed the Wind LP: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba. Set in Malawi, this is a true story of courage and inventiveness. I have enjoyed the previous books I've read this year set in various countries of Africa, and this will be another to help expand my knowledge. I'm hoping this will also be suitable for the YA group in our library.
  
• An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkerson by Andro Linklater. I requested this one because it's set in a period I love to read about- the American Revolution- and it's about someone I'd never heard of. Curiosity is a great reason for picking books...
• Sand Sharks by Margaret Maron. I love the Deborah Knott series, so when Hachette Books offered me the chance to review and run a contest to share this one with others, I could not resist.
  
• The Christmas Cookie Club: A Novel by Ann Pearlman. I am a Christmas cookie nut...I go absolutely crazy baking for weeks before the holidays, and if I'm not going to be with people, I actually mail giant boxes of them. I'm always looking for new recipes and new mysteries, so in spite of the plain red cardboard wrapper on the galley proof, this one looks great. I'm hoping to be able to try some of the recipes as I read it, so I can share the results in my review.
• The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright. I honestly don't remember requesting this one, but it is an area in which I read a lot. I've tried three times to read Karen Armstrong's History of God but just couldn't get into it. Maybe this one will be better.
• South of Broad by Pat Conroy. Another of my favorite writers, and settings.
• The Brutal Telling (An Armand Gamache Novel) by Louise Penny. Another of my favorite authors. I was thrilled to be able to be among the first to get this one. My sister also wants it, so I may try to eek out a spot in the luggage to take it along for the cruise. The Armand Gamache books are some of the best in the genre today. I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

And finally, there are three others that I received as prizes from other people's contests that I am itching to get to:

• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.
• The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander.
• The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths by Charlotte Gordon.

So if you are OCD and counted the books in the pictures, there are 75 there. The ones that are left after the ARCs, and ERs are books that were on my original list to be read for various challenges during 2009. I'm not sure I can finish all 75 of them before New Years but I'm going to have a wonderful time trying.

Review: Sacred Hearts

A well-researched piece of historical fiction. Unless you are cold stone hearted dead, this work will definitely have an emotional impact.I’m not sure how men will receive it, but most 21^st century women will finish the book, take a deep breath, exhale slowly, and send prayers or thoughts to whatever supreme deity is in their lives with thanks that they did not have to live through anything like this. The story line is fairly straightforward: In 16^th century Italy, the bride price (or dowry) for women had gotten so high that families could only afford to marry off one daughter. The rest were consigned to convents –along with whatever endowment the family could give to the abbess to take care of the unfortunate girl for the rest of her life. The life was one of almost complete silence, little if any contact with relatives on "the outside" (all letters were read by a censor before the recipient was perhaps allowed to receive it), plain food, lots of fasting, and life regulated in every aspect by the observance of the liturgical hours (starting at 2:00am with Martins).

Some women welcomed this life—especially if the alternative was to marry some man not to her liking—others were literally dragged (drugged?) into the convents totally against their wills. Sacred Hearts is the story of Isabetta, a young girl who wanted to marry her music teacher, but who was instead dispatched to the convent of Santa Catarina. The Abbess is keen to have her since she reputedly has an angelic voice, and the convent choir’s performances for the towns people and the surrounding countryside bring much needed patronage and money for the Abbey.

Once inside, we meet the stern, uber rule enforcing novice mistress, Umiliana; the wise, crafty, and holy abbess Madonna Chiara; the dispensary mistress Zuana, and several anorexic (in those days they were called holy mystics) ancient dying sisters fasting and waiting to meet Christ.

Isabetta, renamed Serafina, immediately sets the convent on end by such loud screaming her first night that Chiara sends Zuana to calm her down.Zuana herself had come to the convent reluctantly 16 years priorThe daughter of a prominent widowed doctor, who taught her everything he know about medicine and herbs, she was not considered marriage material (no man would want a woman so smart!) and with no large dowry or estate, she was sent to the abbey to live. Seeing much of herself in the young novice, Zuana befriends Serafina, (having to drug her first to calm her down) and convinces the abbess to assign Serafina to work in the herb garden and dispensary with her.

At this point, the plot twists begin. The book is to be published next week, and I urge you to get a copy. This is a superbly written story of young love, betrayal, mistreatment of women, women bonding with other women, and the horrible, horrible treatment of women by the Italian society of the day. While it is the story of the helplessness of women on the one hand, I must point out (with as little spoiler as possible) that it is also the story of the courageousness, talent, and cunning of women who solve problems themselves.

Many thanks to Random House for making the review copy available.

It would make a wonderful book discussion group read.

Review: Mistress of the Art of Death

This book is the Summer 2009 Highly Rated Book Group online discussion over on LT. I can't believe I missed it when it first came out in 2007. This is going to be one of my top 5 of the year. It is so good, that I galloped ahead and stayed up 1/2 the night to finish listening to the audio, which is masterfully done by Rosalyn Landor. I could hear the medieval street noise, smell the river, and see the mists. If you like historical fiction, forensic pathology suspense thrillers, medieval pageantry, romance, and intricate plots, this is the book for you. The characters are unforgettable and the story is many layered:

1. Young children are disappearing from the town of Cambridge, and turning up later as skeletons showing evidence of unspeakable torture and death.
2. In England at that time, money lending was illegal. Only Jews were allowed to lend money, so they were tolerated. However the Jews were accused of killing the children.
3. Henry II, needing the Jews to keep his country solvent (no bishop could build a cathedral, no knight embark on a Crusade without borrowing) orders the entire Jewish population of the town into sanctuary within the castle walls. Still the killings continue.
4. At this same time, the town of Salerno in Italy is turning out trained forensic scientists and doctors. Henry sends to his friend the King of Sicily for a "Doctor of Death" to solve the mystery of who is killing the children.
5. Sicily sends its most noted Doctor of Death,Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, perhaps not realizing that in England, women who 'practice medicine' are more often seen as witches. Adelia is accompanied by Simon the Jew of Naples, and Mansur, a Saracen eunoch who acts as a bodyguard....a sort of medieval CSI team.

Those are just a few of the layers. Add in a Prior with a bad prostrate, an Abbess with a lousy attitude and even worse abbey management skills, an adorable child right out of Dickens, some rather rude and nasty knights, a delightful eelmonger/housekeeper and her helpers Mathilde A and Mathilde B, and you have the beginnings of a wonderful bubbling cauldron of a story. And let's not forget the dog named Safeguard....her description is so great, I can almost smell him myself. All the ingredients blend into an absolute page-turner. Just when you think it's solved, something else twists and you're off on another rollercoaster of emotion, and terror. In spite of the horror of the subject, Franklin manages to inject spots of humor that leave you chuckling with glee. The scene where she catherizes the poor Prior is worth the price of the book. The humanity and compassion displayed by all members of the team bode well for future books in the series. These are people you want to get to know. This is a woman you can root for. This is the first of what is promised to be a series about this wonderful female forensic pathologist. I've already ordered the next in the series: The Serpent's Tale.

Review: Mysteries of the Middle Ages:

Thomas Cahill's series Hinges of History started with a bang with the publication of How the Irish Saved Civilization in 1995. This is the 4th in the Series, and it is a beautiful ART book. I love history. I love to read history books, although many tend to be dry and academic. Cahill is not academic, but this book could never be used as a text book. It is supplementary reading; it is not even quite history. It has an agenda that is actually stated in the subtitle: "The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe." However, it is not until the last chapter that we are bombarded with his personal angst with 20th and 21st century Roman Catholicism. To say there's an ax to grind is putting it mildly. Raised and educated as a Catholic, his bias and love for, and now his anger (however righteous one might view it) about Catholicism has almost turned him into a modern day Dante. Reading the last chapter, I was waiting to see to which circle of hell he consigned present day leaders. And......while I am no fan of George W. Bush, Cahill's thinly veiled vitriol (he claims he was referring to Phillip the Fair)--in his ending diabtribe, the last paragraph of the chapter "The Politician's Emptiness" was aimed directly at W.

...the acquisitive, dissembling, violence-prone politician...who could lie to himself and lie to others...give orders to torture the helpless and banish the innocent while on his way to church, hold men prisoner indefinitely without charging them...refuse to acknowledge the mercenary motives of his closest advisers, abrogate international treaties, pollute whole ecosystems while pretending to do otherwise, and declare his vicious wars just, necessary and blessed by God.

Certainly, the study of history should lead us to lessons learned. Cahill's lessons learned are quite biased however. At least he admits that he left out huge chunks of Medieval History (this book covers approx 900-1300 A.D.) of the period--he has one "Intermezzo" (it doesn't even rate being called a chapter) for "Entrances to Other Worlds..The Mediterranean, The Orient, and The Atlantic." Aside from being the proximate cause of half of Europe spending an inordinate amount of time, money and manpower on the Crusades, the Muslims get short shrift for any contributions they may have made. OK OK...he stated on the cover he was studying Catholic cults. The Iberian peninsula, the British Isles, and anything not centered in the Holy Roman Empire, especially present day Italy, is given only glancing mention. My mother always told me that if I couldn't say something nice, not to say anything at all. So if we put down the Hinges of History book, and read the subtitled book, this is an exquisite discussion of the early Renaissance in Italy. Beginning with the lucious endpapers of deep blue and sparkling gold showing the Ceiling of Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, through the numerous maps and charts helping the reader keep track of the myriad of players in the political doings of the times, to the 57 (!!) color illustrations of works of art of the period, this is a gorgeous feast for the senses. It is almost like reading an illustrated manuscript of the period. Even the font is spectacular. This book deserves to be picked and read if for nothing else than the sensual experience. Each chapter (until the last two) presents a piece of his explanation of the influence of the Catholic church on modern day feminism, science and art. Hildegard of Bilgen, Heloise & Abelard, Francis of Assissi, Thomas Aquinas and Dante receive star billing. In fact, I wish I'd read this before embarking on my earlier read of Dante this year. Cahill has a classic education, and certainly takes great pains to present his theories in very readable, easy to understand prose. It is not dumbed down, never boring, neither does it exhibit blatant snobbery. While I normally prefer my history books with more specific citations and references than Cahill offers, I'm not left with the impression that his research is lacking. It is interpretive research at its best. He presents suggestions for further reading based on his assessment of what he thinks his readers might be interested in. If we look at this as a history book, it's maybe a 3 star. If you look at it as a narrative of very specific theories, well-researched and supported, exquisitely presented, it's a 5 star.