Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig

Scarlett and Rhett are without a doubt one of the most famous couples in literary (and movie) history.  But what about Rhett's side of the story?  Why isn't he accepted in polite society?  What's the deal with Belle?  How did he avoid fighting in the war?  This novel starts when Rhett is a young boy and gives you his background - how he came to abhor slavery, how he was disowned by his family, how he made his name, how he met Scarlett and courted her.  You learn about his motivation for doing certain things and how different events affected him.  The novel ends after Gone with the Wind so you get a little more of the story after that famous line: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.  

Margaret Mitchell's estate authorized McCaig's novel (unlike the other Gone with the Wind sequel - Scarlett) and I thought the novel blended well with Gone with the Wind.  McCaig understood the original characters well and his new characters fit perfectly - providing good insight and balance.  Overall, this was an entertaining read and I'm glad I finally got around to it.  But if you aren't big on Gone with the Wind, this might not be the book for you.

Read: January 2012 via CD from the library

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I avoided this book for several years!  My mother-in-law lent it to me and Brian recommended it, but I knew it was about vampires (no more Twilight for me, thankyouverymuch) and it was REALLY thick.  In a moment of desperation, I finally picked it up and was instantly hooked.  Three story lines - our narrator's present, her father's past, and his mentor's past - criss-cross through the novel revealing more and more of the history of Dracula, who very well may still be alive.  The book was tense and chilling, but never too gross or scary.  In 600 pages, I only ended up with one bad dream, so that isn't too bad!  It had a few sections of Ottoman/Byzantine history that I skimmed and I didn't love the ending (there were some things that weren't wrapped up neatly enough for me), but overall, this was a very good read and I'm glad I finally picked it up!

Summary from Amazon:

If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.

Read: December 2011 (borrowed from Bette)

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

This was my second Jane Austen novel and it was a little slow at times, but still full of satire and wit.  Mansfield Park is the story of poor Fanny Price who grows up in the shadow of her rich cousins.  In true Austen form, the plot - and the love triangle - twists around several times.  I got a little bit tired of Fanny being overly passive and shy, but overall the novel was worth reading.

Summary from Amazon:

In Mansfield Park, Austen gives us Fanny Price, a poor young woman who has grown up in her wealthy relatives' household without ever being accepted as an equal. The only one who has truly been kind to Fanny is Edmund Bertram, the younger of the family's two sons.  Into this Cinderella existence comes Henry Crawford and his sister, Mary, who are visiting relatives in the neighborhood. Soon Mansfield Park is given over to all kinds of gaiety, including a daring interlude spent dabbling in theatricals. Young Edmund is smitten with Mary, and Henry Crawford woos Fanny. Yet these two charming, gifted, and attractive siblings gradually reveal themselves to be lacking in one essential Austenian quality: principle. Without good principles to temper passion, the results can be disastrous, and indeed, Mansfield Park is rife with adultery, betrayal, social ruin, and ruptured friendships. But this is a comedy, after all, so there is also a requisite happy ending and plenty of Austen's patented gentle satire along the way.

Read: November 2011 (on my iPad)

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (by Gayle Lemmon)

I thought this was a great true story.  When the Taliban take over, a woman in Afghanistan starts a dressmaking business with her sisters in her home in order to support her family.  I enjoyed learning about a different aspect of life in Afghanistan.  The author is a journalist who has covered the region and felt compelled to share this story.

From Amazon:

The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul. After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war—a rare achievement for any Afghan woman—Kamila was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story, and the result is an unusually intimate and unsanitized look at the daily lives of women in Afghanistan. These women are not victims; they are the glue that holds families together; they are the backbone and the heart of their nation. Afghanistan's future remains uncertain as debates over withdrawal timelines dominate the news. 

Read: October 2011

Exile by Richard North Patterson

Oooo, this one is good!  It felt like a throwback to the good old John Grisham books - part tense investigation, part courtroom drama.  

Here's the summary from Barnes & Noble:  

David Wolfe is a successful American lawyer being primed for a run for Congress. But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif--the Palestinian woman with whom he had a secret affair in law school--he begins a completely unexpected journey.

The next day, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber while visiting San Francisco. Soon, Hana is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder. Now David faces an agonizing choice: Will he, a Jew, represent her?

The most challenging case of David's career requires that he delve deep into the lives of Hana and her militant Palestinian husband, all the way back to Israel and the West Bank. There he uncovers the couple's dangerous connections…culminating in an explosive trial where the stakes are Hana's life--and the future of two peoples.

I really enjoyed this one, especially because we just got back from Israel where we studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Part of the story takes place in Israel which was neat to read about.  The book is a long, but I thought it was good to read, especially if you like legal thrillers or have an interest in the Middle East.  

The Philosopher's Apprentice by James Morrow

Oh my.  How to describe this very bizarre book?  This is by far one of the strangest stories ever.  I tried to write a summary but gave up because it was way too complicated - cloning, conscience, abortion, hijacking and murder.  All cloaked in philosophy terms.  Ugh.  For example, these crazy right wing people find a way to use DNA from aborted fetuses, create clones of the would-be children, and send the clones to stalk/harass the would-be parents.  I mean, REALLY?

I read this at the recommendation of my Mimi and I cannot wait to see her to ask WHY on EARTH she liked this book?  It was just so weird!  Don't read it unless you are really desperate.  And even then just don't read it.

Read: September/October 2011

A Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

This is Brian's favorite book.  Or at least one of them.  Written by an Egyptian novelist and set in Cairo during World War I, this novel examines the life of a tyrannical shop merchant, his subservient wife, the exploits of their three sons and two daughters.  The chapters follow each of the family members by turn, giving insight into their thoughts and motivations.  It was really well written and pretty interesting to get a glimpse at Egyptian society during the revolution against the British occupation.  The hard part was adjusting to the names of people and places and trying to remember who was who, especially if I put the book down for more than a few days.  It took me a while to read because I got distracted with other things and it was pretty long!

Read: April - September 2011