Winner of Michelle Moran's New Book - Madame Tussaud!

The winner of Michelle Moran's New Book - randomly drawn this morning was:
#21 - Cindi!
Congratulations!  Thanks to everyone who entered!

The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith

This is the second book I've read by Anne Easter Smith.  I'm enjoying the era that she writes in.  This book centres on Grace Plantaganet, the bastard daughter of Edward of York.  It is right after Henry Tudor has come to the throne.  Grace is brought to ex-queen Elizabeth's care to live with her and her daughters.  The book spans over 10 years and shows how fragile the new Tudor reign was.
I enjoyed this one.  It introduced a character that I had never heard about before.  In fact the author found only one reference to her in her research.  She notes that it gave her a chance to tell the story from a new angle.  Because Grace is a non-important historical figure she gets a lot more artistic license with her.  The other interesting part of the story centres on the mystery of the Princes in the Tower and what may or may not have happened to them. 

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

This is the 6th in the line of Shopaholic Books.  The first one (Confessions of a Shopaholic) made me laugh out loud.  This one had me smile at points but...I guess was hoping Becky would have matured a little.  In a way Becky reminds me a bit of the Rachel character on Friends.  The difference is is that Rachel grew up and evolved as a character as the show went on.  Becky is still the same as she was in the first book. 

The reason I laughed out loud with the first book is simple, it was fresh and funny.  The idea was new.  Now that we are on book 6, it's more of the same.  It's fine for an afternoon of light reading.  It falls into the category of what a friend of mine once described as a "nice, fluffy book".

Incidentally, Sophie Kinsella has set Becky up quite nicely for a book 7.

Kaffe Fassett's Country Garden Quilts

I know this is a different selection for me.  This past summer I purchased my first sewing machine and have been enjoying my creative side through little projects (see my crafty blog Crafty Kris here).  The more interested I have become in sewing, the more I've been reading blogs and sites created by crafters and quilters.  Inevitably, I've come to the conclusion that my next project will be my first real quilt (I did make a baby quilt using a quilting kit in the fall, but this will be one of my own creation).  I know I need to know more about quilting to make it look good.  The name Kaffe Fassett kept coming up over and over again in the fabric circles.  He is a textile artist that creates beautiful fabric.  This book features quilts inspired by his 2008 collection.  The 20 quilts are beautifully photographed in a traditional English garden, complementing each other perfectly.  This was a great book for me to pick up and read.  Each quilt has a description by the artist that designed it.  A number of the quilts were quilted twice in different fabrics.  I really liked this.  It shows how the same design can change depending on the mood of the fabrics.  I don't think I'll attempt any of these at this point, but I like knowing I could.  The patterns are well presented with templates at the back of the book and labeled accordingly to difficulty.  One day I would like to think that I could create one similar to the Economy Blue Patch Quilt (Liza Prior Lucy, designer), but not yet.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

I had great hopes for this book.  It was one of those books that "popped" out at me in the book store.  It seemed to be highly rated and reviewed so I was glad to read it.  It is set during the second world war and focuses on three women, Iris a small town postmistress, Emma a doctor's wife and Frankie a war correspondent.  It was not what I was expecting at all.  It just kept plodding along and plodding along.  There were many parts that I enjoyed and thought were really well done and interesting, but they left me kinda wishing that that was the story, not just part of the story (Will's delivering of Maggie's baby, Frankie's interviewing across Europe...).  It's one of those books where there's more going on than you see on the surface, but unfortunately in this book it translates to okay-ness as opposed to greatness.  I'd recommend this to some people, but it's not for everyone.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

I got this book from the library and was worried knowing I only had it for 3 weeks and I wouldn't be able to re-new it as it is an in demand book.  It's very thick.  I shouldn't have worried, it only took me 3 days to read.  Probably because I couldn't put it down.  I loved it.  I think it is a highly readable tale.  Don't be intimidated by the size of it and the large cast of characters, it's easy to follow.  This is the first of a trilogy that will span the 20th Century.  This one is set in the time before, during and slightly after the first world war.  I have to admit that it had me brushing up on my knowledge of that war. 
One thing I like about Ken Follett's writing is that it is believable.  You would think he had actually been in a Welsh Coal Mine a the beginning of the century.  He absolutely captures it.  In the same way, he also able to capture high society London, lower class St. Petersburg and trench warfare.
He is also the first author whose writing of battle scenes I was able to read properly.  Usually, I can't follow them and skim read those parts.
I made the mistake of looking at the Amazon reviews of this book before writing this post (a classic blogger mistake) .  I was fully expecting to see a lot of 4-5 star reviews of this one.  I was wrong.  Amazon has it rated as a 3 star book.  There aren't many 3 star ratings though, it's almost equally split between 5 star ratings and 1 star ratings.  I think the problem Ken Follett has is that he has already published his masterpiece (Pillars of the Earth).  Once you have published a book that good, that is what people will inevitably compare future works to.  Pillars of the Earth is brilliant, there's no doubt about it.  This book still has brilliant writing in it.  It's just a different book.  You have to go into it realizing that.  It's a completely different era, completely different cast, completely different story.  It's still very good.  I look forward to the next 2 books in this trilogy. 

Guest Post by Michelle Moran, author of the upcoming book: Madame Tussaud!

I'm very excited to have Michelle Moran guest post for Bookworm Kristen!  The following tells of her new book, Madame Tussaud, due out on February 15th.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a copy of this fabulous new book!  You can enter here.

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MADAME TUSSAUD: The Woman

When most people hear the name Madame Tussaud, the first thing that comes to mind are the eerily lifelike waxworks which crowd her museums throughout the world. But who was the woman behind the name, and what was she like in the flesh?

Madame Tussaud’s story actually began in 18^th century Paris. While most people know her from her famous museum in London, it was in France, on the humble Boulevard du Temple, where Marie first got her start as an apprentice in her uncle’s wax museum, the Salon de Cire. At the time, the Boulevard du Temple was crowded with exhibits of every kind. For just a few sous a passerby might attend the opera, watch a puppet show, or visit Henri Charles’ mystifying exhibition The Invisible Girl. The Boulevard was a difficult place to distinguish yourself as an artist, but as Marie’s talent grew for both sculpting and public relations, the Salon de Cire became one of the most popular attractions around. Suddenly, no one could compete with Marie or her uncle for ingenious publicity stunts, and when the royal family supposedly visited their museum, this only solidified what most showmen in Paris already knew — the Salon was an exhibition to watch out for.

But as the Salon’s popularity grew, so did the unusual requests. Noblemen came asking for wax sculptures of their mistresses, women wanted models of their newborn infants, and – most importantly – the king’s sister herself wanted Marie to come to Versailles to be her wax tutor. While this was, in many ways, a dream come true for Marie, it was also a dangerous time to be associated with the royal family. Men like Robespierre, Marat, and Desmoulins were meeting at Marie’s house to discuss the future of the monarchy, and when the Revolution began, Marie found herself in a precarious position. Ultimately, she was given a choice by France’s new leaders: to preserve the famous victims of Madame Guillotine in wax, or be guillotined herself.

Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution is the story of Marie’s life during one of the most tumultuous times in human history. Her survival was nothing less than astonishing, and how she survived makes for what I hope is a compelling read.

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