Queen at 16

Tales of England’s kings and queens are ever full of passion and intrigue, which makes them ideal candidates for film.  While Henry VIII and Elizabeth I may be the flashier monarchs, be sure not to overlook the remarkable Jane Grey.  Who, you ask?  Jane, a 16th century bookish teen who wanted only to devote her life to quiet contemplation, is suddenly thrust into the political game by her ambitious family in a play for power.  Sparks fly when she is married off to a young lord of whom she knows little and likes less.  Lady Jane, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes, is the unforgettable story of England’s Nine Days’ Queen.  Want to know more?  Try the biography Coronation of Glory or the novel Innocent Traitor.

The Weird West

What really led to the shootout at the O.K. Corral? Emma Bull layers Tombstone, Arizona's most famous event with subtle fantasy in Territory, the first of a two book series. Wyatt Earp may or may not be a good man. Doc Holliday is ever the charmer, but could that be because of a bit of genetically endowed magic? Jesse Fox, a horse trainer, is repressing his own unexplainable powers while getting to know Mildred Benjamin, the local widow-journalist-typesetter-extraordinaire. A turf battle between Earp and John Ringo leads to the recruitment of Jesse Fox and the legendary gunfight at 3 p.m. on October 26, 1881.

Austen in a New Light

For those who cannot get enough of Jane Austen, there is no shortage of continuations, modernizations, or general homage to her novels of wit and manner.  What poses a challenge is finding an author who can do justice to the beloved stories but who also brings something new to the reader.  One such success is Joan Aiken, who was writing companions to Austen’s novels long before it was trendy.  In Jane Fairfax: Jane Austen’s Emma Through Another’s Eyes, Aiken chooses a minor character, one who in Emma seems cold and remote, and brings her to life as a complex, sympathetic heroine in her own right.  We're convinced Jane would approve.

Nobel Literature and Booker Prizes Announced

What a week for literature!  Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, a meaty novel set during the reign of Henry VIII, has just been named the winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for 2009.  When the king decides he wants a divorce so he might marry Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell becomes one of his most influential advisors.  Not just for history buffs, Wolf Hall will celebrate its U.S. release on October 13.

Also announced was the winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature.  Herta Müller “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed,” writes of the oppression of dictatorship and the life of the political exile.  The Land of Green Plums and The Appointment are two titles available in English translation. 

Awards, Honors, and Accolades

Looking for a winning story to cap off your summer reading?  Try one of these recently announced honorees:

The Christy Awards, recognizing excellence in several genres of Christian Fiction, presented awards to Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky (Contemporary Romance), Dogwood by Chris Fabry (Contemporary), Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin (Historical), The Rook by Steven James (Suspense), and Vanish by Tom Pawlik (Visionary).

ThrillerFest, hosted by the International Thriller Writers, Inc., named The Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver as the Best Thriller of the Year.  Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 added another in a growing list of honors as Best First Novel.

The Wild West History Association crowned Death of a Gunfighter by Dan Rottenberg the Best Western of 2008.

Last but certainly not least, the Crime Writers’ Association awarded the coveted International Dagger Award to The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas and Sîan Reynolds, their third win in four years!

The Chemistry of Mystery

Take an eleven-year-old aspiring chemist, a bird with a stamp impaled on its beak, and a red-haired stranger gasping his last words in the family cucumber patch, and what do you have?  You have Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a sparkling debut mystery by C. Alan Bradley.  Flavia de Luce loves nothing more than experimenting in her home laboratory, but one early morning she stumbles over a body in the garden.  Her reaction?   “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”  Her father’s arrest for murder is the catalyst for her own investigation, one that is adventurous, unpredictable, and wickedly clever.

Mabel Stark: Tiger Trainer Extraordinaire

A tiger can rip a person into twisted ribbons, and Mabel Stark would know. Mabel was mauled by tigers on fifteen occasions, three of them severely. 175 stitches to save an arm here, face lacerations there, and it was all in the name of becoming the world’s foremost female tiger trainer. She worked in the best circuses and could command near twenty tigers at once to do her bidding. Robert Hough presents the fictional memoir of the very real circus performer in The Final Confession of Mabel Stark. If you were wondering, yes, a five foot-tall woman can wrestle a tiger and win.

Charlie Chaplin During WWI

It is 1916. A thin cloak of glamour veils Hollywood at its seedy, backwater beginnings. So opens Sunnyside by Glen David Gold. Charlie Chaplin is both applauded and abhorred. The world’s leading comedian had to be hated at some point, and popular festering begins with Chaplin not entering World War I as a solider. And the war is seen. Leland Wheeler, son of a lighthouse keeper and the world’s last Wild West star, fights on the frontlines of France. Hugo Black battles the Bolsheviks. Chaplin, well, The Little Tramp fights the studios and feisty women. All the while, Glen David Gold builds a historically detailed world with a razzle dazzle cast including everyone from Douglas Fairbanks to Mary Pickford and even Chaplin’s mother.

The Love of Sundance

You may not have heard of Etta Place.  She is something of a mystery.  A member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch and lover to the Sundance Kid, she has long been a fascinating but undefined character in American history.  Fortunately for us, debut author Gerald Kolpan has imagined just who this woman might have been.  A sweeping historical, Etta: A Novel  features a heroine who reflects the traits most celebrated in the West: strength, determination, independence, and grit.  From the wild spirit evident in her girlhood to the capable woman who would one day be a friend to Eleanor Roosevelt, Etta’s story is one which brings to life the thrilling reality of the West and its possibilities. 

The Novels of Temeraire

Diane of the Fiction/AV/Teen Department recommends the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik:

Naomi Novik's exciting series about intelligent dragons and their human riders has won multiple awards for best new writer.  The series so far consists of His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, and Victory of Eagles.  The Times of London called the Temeraire series, “Patrick O’Brian crossed with Anne McCaffrey: historic, seafaring adventure, with dragons.”

Most days Ms. Novik can be found with her laptop in a cafe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the few places where she can concentrate enough to churn out the 6,000 words that she considers adds up to a productive day.