The Wolf Hunt
by Gillian Bradshaw
Read: 9/11/09
LibraryThing tags, if I had put this on LibraryThing: Historical Fiction, France, Medieval, Fantasy, Romance, Sonderbook (click here for Sondy's review), and another tag I won't actually use because it'd be a bit of a spoiler
Ware spoilers for this book, for they abound. The book's cover blurb, the Publisher's Weekly review, several of the top amazon customer reviews -- for some reason they all feel compelled to summarize the entire plot, right up to the climax of the book. I understand a certain amount of summary is customary in reviews, but the entire thing? Good grief.
In some ways I didn't mind too much myself -- the only reason I picked the book up at all is because I was browsing in the library and picked this one out of a row of books by Gillian Bradshaw based on reading the blurb. The description fit my mood at the time and sounded more interesting to me than her other books. I was chagrined as I read to realize how much the blurb had revealed, but it was still well-written enough to keep my attention, even when the details I'd picked it up for were long in coming and I found I already knew certain elements which could have made for suspense.
So, what can I tell you about the book, without spoiling anything myself? Not as much as I'd like (perhaps the reason so many tell everything...), but here goes. As you can tell from my tags, it's historical fiction, set in medieval France. There are a few fantasy elements, but they're included in what I can't tell you, although they're really not hard to guess. It's based on a poem by the twelfth-century Marie de France, and set at the end of the eleventh century, although she says in the author's note, "as befits a medieval romance, the history is not entirely exact." At the very beginning of the book (so don't read this if you want utter and complete spoiler-freedom) the main character, Marie Penthievre, is kidnapped from her priory in Normandy and taken to the court of Brittany, where she fears she'll be forced into a marriage that will give Brittany her Norman lands. Although there was a king over all of France at the time, Normandy and Brittany were basically at war much of the time, despite that. Early medieval, and all.
I didn't find the plot as melodramatic as Sondy did. Probably in part because of how much I was expecting, from reading the blurb. Partly because some of the more melodramatic elements, like her kidnapping, are entirely plausible (actually quite common) for that time and place in history. And unlike certain books in the romance genre (this book is certainly romantic, but doesn't really fit into the genre), the author's done her research, which does a great deal to make kidnappings and things seem quite level-headed rather than melodramatic. She's not just spinning a yarn set in the vague romantic past.
Quite the contrary, this is one of the best medieval novels I've read, as far as being true to the time period. She doesn't gloss over anything, she gets across a good deal of their mindset as least as it relates to the fantasy elements, and she doesn't make them seem like idiots in the process (which is good, because medievals weren't idiots). I knew she was a scholar, but not even all scholars get the medieval period right, and most of her books are set in the ancient world, so I was quite relieved.
There's also a good dose of mystery, but it isn't a who-done-it -- you know exactly who did it, the whole time. The mystery is in how in the world the culprit is ever going to be caught, how the main characters are even going to realize there is a mystery to solve. Add in some interesting thematic elements, and I highly recommend this one. Enjoy!
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
Read: 8/27/09-10/4/09
LibraryThing tags: Self-help, Business, Life Management
In some ways this is a very typical self-help business-y kind of book. It quotes and uses concepts from other self-help, it cites studies and confuses correlation with causation. But it does have some very good ideas. It's not as deeply lifechanging as The Pathway by Laurel Mellin, but few things are. It's value is in the tips, the little changes one can make to one's life which turn out to be extremely powerful.
I suppose the first is in the subtitle. Makes sense to me. Perhaps the second is the idea of rhythmicity, oscillation, or cyclicism versus linearity. Apparently humans have ultradian rhythms, 90- to 120-minute cycles, which cause an "ebb and flow of our energy throughout the day." Taking breaks at those intervals (or even just switching the type of task, perhaps) instead of "powering through" can be tremendously energizing, and thus actually much more productive, no matter what kind of work you're doing (i.e., even if the book mostly focuses on athletes and corporate workers, this also applies to housewives, artists, etc.).
Actually, I can see this concept of cycles and rhythms at play in much more of life than what the book discusses. It seems to me to be a reason behind the various kinds of festivals and holy days commanded in the Old Testament, at every level from the week to the month to the year even to the Year of Jubilee. We're told there's a "time for everything," we're repeatedly told to remember -- because we mortals can only do so much at once. We have to take turns focusing on different things. We think in our quest for excellence we need to be and do everything at once, but that simply isn't true. I'm not trying to take these things from the Bible as proof -- they are not the entirety of the reason I believe cycles and rhythms are so important -- I just think, if that's true and they are important, it makes sense to see that illustrated here and there in the Bible. Since it's how God designed us and all. Anyway.
The third thing I got out of it is that balancing stress (or exercise) and recovery is important in every area of life; physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual (although for the purposes of the book by "spiritual" they just meant the higher purpose kinds of questions, it seems true for the actual spiritual side of things as well). This is most easily seen in the physical -- obviously lack of exercise causes atrophy, but too much exercise can cause injury and burnout, not to mention what not eating or sleeping can do to energy levels. There aren't perfect parallels in the other dimensions, but the general principle is still there. I know someone who never faces her fears, and her emotional capacity has kept shrinking and shrinking. On the other hand, someone who never renews themself emotionally is probably going to be more irritable, etc. Good self-care is in the balance, and while you don't want to be perpetually focused on yourself, you will be better able to love others if you take care of yourself. Don't be a needless martyr.
I also enjoyed the section on values. Realizing what my most deeply held values are was rather eye-opening. Since, again, we're mortal, it may sound good to try to hold all truths equally, but it doesn't normally work out that way. There are going to be some things you value more highly than others. And to realize you're not living out even your own most deeply held values, let alone God's... well, it's rather humbling. But if you hold those things in your heart every day, keep reviewing them and checking your actions against them... well, you can begin to change for the better. Elementary self-help, I know.
Another powerful tool for change is habits, or what they call in this book "positive rituals." Because we have a limited amount of willpower, it makes sense to work on a limited amount of changes at a time, until they draw us on their own, requiring no willpower. It's very FlyLadyish. Actually, one of the reasons I wanted to read this book is because I'd heard it described as explaining why FlyLady works so well (although of course FlyLady is never mentioned in the book).
And... I think that's all I got. There was more, but those were the big points, as far as I'm concerned.
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes
(The Sandman Volume 1) by Neil Gaiman
Read: 5/18/09
LibraryThing tags: Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Mythology
I can't refresh my memory too much on this one because I already returned it to Joi, but it's not all that hard to remember the main points for review. This introduction to the Sandman series tells of the accidental capture of Dream, aka Morpheus, aka Sandman (well, accidental in the sense that they were trying to capture Dream's sister, Death; not Dream); the horrible results for our world, and the quest that follows after. It's a very structured volume, which I like. I love the mix of mythology and the epic with our contemporary world -- I'm not quite sure why, since stories which begin in our modern world normally bore me; I suppose it's because, like Buffy, there's plenty of fantasy mixed into our world, it's not a story of escape from our doldrums into a parallel world. Yes, come to think of it, it's perfect because it takes mythology which really is awesome in all its resonances and symbolism and whatnot, and frees it from what even C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image admits can be the biggest weakness of medieval and renaissance literature -- "sheer, unabashed, prolonged dullness."
So yes: it's awesome, and I've heard later volumes are better! Squee!
I especially liked this quote, from a scene in which havoc has errupted in the dreamscape: "The quakes and lights send the keepers of the stories scurrying for cover. Their monsters hide with them, under the bed." Tee hee. Okay, maybe it needs context. Meh.
