I'm reading The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley for the "z" alphabet challenge.  This book focuses on Kassandra, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and the time period before and during the fall of Troy.  It's been many years since I've read a book by this author, but I am really enjoying this one.  It features all the great characters; Helen, Paris, Odysseus, Amazons and doesn't seem to be too much of an alternate history that I recall some of her other books are.

Just finished Sky Burial by Xinran for my "X" challenge category. The sub-title is "an epic love story of Tibet," which is actually a bit misleading. It is less a love story than a quest. The story: two Chinese meet in medical school, fall in love, and, in 1958, marry; three weeks later, husband is deployed to Tibet; two months later, wife receives word that he is dead; unable or unwilling to believe the news, wife embarks on what becomes a 30-year odyssey in Tibet searching for her husband. Despite some reviewers mischaracterizing this book as a novel (or my favorite -- "non-fiction novel"), it is a true story as recounted by a journalist who interviewed this woman (Shu Wen).  Told in straightforward prose, it is a remarkable and inspiring (and short) story. Worth reading.

Cheryl, I liked The Firebrand too.

Deb, Sky Burial sounds very interesting.

I read "Sky Burial" and agree, it was very good.

Well, I finished "A Woman of Independent Means" and enjoyed it very much.  Bess is quite a character!  She comes across in her letters as manipulative, loving, selfish, thoughtful, bossy...in short, a real person.  It was a very fast read, but both fun and touching.

Then I read "Golden" by Cameron Dokey.  This is a YA novel, a re-telling of the fairy tale "Rapunzel."  I liked this one!  It has quite a twist; our heroine, Rapunzel, is bald.  She is bald at birth, and her mother is horrified (very selfish woman) and so the sorceress Melisande takes the baby girl and raises her as her own daughter.  But poor Rapunzel never grows hair.  How she comes to be associated with long, flowing locks is a clever twist.  I think "my girls" at the library are going to love this one.

Now, I need to read "The Grapes of Wrath" for our book discussion group, but I want to read the next Owen Parry...hmmm....

Oh dear. I started The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie this evening, and 85 pages into it, I think it's going to be a DNF for me. I feel like I'm spoiling the party, with the book getting so many great reviews, but I just don't like it.

The hero is a Victorian gentleman who suffers from what appears to be Asperger's syndrome. I was intrigued in the first 20 pages when he convinced the heroine to break her engagement by revealing her fiance's secret sexual activities, then promptly proposed to her himself. I wanted to see how the heroine would react to someone so completely unaware of proper social behavior who, nevertheless, did her a kindness in his own blunt way. The problem is that she's not reacting believably.

The author tells us straight out that Lord Ian Mackenzie and his entire family are scandalous and dangerous, that any woman seen alone in a Mackenzie's presence is automatically ruined. (She hasn't revealed WHY the family has such a bad reputation, mind you, but has made no bones about the fact they do.) So what does Beth, the proper Victorian heroine, do?

First meeting between Beth & Ian: Ian kisses Beth passionately and tells her he wants to bed her. She responds by very nearly taking him up on his offer.

Second meeting: Ian kisses Beth again, nibbles her ear and asks her if she's wet. She replies in the affirmative. When Ian tells her he wants no other man touching her (WARNING! Possessive creep!) she responds, "I don't think I mind that." Creeeeeepy!

Third meeting: Beth offers to become Ian's mistress.

Sorry, I'm just not buying this. Especially because between the second and third meetings, Beth learns Ian is a suspect in a murder. (Oh, but she trusts him, even though she barely knows him.) Her excessive randiness is justified because she had a happy first marriage and misses a man's touch. And she's not shocked by Ian's behavior because her late husband (a vicar!) taught her all about female arousal and how to be satisfied. (Hmmm. How conveeeeeniet, as the Church Lady would say.)

So the heroine is TSTL, and the hero is a borderline stalker. (Ian decided he wanted Beth at their first meeting, because he suffers from headaches and nightmares and is somehow convinced her presence will ease them.) Besides that, the story is headed in the direction of cliched murder mystery, rather than the character-driven novel I was led to expect.

I think I'm going to take a pass on finishing this one.

Oh, Feliccia, hang in there with Ian.  I read that last year and like it.  You do eventually figure out why the Mackenzie boys have such a bad reputation.  I think the novelty in the book is not so much the character development as the glimpse at how people with special needs were treated during that time.  I read an interview with the author and she said she wrote it because a friend's son had Aspy's and she wondered how he would have been treated 150 years ago.  She did quite a bit of research into it to get it right in the book.

The second book in the series was just released and I'm patiently waiting to work my way down the WL.

Felicia, sounds like the romance logic in Lord Ian Mackenzie ranks right up there with the romance logic in Twilight.

Just finished reading Yu Hua's To Live -- a short, simply-written (or rather, simply-translated) novel, "originally banned in China but recently named one of the last decade's ten most influential books there." It is the story of Fugui and his sufferings from the end of the Sino-Japanese War through the Civil War between Nationalists and Communists, the founding of the People's Republic, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. Fugui is not not at all likeable at the beginning of the book when he squanders his family's fortune and treats others, especially his wife and father-in-law, with disrespect. But like Job, he perseveres through years of hardships and tragedies, becoming transformed in the process. It was interesting to read this immediately after Sky Burial, in which the main character left China to search for her husband in Tibet for 30 years -- and doesn't recognize China when she returns. What she missed is what Fugui experienced. I didn't love this book -- but I think it is certainly worth reading.

And with this, I have now completed the HF Challenge #2 (the ABC challenge) -- YAY!!!

Congratulations, Deb!  That's a huge accomplishment!

I have finally gotten to the can't-put-it-down part of Here Be Dragons, and I have to leave for a family cookout!  Aack!  Hey, it's good to see you again...great potato salad...can I get the recipe for your banana cake....well...nice seein' ya....gotta run!  Nose back in book.

Currently reading "Daughter Of York" by Anne Easter Smith.  I have all 3 of her books and have enjoyed them all.  They all take in the mid-1400s or so during the reign of King Edward IV/Richard III.  She has a 4th one coming out soon, can't wait to read it! 

LOL Christa!

Sorry about Lord Ian. I tried to give the book another chance. I don't mind him. I think Ashley writes him well. I just can't get past Beth's (IMHO) stupid behavior. This book would have worked for me much better if Beth had been wary of Ian at first but come to accept and understand him, rather than being hot-to-trot with him from their first meeting.

Guess what I'm starting today? Here Be Dragons! I read one Penman (When Christ and His Saints Slept) years ago and loved it, but haven't managed to read anything else by her. I'm tired of being left out of discussions about the HF classics (Penman, Chadwick, etc.) I should have at least a few hours of reading time today to get started!

Felicia, you're in for a treat. The bed burning scene is still an all-time favorite.

I'm halfway through Marianne and the Rebels as the adventure continues on the way to Constantinople.

BTW, Elizabeth Chadwick is giving away three copies (one UK, one international and one for US readers) of For the King's Favor (UK title The Time of Singing) on her blog Living the History. details here, http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2010/09/for-kings-favor-giveaway.html

Just finished Shadows of Glory, the second Abel Jones mystery by Owen Parry.  I didn't like it as much as Faded Coat of Blue (that one was such fun) - but I still enjoyed it, and am hoping to receive the third one this week.  Abel is such a likeable hero, not your macho heroic hero, just a thoroughly fine man, someone you would like to know.

Linda

Linda, I agree with you on the second Abel Jones.  I started the fourth one this morning, but I'm not very far.  DH and I are taking honey out of our hives...a sticky, long business!  But I didn't get stung! (Knock wood...)  I may get back to reading this evening.

I haven't gotten to the infamous bed burning scene. And I can't wait to see who is buring who's bed.  There are so many candidates!

Oooh, it's one of my favorites too ;)

Congratulations, Deb!  That's a huge accomplishment!

Thanks, Christa. I'm eagerly awaiting my prize from our illustrious challenge coordinator.  Genie, are you there? Genie??

(And while I'm waiting, I'm going to re-read the bed burning scene. Actually, I really want to re-read the whole book. Hard to believe Christa that your family would expect you at a family cookout when you're in the middle of a Penman book. Geez.... Anyway, I hope that you got some good recipes!!)

And Vicky -- taking honey out of your hives.  Wow -- how cool is that -- glad you didn't get stung!

Finished Marianne and the Rebels, what a cliff hanger and I'll be waiting a few days before I can get the next book dangit. What a fun romp these books are.

Christa, yes he did deserve it, didn't he?

And I'm not sure I'm buying his apology.  We shall see.

I'm eagerly awaiting my prize from our illustrious challenge coordinator.  Genie, are you there? Genie??

Just checked in. Congratulations. And, sorry, all I have to offer is ...

Aaahh, Genie -- I love flowers -- thanks -- and such an adorable delivery guy -- I'm happy....

Lol Christa, just you wait until the end and....well....dangit I can't tell you nor hint, but *sniff sniff sniff*

Just started Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay