Where I am up to Wednesday

I've recently finished...
Born to Rule, which I've reviewed, and The Declaration by Gemma Malley, which I've been wanting to read ever since it was published but only just got to this week because a kid at the library could not believe that The Declaration (which we have in the original pink hardcover) was part of the same series as The Resistance (in green and black) and The Legacy (purple and silver with a poppy).  And I've finished the first book of the series in a little over twenty-four hours.

I abandoned Laurie Graham's A Humble Companion.  Just couldn't get into it - the prose wasn't engaging, the narrative boring and plodding.  There's just not enough time.

I'm currently reading...
Pray for Me in Santiago.  Still going.  Not even at Leon yet, while my friend who actually walked from Leon to Santiago has completed her walk and is back home again.

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy Jill Levine.  This book is for book club - our meeting is next week.  It's yet another one of those problematic, annoying books that talk about a church I don't recognise at all.

Next I plan to read...
The Desmond Tutu I mentioned last time; God is not a Christian, and the second in Gemma Malley's Declaration series, The Resistance.  I also really want to get back into Kwaymullina's Ashala Wolf, a far darker dystopia than Malley's, at least for me.

Review: Born To Rule

Born To Rule by Julia P. Gelardi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I began reading this book in 2010, but had to return it to the library when I no longer worked close enough to that library to borrow it. Recently I was able to borrow it once again. And I've finally finished it.

The author has an annoying habit of referring far too frequently to horrible things that will happen in the future. It's probably supposed to keep you interested, but I *was* interested already, and it just irked me.

That aside, the story was definitely interesting. I knew nothing of either Maud, Marie or Sophie when I began reading: a great deal about Alix of Russia, and a little about Victoria Eugenia of Spain due to a biography of her mother, Beatrice, that I read some years ago. I had no idea that the first Queen of the restored monarchy of Norway was British (I rather wonder what my very American-Norwegian mother will think when I point that fact out.) It was a fascinating link to that Beatrice book I read a while ago, as well as to the Spanish Civil War book I'm in the middle of. It is absoluetly history of the elites, but it's interesting stuff. It's sometimes hard for us antipodeans to quite grasp how inter-related the European royals are, and this certainly proved *that*. I'm glad I finally re-borrowed and finished this book.



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Where I'm up to Wednesday

This time I will post on a Wednesday (because that's what scheduled posts are for!)


I've recently finished...
Tony Kevin's Walking the Camino: A Modern Pilgrimage to Santiago.  I really need to write up my review of this.

Magda Goebbels by Anja Klabunde, for which I've actually written and posted a review!  Yay me!

I'm currently reading...
Pray for Me in Santiago by Theresa Burkhardt-Felder.  Tony Kevin walked the Via de la Plata, while Burkhardt-Felder walked the more popular Camino Frances.  I currently have a friend walking the Camino Frances from Leon, and I'm looking forward to my reading catching up with her.

Born to Rule: Granddaughters of Victoria, Queens of Europe, by Julia P Gelardi.  I got a third of the way through this one a few years ago, but was back at the High Country Library a few weeks ago and borrowed this one out to try to finish it.

Next I plan to read...

Another HCLC loan, and one I definitely want to get to next, is God is not a Christian, a collection of essays by Desmond Tutu.

Also on the pile is another pilgrimage book - The Comfort of Water by Maya Ward - and a Laurie Graham historical, A Suitable Companion.

Review: Magda Goebbels

Magda Goebbels by Anja Klabunde

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This biography of Magda Goebbels follows her from the age of about five to her death in the last days of the European Theatre of WWII, although the bulk of the book focuses on her life until the beginning of the War. It traces Frau Goebbels' life through her relationships with men - her stepfather, father, first boyfriend, first husband, and then Goebbels, her second husband - and to a lesser extent her eldest stepson, eldest son, and her probable lover.

This was a fascinating book. I'd previously had no idea about Magda Goebbels' Jewish connections - in fact, when I picked up the book I thought it sounded utterly ludicrous.

I don't agree with all Klabunde's conclusions about Frau Goebbels, and the framing of pretty much her whole life through men irked me. The other thing I found frustrating was the rapidity with which the narrative passed through the war years. I'm sure there was more that could have been said, even given the lack of sources due to the deaths of most of the main players. I also would have loved some information about her eldest son Harald's life post-war, and further proof that women like Emmy Goering (of whom I'd never heard) lived "unmolested" in West Germany post war despite her equally direct association with the Reich. In fact, my main point of difference with Klabunde is that she seems so certain that no harm would have come to the children of Magda and Joseph Goebbels had they not been killed by their parents in the bunker at the end of the war. I'm not nearly so confident.





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Review: Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans

Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans by Clare Wright

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Some books, you can just tell they're a thesis turned into publishable form. That's not a criticism (especially not coming from me), it's just that published theses read differently to popular history. And it just makes me wonder (a little) how this got into our library collection. Because it's on an odd topic and it's not by a big publisher.

But anyway: I'm really glad I stumbled across this book. It's a history (thematic rather than narrative) of women publicans, particularly in Victoria. Wright traces the history of Australia and women publicans through legislation, social acceptance, literary portrayal, and political influence. I've got some literary theory issues with that particular chapter, and it's fairly clear that Clare Wright's feminism is not my feminism, but all the same, it's an interesting and thoroughly readable book that challenges some of the suppositions around the history of pubs in Australia.

That said, I'd now love to read a history of the Ladies Lounge and the place of women in Australia's drinking culture. Anyone know a good one?



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Wednesday Reads

...it's still Wednesday in the USA, so it counts, right?

What I'm reading now:

Still on The Glory Garage.  It's really not the book I expected and yet it's kind of totally the book I expected.  I know, right?

Also Master Race: The Lebensborn experiment in Nazi Germany which arrived in Stock Rotation at work the other day, and I've almost finished A Rogue's Proposal properly, instead of just by skimming.

What I've just finished reading:

War of Honor, number 10 in the Honor Harrington series.  I've got to get David Weber credit for a book with "War" in the title where the actual war only starts in the last 100 pages.  Of 700-odd.  It was good, although I hope Giancola comes to a messy end.

I finished The Bastard King by Jean Plaidy less than an hour ago.  My GF asked me last night what book I was reading, and when I told her the title she asked "which one?"  (As in, which bastard King was it about.)  My response - "The actual one.  William the Conquerer."  "Oh," she said.  "You meant an actual bastard."  In Plaidy's usual style it's not particularly dramatic, simply a fairly straightforward narrative with flesh and bones given to the hsitory books.  I still find William and Matilda's purported style of relationship (specifically, the beatings) horrifying and I really hope that it's all a nasty anti-Norman rumour.  But I suspect there's a grain of truth in there somewhere.

Not sure when I'll get on to the next in the trilogy, The Lion of Justice, but I'll buy it from Kobo at some stage.

What I'm reading next:

Walking the Camino.  What?  I've said that twice already and still haven't started it?

Also, it's book club next week and I need to read for that.  Only I can't remember the title of the book.  I'll add it to this post when I get home.

Wednesday Reads (6/2/13)

WednesdayReads is a regular meme that seems to be taking over Dreamwidth.  As I've been rather remiss with Top Ten Tuesdays of late (you'll notice that I'm even posting a Wednesday meme on a Friday), you'll have to put up with WednesdayReads again this week.

What I'm reading now
The Glory Garage: Growing Up Lebanese Muslim in Australia - this is one of my AWW reads for the year.  It's proving frustrating in some ways, because a lot of it feels like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs.

Also: A Rogues Proposal by Stephanie Laurens and War of Honor by David Weber. (I totally just wrote David Warner.  How's that for Sci-Fi slips?)  I've picked both of these back up, needing fluff and nonsense right now.

What I've just finished reading:
Beyond the Ladies' Lounge: Australian Women Publicans by Clare Wright.  I really need to review this one for AWW, even though it's not on my lists, because it's interesting.

Also The Blockade Breakers, about the Berlin Airlift.  Completely fabulous.

What I'm reading next:
Still planning on it being Walking the Camino.