Melbourne Writers Festival: Enquire Within (Friday)

This weekend was the start of one of my favourite times in Melbourne. Melbourne Writers Festival officially started on Thursday night and continues until next weekend and, for book lovers, there is plenty to see and do.

One year I will go to the keynote addresses, which this year were Boris Johnson and Tavi Gevenson, and I will consider doing some of the Melbourne walks or even some of the workshops, but for this year my focus is on attending some of the fantastic sessions that are available to festival goers (it was unintentional that there were so many authors named Sarah in my choices). I am going to seven sessions, with most of those being this weekend. Today I will tell you about the sessions I attended on Friday and then at some point in the next week I will post about my sessions on Saturday, today and next weekend.

My first session of this year's festival was located at the auditorium at the National Gallery of Victoria Art Galley (NGV) and it was a perfect venue to host Sarah Dunant, author of books like The Birth of Venus and her latest book Blood and Bloody, and Carl Villis, paintings conservator at the NGV talking about Lucrezia Borgia and Italian Art.

The session started with Sarah Dunant talking about Lucrezia Borgia, about how the Borgia name has been slandered through history and how if you look past the gossip at what evidence there truly is about her life, you will see a picture of a very different woman than that we usually equate with her name. As part of her talk she showed a picture of a very young Lucrezia Borgia which until recently was thought to be the only known image of her in a painting.

Dunant talked us through how she first became interested in writing about Lucrezia Borgia. Her first three novels, during which she wanted to answer the question of what it would have been like to be woman in the Renaissance, had taken her on a journey from Florence (The Birth of Venus) to Venice (In the Company of the Courtesan) and then to Ferrara. It was at this point that I realised that I had completely missed reading her novel Sacred Hearts. Whilst researching in Ferrara, she came across a tomb slab dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia and praising her piety. Knowing that the woman had ended her life in a convent and was generally considered by her contemporaries (not her enemies) to be both beautiful and pious, how was it that her name is synonymous with poison, murder and incest 500 years later.

In giving us some background to the Borgia family, Dunant explained part of the reason for the level of vitriol against the Borgia family is that they were outsiders, a Spanish family that was trying to infiltrate a world that is dominated by powerful Italian clans. When Rodrigo Borgia was made pope, he was ambitious, determined and had four marriageable children which he was happy to use to build alliances with these families, including 12 year old Lucrezia who is married into the Sforza family. It is when that alliance is no longer necessary and the pope needs to marry Lucrezia into another family that the incest story starts after an annulment is granted on the grounds of impotence, something that the husband vehemently denies. A comment made by a man scorned soon wings it's ways all through the courts of Europe and it takes very little time for the story of Lucrezia being a whore and in incestuous relationships with her father and brother makes it into common usage. Mud sticks.

Sarah Dunant

A second marriage follows, once again for political reasons,  in which Lucrezia gives every appearance of being happy, but once again political alliances shift and her family wants Lucrezia to be married elsewhere, but she fights it. Given that she will not give up the marriage, her husband is murdered, leaving the still young woman to marry again, this time into the court at Ferrara.

Lest it sounds as though Dunant is a Borgia fan through and through, she does make it clear that there is no doubt that Rodrigo is an unashamed womaniser, comparing him to former Italian prime minister Sylvio Berlusconi during the question and answer section of the presentation, and that Cesare was pretty much a sociopath, but that the evidence just doesn't add up to support Lucrezia's vile reputation.

The second part of the session was focused on a painting that is housed at the NGV (click on the link to see the painting) which was for many years the subject of much speculation around who painted it, when it was painted and who the sitter was including whether they were female or male After many years of painstaking research and analysis, Carl Villis has been able to identify exactly who the painter was, and more importantly for the purposes of this talk, that the sitter was in fact Lucrezia Borgia.

Villis talked us through the evidence that he has found to suggest that the painting was done by Dossi Dossi, court painter only at the court of Ferrara during the years that Lucrezia was Duchess, including the type of preparation he used on the canvas, and the shape of the painting which is very unusual for that time in art history. In addition, there were the clues in the painting itself - the hairstyle which identifies the sitter as female, the dagger which seems to be representative of the Roman story of Lucrezia, the myrtle bushes in the background which are symbolic of virtue and beauty as well as the inscription on the painting.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Villis' talk was when he talked about the facial recognition technology that was undertaken by Victoria Police to compare the painting to a bronze medal which was cast for her second wedding. By comparing various points in the faces on the painting and the medal, the evidence confirmed that there was a very high probability that the two faces were portraying the same person. Fascinating, fascinating stuff! Whilst I wouldn't normally buy a non fiction book on the identification of a painting, the presentation was so interesting I will most likely be keeping an eye out for Carl Villis' book on this painting when it comes out.

During the question and answer section that followed, there were correlations made between the bad PR or spin that the Borgias received and the idea of modern celebrity where we love someone until we don't any more and how it is difficult to rehabilitate a personality once the mud slinging starts, about the Borgias TV series (which Dunant isn't a fan of), about how authors have to make a psychological decision on a character based on the evidence they have available and more. I seriously could have listened to these two speak for another hour quite easily and there was so much more content in what they did say that I haven't even touched on yet in this post!

Of course, after hearing this absolutely fascinating talk I had to go and look at the painting for myself, housed in a part of the gallery that I didn't previously know existed even though I have visited the building many times before.

Sarah Wendell

The next session I attended was Digital Women, which featured Jane Caro and Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Whilst this was a very different topic from the session I have recounted above, it was again very interesting, focusing on the power of digital women specifically as it relates to women and how it gives women a voice.

Part of the reason that the digital world is so empowering for women in particular is that it removes the gatekeepers that are still present in many traditional media environments whereas digitally women, and other outsiders, can directly access, participate and influence the conversation. Jane Caro gave examples of appearing on panel discussions where there are so often a token woman, but very unusual to have more than one. Statistics reveal that once there is more than about 30% women representation then the males begin to feel quite nervous.

Sarah Wendell was able to talk about the idea of shaming by relating it to the offline experience of many romance readers who are told that they shouldn't read romance, that there is something to be ashamed off or hidden, mainly because it relates to emotions, relationships and, yes, sex. What the online experience for romance readers, who have long been early adopters of social media tools, is that once a voice and community becomes strong is that shame is able to bounce back, not least of which is because the individual reader is no longer alone, and they know this. She also talked about how, for people outside of the romance community, writing the two books that provide commentary on romance gave the Smart Bitches more legitimacy but to those within the community they were just an added bonus.

It was interesting to hear of examples of when social media shows the force it has become. Jane Caro has recently compiled a book called Destroying the Joint which came about from the furore late last year when a radio shock jock here basically said that putting women into positions of power in Australia was basically "destroying the joint". The backlash on social media was pretty much immediate and led to boycotting of the advertisers on the radio program. It was also a time which proved that when both men and women talk about something being unacceptable then it is enormously powerful.

Jane Caro

The conversation then moved onto the power of social media to reach other people with a common interest and often that can be quite subversive. As an example the panel talked about the It Gets Better Youtube campaign that reached out to young gay people who were feeling suicidal about being outsiders. Because the message was on social media and so could be received without being filtered through school teachers or parents who might have made their own moral judgements against homosexuality and therefore blocked that kind of emotional reinforcement that the young person required.

During the question and answer section of the session topics that were touched on included things like how to make money in the digital world as well as the more negative aspects of being active online, including the dramas which envelop different parts of the blogosphere on a semi regular basis. In response, Jane Caro talked about the fact that whether it be online or not, people don't often attack those that have more power than themselves, it is usually people who are their equals or lessers who they feel threatened by and therefore need to attack. In order to stop the dramas,  people need to feel more confident within themselves so that they are not threatened. One thing that I found interesting was that both Jane and Sarah talked about the need to engage with people who have different opinions (not trolls who shouldn't be engaged with) but not because you are necessarily trying to change the other person's mind but mainly because other people will be watching and listening who could benefit or be influenced. We should also remember that women are not an amorphous lump with only one thing to say, but many individual voices.

Stay tune for my recap of Saturday's session which includes more from Sarah Dunant, another Sarah (this time Sarah Turnbull) and more.


Currently Reading:

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

Up Next

The Garden of Happy Endings by Barbara O'Neal

What I Wish I Had Time to Read Next

Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant

Bookish Quotes: From The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal

Barbara O'Neal is rapidly becoming a must read author for me. I love the combination of her voice and her stories, of the way she includes books and food in particular in her stories among other things.

For today's Bookish Quote I thought I would share a couple of passages from a book I read a while ago now, The Lost Recipe for Happiness.

This first section is from pages 48-49 of The Lost Recipe for Happiness

Elena, the little girl born on a windy moonless night, was left a lot to her own devices. Donna was a party girl who left Elena with her own mother, Iris. All three lived in a little apartment nearby the roadhouse where Iris worked, and Elena had her own bedroom overlooking the river. Mexico was there on the other side, looking much the same as America. But it was different. Everyone said so.

She went to school with migrant workers and played jacks with the children of soldiers and learned that she was very smart. Every year, she was the smartest girl in the class, and there was one reason why - they lived right around the corner from a library.

Elena's grandmother Iris loved reading, especially big sagas by the likes of Sidney Sheldon, and historicals and gothics by the thousands - Victoria Hold and Mary Steward and Norah Lofts. It was her escape. She didn't drink and she didn't like people very much and thought television was idiotic, so she would sit on the porch and smoke cigarettes and read novels. To this day, when Elena heard someone cough in that rattly, heavy-smoker way, she had a flash of Iris reading, her breasts spilling over her ribs and down her sides beneath a housedress, a light shining over her shoulder, smoke rising in a blue cloud around her.

The pair of them went to the library every week to check out books. By the time she was seven, Elena could read chapter books, and she read them by the zillions.

and from page 50, after her grandmother had died and her mother had left her with her other grandmother:

All she had with her were the clothes she'd worn, a pair of extra underwear, and a Victoria Holt book her grandmother had been reading when she died, The Mistress of Mellyn, which Elena was ashamed to have stolen from the library.

and finally from page 51

Every night, Elena curled around the book and buried her face in a blanket and cried silently. It was like she had a whole in her heart, or maybe even worse, like there was a hole in her chest where everything she loved had been cut out. She couldn't breathe with it.

I am really looking forward to reading Barbara O'Neal's next book which is about a group of food bloggers apparently.

Library Loot: 21 to 27 August

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

A bumper haul this week with a mix of books and DVDs.

Here's what I got:

 Dark Knight Rising Trilogy - This is actually for the boy, although I did sit down and watch the first movie with him.

Entwined with You by Sylvia Day - The next Cross Fire book

Chased by Lauren Dane - The next Chase book

Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters - Following Elizabeth Peters recent death, I realised that I haven't read an Amelia Peabody book for years, an oversight that I need to rectify.

Downton Abbey season 3 - I had a bit of an issue because two TV series came in at the same time which meant a lot of TV viewing for me in addition to the stuff I had to watch already. I managed to watch this series over the weekend (and cried for most of the time!).

The Newsroom season 1 - I have heard so many good things about this series. I think I am going to have to reborrow it though as there is no way I am going to have time to watch any of it this weekend.

The Sigh by Marjane Sartrapi - I recently watched the movie adaptation of Chicken with Plums. My library doesn't have that graphic novel but they did have this one.

The Illusion of Separateness by Simon van Booy - I really liked Simon van Booy's previous book so I was eager to read his new one now that it is out!

What loot did you get this week? Add your link to Mr Linky below

Weekend Cooking: Chicken with Plums

This week I discovered the World Movies channel on our version of cable. I probably shouldn't quite put it like that. I mean, it isn't like I am the first person ever to find it. More the discovery was that when I take a little time to look closely at the schedule I find numerous movies that I think I might like to watch!

Perhaps unsurprisingly a number of them had food type connections and several of them are French. I therefore thought I might start an irregular and possibly infrequent series of posts about some of these movies. It could be even more irregular than I anticipate because my ability to watch these movies that I have recorded is somewhat impeded by the fact that I would need to actually be in charge of the TV for long enough to watch the movies but we will see how we go!

The first movie that I am going to focus on is the French movie Chicken with Plums. The movie is based on Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. Whilst I read and loved her Persepolis graphic novels I had never read this book, and in fact it was only as I got part way through the movie that I realised that this movie was based on a book, let alone a graphic novel. In addition to writing the book, Satrapi was one of the directors.

Here is the trailer for the movie



Nasser Ali is a world famous violinist. He travelled the world for many years before returning to his home in Tehran, marrying and having children.. He is a somewhat morose character, as evidenced by the fact that when his beloved violin is broken and he can't find another to replace it, he simply decides that he wants to die.

Over the course of the next few days we get to know Nasser's life story as narrated by Azrael, the angel of death. From his childhood to his true love, his marriage, the lives of his children (including glimpses of their future lives), his relationship with his family and so much more.

I mentioned before that this movie was based on a graphic novel. This is a live action movie (with one short animated section) but you can definitely see the graphic novel influence. The setting is Iran prior to the revolution, but it is mostly a picture book rendering of the city of Tehran and the countryside. The action varies from over the top humour to deep poignancy, with perhaps some magical realism thrown in. It is a compelling mix as you don't necessarily know what is going to come next. And yet as a whole, the movie feels cohesive.

The final 20 minutes of the movie is an amazing montage of Ali Nasser's life over the last 20 years. Whilst it repeats some of what we already know from the film, these are often displayed from different perspectives and there are other revelations too. Visually it a gorgeous feast for the eyes and I ended up watching that section of the movie several times because it was just so beautiful, so touching, so well done. In fact, I might have to go and watch that last 20 minutes again right now.

While the whole movie is worth watching, I would strongly encourage people to try it out just so that they can get to that last 20 minutes too, and probably watch it multiple times like I have!

Of course, given that this is a Weekend Cooking post, I do feel as though I need to tie it back to food. The title of the story is a reference is a fact that Nasser Ali's favourite dish is Chicken with Plums. Whilst Nasser and his wife are pretty much in an unhappy marriage, she tries to snap him out of his depressed funk and to show that she does care by cooking his favourite dish. It did have me wondering what kind of dish it is. Obviously, without the author confirming which dish it is precisely we won't necessarily know, but I did find this video which I thought was interesting and the dish looks quite tasty too.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Library Loot: August 14 to 20

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I had a couple of questions in the comments of a previous Library Loot so I thought I would take the opportunity to post the answers in a post in case anyone else was wondering the same thing.

When should you post your Library Loot post?

Whenever you like. Claire and I generally post on Wednesdays so that we are consistent in when the Mr Linky is put up, but you don't have to post on that day. Any day is fine.

Do you need to include the Library Loot blurb?

No, we do so that hopefully there are clear instructions, but you can just post the badge. We would like it if you linked back to either one of us so that people know where to find us as hosts, but that's it really.

Other than feel free to post as little or as much as you like about your loot! The only thing we ask is that you have fun sharing the loot that you got!

If anyone has any other question just ask in the questions and I will post a response to them in future weeks.

Claire has Mr Linky this week so head over to her blog to share your loot link. Here's what I borrowed this week

All Good Things by Sarah Turnbull  - I recently read Almost French by Sarah Turnbull so I am eager to find out how life is treating Sarah and Fred. I gather from the blurb that they aren't living in Paris anymore. This author is also coming to Melbourne Writers Festival and I have bought tickets to that session.

Lilla's Feast by Frances Osborne - I saw this mentioned on Kate Forsyth's blog and thought it sounded like my kind of read.

Departures by Bernard Fanning - Bernard Fanning was the lead singer of Australian band Powderfinger before they split up. His first solo album is one that I love to listen to on a regular basis. This is his second solo album. I thought I would share one of the songs off the album in this post.

Fables, Vol 10: The Good Prince by Bill Willingham

Before I get started on this review, I will mention that this is volume 10 in the Fables series. I am pretty sure I have managed to keep it spoiler free but at 10 books in, there may well be something that slipped through so


**************SPOILER WARNING**************

I am so glad that this collection was pretty much all about the Flycatcher. The overall story did move forward and there were some other interludes but mostly this was the story of Fly's transformation from secondary character, and in some ways comedic relief, to a character with a full and fulfilling storyline - a transformation which was enabled by the fact that we learnt his back story in the 1001 Nights collection which I read a couple of months ago.

With Sir Lancelot's help, the Flycatcher is transformed from humble janitor to gallant prince and he goes off in search of his people. His search takes him away from Fabletown down into the Well where most fables are banished to as punishment or when they die. Using a special magic, he is able to give the ghosts new forms which will stay in place unless they get too far away from him. Fly, or perhaps I should call him Prince Ambrose now, leads his new followers across the desert at great risk to himself, until he gets back to his own homeland, which will henceforth be known as Haven.

As the book progresses, we see that the development and strengthening of Haven is part of a grander plan which enables the forces of the dreaded Adversary to be weakened in anticipation of a future battle. There was one particular aspect of this weakening that I liked - the fate of the wooden soldiers.

I found the revival of characters that were previous gone as ... interesting. As soon as two of them were introduced my reaction was uh-oh, with good cause, and I can't help but think that these two will still manage to cause some havoc in future episodes. There were other more welcome returns as well.

In terms of the total storyline arc for the series, this felt like quite a transitional book, once again getting all the pieces lined up for when the main battle finally happens. I do hope that is soon because this build up has been happening for quite some time now. I also wonder what happens when the Adversary is defeated once and for all. Will there be another big build up to conflict against another enemy or will the focus change? This issue did also introduce, or reinforce, questions that will need to be answered over the coming issues. Questions like exactly what is Frau Totenkinder up to. I guess I will just have to keep reading to find out.

In terms of the other stories in this collection while I loved the small story that revolved around Snow and Bigby (sigh!) and their brood of kids, the illustrations on that one threw me for a bit, particularly in the portrayal of Snow. She didn't look anything like she has looked in previous stories. I know that one of the strengths of the series is that there are so many artists involved and therefore there will be differences at times, but to be so totally different was a bit disconcerting.

I have just requested the next Fables book via interlibrary loan. I wish that my own library had them, but I think I can still read the whole series from other library systems so it is all good.

Rating 4

Synopsis

Collecting issues #60-69 of the hit series, collecting the epochal "Good Prince" storyline. Flycatcher is drawn into the spotlight as he discovers the startling truth about his own past as the Frog Prince. At the same time, he learns that the Adversary plans to destroy his foes once and for all. How can the meek Flycatcher stop this deadly foe?

Other contributors to this volume include Steve Leialoha, Aaron Alexovich and Andrew Pepoy.

The Tudor Secret/The Tudor Conspiracy by C W Gortner (The Spymaster Chronicles)

I have long been a fan of C W Gortner, not only because of how much I enjoy his books, but also because of the gracious way in which he interacts with his readers. I really enjoy the way that he has previously focused on not necessarily unknown characters but rather lesser known characters from European history like Juana, queen of Spain (sister to Catherine of Aragon), or Catherine de Medici. Right from when I first read him I have enjoyed his voice and his portrayal of powerful, flawed women.

Both The Tudor Secret and the sequel The Tudor Conspiracy bring something new to Gortner's established readers. This time his canvas is the Tudor court of England, a picture that has been painted many times before. Rather than straight historical fiction this is mystery, and his main protagonist is a male character although there are plenty of female characters in the mix, including Queen Mary and Princess Mary.

Whilst this post is ostensibly a review of The Tudor Conspiracy, I do want to talk briefly about The Tudor Secret, which is the first book in the series. Because I have to read a series in order, I made sure to read The Tudor Secret first but I am unlikely to write a whole post so I just wanted to touch on a couple of things before moving onto the second book. I will also try to avoid spoilers for the first book as much as I can.

The Tudor Secret was originally self published nearly a decade ago.The author has polished it up ready to be republished by a major publisher but, as someone who has read most of his books, I can definitely see improvements in his writing in his later books and particularly in relation to the second book in this series.

Whilst I didn't not like The Tudor Secret, there wasn't a lot that stood out for me. I have mentioned before that I often feel Tudored out and so when I do read something with a Tudor setting I want it to stand out. The Tudor Secret wasn't really that book for me. It was a good read, it introduced an interesting enough character, played with a question of identity in a way I have kind of seen before and we saw all the familiar players like Princess Elizabeth, Robert Dudley and wily Lord Cecil as well as some secondary characters like Peregrine the stable boy who quickly attaches himself to Brendan.

By way of introduction, Brendan Prescott was a foundling who was abandoned as a baby. He was entered into the Dudley household where the boy was educated to quite a high level, mainly because of his own curiosity and determination. He is called to court to perform the duties of Robert Dudley's squire and quicker than he could say "will that be all my lord?" he is drawn into a world of spies and subterfuge, and into questions like who will rule the realm should sickly King Edward die. With the Dudley's scheming to get Lady Jane Grey to be the next ruler and Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth being kept waiting in the wings things are going to get very touchy in the Tudor court. And we haven't even talked yet about Brendan's search for his true identity!

Earlier in this post I said that if I am going to read a Tudor set book then I want something that stands out. Where the first book in the series fell a little flat to me, the second book, The Tudor Conspiracy most definitely did not.

After the events of the last book, Brendan has been living a quiet life in the country. When Lord Cecil calls for him to return to the court to help protect Princess Elizabeth, he doesn't hesitate for too long before agreeing to go undercover. His challenge is to infiltrate the court of Queen Mary and the employ of the powerful Spanish envoy who is exerting a great deal of power over her. The rumours are flying thick and fast that Mary plans to marry Philip of Spain, a prospect that scares the general populace as this will most likely mean that England will be expected to return to the Catholic Church and religious intolerance will spread even more. The possible marriage could also have dire implications for Princess Elizabeth who continues to defy Mary on multiple fronts, most especially to do with religion, and is thus incurring her wrath. Brendan must work to find out if Elizabeth is in imminent danger and protect her as best he can. In the meantime he must also be seen to work for the queen in proving that Elizabeth, Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon and perhaps others including Robert Dudley are involved in a conspiracy to bring Elizabeth to the throne. Gortner brings the conspiracy that leads to the eventual Wyatt rebellion to life with historically known details and imagination combining perfectly.

For Brendan, it proves very difficult to juggle two identities and to be serving different masters who all have different, competing agendas, and that is before we add the fact that he is still trying to determine exactly who he truly is as well!

There were two aspects of this book that felt more assured to me. Firstly, there was the writing and secondly the characterisation. While reading The Tudor Conspiracy I felt completely engaged in the action whether it be when Brendan finds himself trying to escape from deadly situations or feels that he is being watched as he crosses over the crowded London Bridge, I was there with him willing him to beat his opponents, gasping as he comes within a swords slash of being maimed or murdered, feeling his fear as he tangles with the scarred man who works for the Earl of Devon, Mr Scarsgill, grieving as he loses somebody close to him (I could not believe that the author killed off that character!) and screwing up my nose so that I can't smell yet another set of clothes that he has ruined! He is very hard on his clothes!

I think that the thing that impressed me most about the main character of Brendan Prescott in this book is the author has made him so human. Gortner is not afraid to have Prescott show his fears (which include water, confined spaces and more), his fallibility or his emotions, even as he continues to place the character in dangerous situations. There are things that Brendan did in this book that should not be glossed over easily, and they aren't, but the author has taken the time to make sure that the reader sees clearly Brendan's own thought processes and, in some cases, guilt as he works through the mystery that he is wrapped up in and tries determine who exactly is trustworthy in the pit of vipers that is the court of Queen Mary.

There are crosses and double crosses, murders, conspiracies, distrust and enmity between family members, secret identities and oh, so much more. Gortner manages to keep all of the various plot points deftly in hand, providing the reader with a heart in mouth reading experience as you try and race through to the end of the book just to see what happens next!

I liked that in the authors note, it is clearly spelled out what where history and imagination crossed paths, and I was glad to see that there will be more adventures featuring Brendan Prescott in future. There are surely many more adventures that await him in the complicated worlds of Queen Mary initially, and later with Queen Elizabeth. I am very much looking forward to reading them.

Ratings:

The Tudor Secret 3.5/5
The Tudor Conspiracy 4.5/5

Tour Details

Link to Tour Schedule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/thetudorconspiracyvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #TudorConspiracyTour
CW Gortner's website.
CW Gortner on Facebook
CW Gortner on Twitter.

About the book

Hunted by a shadowy foe in Bloody Mary’s court, Brendan Prescott plunges into London’s treacherous underworld to unravel a dark conspiracy that could make Elizabeth queen—or send her to her death in C.W. Gortner's The Tudor Conspiracy

England, 1553: Harsh winter encroaches upon the realm. Mary Tudor has become queen to popular acclaim and her enemies are imprisoned in the Tower. But when she’s betrothed to Philip, Catholic prince of Spain, putting her Protestant subjects in peril, rumors of a plot to depose her swirl around the one person whom many consider to be England’s heir and only hope—the queen’s half-sister, Princess Elizabeth.

Haunted by his past, Brendan Prescott lives far from the intrigues of court. But his time of refuge comes to an end when his foe and mentor, the spymaster Cecil, brings him disquieting news that sends him on a dangerous mission. Elizabeth is held captive at court, the target of the Spanish ambassador, who seeks her demise. Obliged to return to the palace where he almost lost his life, Brendan finds himself working as a double-agent for Queen Mary herself, who orders Brendan to secure proof that will be his cherished Elizabeth’s undoing.

Plunged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a mysterious opponent who hides a terrifying secret, Brendan races against time to retrieve a cache of the princess’s private letters, even as he begins to realize that in this dark world of betrayal and deceit, where power is supreme and sister can turn against sister, nothing—and no one—is what it seems.

Remembering Elizabeth Peters

Image from author's website

I was saddened this week to hear of the passing of author Barbara Mertz who also wrote as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels.

My introduction to the fertile imagination of Ms Mertz was through the Amelia Peabody series of books (written under the name Elizabeth Peters) which featured a feisty Victorian female archaeologist who spent most summers in Egypt ably assisting her very gruff husband Walter Emerson and trying to keep track of her son Ramses. Given that dead bodies turned up nearby with alarming regularity, Amelia also spent time investigating crimes and trying to outwit her nemesis always armed with her trusty parasol which was loaded with every conceivable weapon.

I loved that her books were so full of archaeological detail but were also balanced with a great sense of fun and, yes, a good splash of romance and implied sexiness. There was nothing overt in the way that the scenes were described by the author could quite easily get me to swoon over Emerson initially and then even more so over Ramses.

While I love the series as a whole, there was a four book story arc that started in Seeing a Large Cat and finished with He Shall Thunder in the Sky which is one of my favourite section of the series- just so fabulous to read.

While Amelia Peabody was the star of the longest running series by Peters, it was not the only one of her series that I have read. I did also read the Vicky Bliss series featuring an art historian, a gentleman thief and a whole heap of adventures around many famous cities. I know that for some people Vicky eclipses Amelia as their favourite Peters heroine but for me, Amelia is still tops. I wasn't as enamoured by the last book in the series either which is unfortunate. I haven't yet read the Jacqueline Bliss books, which from memory are harder to get hold of through my library system, which is kind of ironic given that the main character is a librarian who turns into a romance novelist. I did notice that early books in these two series seem to have been rereleased in the last couple of days, which means that their rerelease coincides with the date of her death.

I am sure that the fact that her female characters are so adventurous, so feisty and so intelligent reflects something of her own characteristics, especially when you have a look at her own life experiences. She was an Egyptologist who had published non fiction works on the subject, she wrote a number of books about other topics and I suspect she must have had a wicked sense of humour in real life. Her books were certainly funny.

In a way, I feel like a bit of a fraud writing a post about having enjoyed her writing so much.  I knew that it had been a while since I read an Amelia book, and that I still had more of the series to read, but I was totally shocked when I looked back on my spreadsheet and realised that I hadn't read any of the Amelia Peabody books for more than 4 years, which is an awfully long time. How does that even happen? This is a series I thoroughly enjoy with characters I love and so much more to read and yet the series seems to have fallen off my radar a little bit. I will definitely be rectifying this as soon as I can.

In closing, I would say thank you Barbara Mertz for using your wonderfully fertile imagination to bring your characters to life, for making your readers feel as they were there with you whether it be in the deserts of Egypt or the streets of Rome or anywhere else and for making us laugh and care.

It only seems fitting to give Elizabeth Peters the final words. Here she talks about Amelia and cats and more:


Currently Reading

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, The Tudor Conspiracy by C W Gortner and listening to A Song of Fire and Ice by George R R Martin

Up Next

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Weekend Cooking: Rhubarb Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was at the supermarket doing my general shop when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was rhubarb for sale.  Given that it is not in the shops very often I do notice it when it is there, but on that occasion I passed on by because I don't often make desserts when it is just the two of us.

Fast forward a week, I impulsively invited a friend around for dinner, and that gave me the excuse I needed to do something rhubarby (even though I know full well he isn't a dessert kind of person). However, I didn't want to make crumble or pie so I went searching for a recipe for a rhubarb cake, and I have to say this one was a winner, and the other people who ate it agreed too. The good thing was this was good served either slightly warmed up with custard or cream and also cold!  Gotta love a versatile dish!

Speaking of versatile, I found this recipe over at Taste.com.au and in the comments people mentioned using the base recipe but substituting the rhubarb with other types of fruit including apples and blackberries among others. I am thinking of trying it with blueberries at some point.

Rhubarb Cake

60g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (300g) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
300g carton sour cream
350g trimmed rhubarb, cut into 2cm lengths
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar, extra
1 tsp cinnamon, extra
Custard or cream, to serve


Preheat oven to 160°C. Lightly grease a 24cm springform pan. Line base and sides with paper, extending paper 3cm above top of pan.

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and zest with an electric mixer until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted dry ingredients and cream in two batches. Fold in rhubarb. Spread mixture into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with combined extra sugar and cinnamon.

Cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cover top with foil if sugar starts to over brown.

Remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack. Cake is delicious served warm or cold with custard or cream.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Bookish Quotes: A visit to Charing Cross Road

A few weeks ago now I posted my review of Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole. I had saved this quote which I intended to post but I am only just getting around to doing so now.

To set the background, Elspeth is a poet who lives on the isle of Skye, and is visiting London for the first time and she is writing a letter to her friend Davey. The year is 1915

I went out shopping today. Davey, why didn't you tell me about all of the books? While out walking, I turned a corner and was confronted with a street packed full of bookshops. You may laugh, but even if I were to have let my imagination run loose, I never would've conjured up an image of an entire store filled with nothing but books. I'm afraid I looked quite the "country yokel," standing in the doorway of the first establishment I entered, staring around me goggle-eyed at the shelves upon shelves. It was Foyles, so of course it was some time before I reemerged, blinking, into the sunlight. I swear I became lost a dozen times. The rest of the day I traipsed from one end of Charing Cross Road to the other, ducking into every single bookshop I passed, and not leaving without buying at least one thing. I became quite adept at saying, in an offhand sort of way, "Send this to the Langham," and then was flabbergasted at the stacks of parcels awaiting me at the hotel that evening.

I puzzled over what to get for you, Davey, my dear, as I know that you have only a limited amount of room in your kit bag. All a person really needs to get them through the vagaries of life are the Bible and W.S (both of them). I guessed you already had a Bible, so I'm sending you Scott's Lady of the Lake and the most compact edition of Shakespeare's works I could find. And a little sliver of room left in the package which I've filled with Dryden. After all, "words are but pictures of our thoughts."

The funniest thing - I was greeted in one bookstore by a display of my own books. I must've looked amused as I picked up a copy of Waves to Peinchorran, as a salesclerk hurried up to me. "Twee little verse," she said, quite seriously. "The author lives up in the Highlands of Scotland. You get a lovely sense of their superstitions and almost primitive lifestyle." I nodded sagely, then took the book to the counter and signed the fly leaf with a very distinct "Elspeth Dunn." I handed the book back to the astonished salesclerk and said, with what I hoped was an airy tone, "We're regular savages but don't always eat our own young."

Library Loot: August 7 to 13

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Our library currently is running a survey to ask what we like and don't like about the service. Most of the time I am pretty happy with the service we get. We have a wide range of books, CDs, audiobooks, now ebooks and lots more. They generally are happy to buy books if they don't already have them or get rarer books from other library systems through interlibrary load.

The questionnaire did have me wondering though what would I change. In an ideal world I would like my branch to be open late more than once a week, I would like the audiobook and ebook collections to be more seamlessly integrated into the library catalogue as currently you can't see due dates for these items on your account summary in the same way that you can for other items. There were a few other things that were mentioned along the way.

How about you? How would you change your library service?

Here's what I got from my pretty good library service this week:

Persuasion (DVD) - I recently read Persuasion by Jane Austen so I thought I would watch an adaptation of it. I was hoping for a different version, but this is the one that the library has so this will have to do.

Kitty's War by Janet Butler - I started reading this a few weeks ago and then realised that I was going to have to return it.

Between the Lines by Tammara Webber - Reloot!

With All My Love by Patricia Scanlan - Another reloot!

Dreaming Out Loud by One Republic - I quite like the new One Republic song so I thought I would see what the library has in the way of their music. They only have this album which seems as good a place to start as any.

Share your loot by adding your link to Mr Linky below:

Weekend Cooking: Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto

A couple of months ago I decide to borrow a cookbook from the library which, according to the cover, showcased the best of Bill Granger's recipes. It was only once I started looking for an online version of one of the recipes that I realised that there had been a bit of drama around the release of this cookbook and that it was basically repackaging recipes from existing cookbooks and putting them out in this new book. There was a big court case about it all. In short ...  lots of drama.

What having this book out from the library did do is encourage me to get the two Bill Granger cookbooks that I do already own off of the dusty bookshelf and take a look through them. There were a number of recipes that I had marked in the best of collection as recipes I might try, but it was only once I took the time to look at the recipes closely that I realised that I already had that recipe in one of my existing cookbooks.

Since that time I have tried a couple of the recipes.  Previous to this rediscovery the only recipe I had cooked of Bill's was for his Choc Banana Bread, but over the last couple of months I have tried White Bean and Chorizo Soup, his chocolate brownie recipe, scones and just last week a recipe for Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan Risotto which I am sharing today.

There are also a number of other recipes that I found both in the library book and the books that I already own including a Chorizo, Potato and Red Capsicum Frittata, Beef and Asian Greens stir fry and Herbed Chicken Schnitzel! Have to love it when the recipes are for food that sound tasty and achievable!

I think I am going to have to borrow some more of Bill's books from the library to see what else I can find to cook!

Baked risotto with zucchini, tomato and parmesan


Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
180 g (1 cup) arborio rice
375 ml (11/2 cups) chicken stock or water
400 g (14 oz) can chopped Roma (plum) tomatoes
3 zucchini (courgettes), finely sliced
60 g (21/4 oz) freshly grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Shavings of Parmesan, for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Heat a 3 litre (12 cup) capacity ovenproof dish (with a lid) over a medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion and sea salt and stir for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the rice to the dish and stir for another minute.

Add the stock or water and the chopped tomatoes and bring to simmering point. Stir in the zucchini and sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper. Cover the dish and bake the risotto for 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Scatter parsley over the top, sprinkle with Parmesan shavings if desired, and serve in the dish.

Serves 4

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Library Loot: July 31 to August 6

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

What would we do without our libraries? Whilst I would still have more than enough to read (and I would probably get a lot more of the books I buy read) there is no doubt I would also miss out on a lot of pleasure.

Here is the loot I got this week:

A Duke Never Yields by Juliana Gray - Next book in the Affairs by Moonlight series

Persuasion by Jane Austen  (audiobook) - About time I read my second Jane Austen book ever!

A Song of Fire and Ice by George R R Martin (audiobook) - I figured I wasn't going to get to the books anytime soon so I would try the the audiobook. Only problem is that it is more than 30 hours of listening time and I am not sure I am going to get through it all before it is time to return, but I will give it a go, even if I have to sit in the car in the driveway just listening.

The Crossroads Cafe by Deborah Martin - Can't remember why I requested this one. Must have just seen something somewhere and went and requested it.

More than a Dream by Harrison Craig - Harrison Craig was the winner of the Australian version of The Voice this year. The album has a bit of a crooner feel to it - think Michael Buble kind of music but it is easy listening. I have embedded one of his original songs below.




Head over to Claire's blog to share you Library Loot links.

Farewelling Paris in July.

And so we come to the end of another Paris in July - another month of torturing myself by feeding my desires to one day visit France again. The reality is that I am not likely to be able to go for at least another 5 years or even longer, but still, that doesn't stop me from dreaming about it, watching Le Tour de France until the very early hours of the morning, from reading other people's accounts of their recent visits, talking to the people I work with who have just come back or contemplating borrowing CDs from the library to start learning French again. For at least part of this month I found my dreams solidifying into plans.  I thought in closing the event for this month, I would share what a trip to France would like for me if I was to book it right now.

In the last couple of weeks I have lined up a potential travelling companion so we would probably be starting off with two weeks in Paris. I know that still isn't enough to see or do everything, but it would be a good start. My plan would be to stay in an apartment in one of the inner city quartiers - maybe even in the second arrondisement. At one point this month I was actually looking at apartments in that area thinking about costs etc and if I say it quickly, the price is probably doable. Of course, I didn't even compare that to the prices of an apartment further out so it could be totally extortionate!

One of the things that I would do is invite a couple of my UK friends to come and stay for a couple of days at least. One of them is a girl that I shared a flat with in London and we haven't seen each other since I returned to Australia 15 years ago so it would be fab to be able to catch up and do some fun stuff as well.

Whether with my friends or not, one thing I would like to do would be to splash out on a posh meal. I watched a documentary this month on the Eiffel Tower and the people who work there to keep it all functioning smoothly for the millions of visitors that visit every year. They talked about the people who go to eat a meal in the posh restaurant there and I think that would be a fun, once in a lifetime kind of deal. Either that or some other Michelin star type restaurant, but either way it would be fabulous to do that special kind of meal! Speaking of the Tower, I think I would also have to make sure that I stayed up late at least one night and watched the lights sparkle out at the end of the day. I believe that happens at 1am, but I could be wrong.

I would of course do a lot of the touristy stuff, but I would hope to have a couple of days where you could just sit, drinking a coffee and watching the world go by and just breathing in life in Paris. In addition, it would be fab to do a one or two day cooking type thing too - maybe chocolate or maybe cheese - anything really.

I would, of course, visit Notre Dame, but I think I would try to be there at 8am on at least one day to sit and listen as Mass was performed, to see the building being used as a church. Doesn't matter that I am not Catholic - I think it would be a magical experience. Last year, I shared a link to a video by author Amy Plum, where she visited La Sainte Chappelle and I think I would have to make sure that I also visited there on at least one day.  Speaking of authors, I would likely be revisiting books like Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard or Paris My Sweet by Amy Thomas to be reminded of all the best places to go and eat tasty morsels, and I would also have to make sure to have a chocolat chaud somewhere at least once too!

After a couple of weeks I would pull myself away from Paris and hopefully get the chance to head to the countryside for a while. I would love to visit places like Avignon or Carcassonne. One of my major destinations though would be to head to Grenoble where one of my online friends lives. I was so focused on this planning that I even sat down to work out how I would get from Paris to Grenoble on the train - how long it would take, how much it would cost etc. Of course, I might have to mention more formally to her that I am on my way than announcing it via blog post five years before it is likely to happen!  I would hopefully get to travel around her little corner of France, or who knows, even pop over the border into Switzerland. Who knows.

I thought I would close this post by sharing another quote from The Provence Cure for the Broken Hearted. I should have found a quote for leaving Paris behind, but instead I share a discovering Paris quote, with the hope that one of these days it will be me that is doing the rediscovering!

First stop: the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator, even though it felt like cheating.

At the top, Abbot kept his distance from the edge, but Charlotte leaned on the railing and looked over the city. The wind whipped her hair like she was on a ship. the city was sun-dazzled, laid out before us. I walked up to her. "It's pretty up here."

She sighed restlessly then glared at the other tourists. "Paris is cluttered with lovers," she said. "You begin to wonder whether they're paid by the tourist bureau or something."

I agreed. None of them were doing me any good, either, but I wasn't sure what to say. Should I bring up Adam Briskowitz? Was I allowed to know about him? "They're a bunch of fakers," I said, trying to sound light.

We saw the pyramids outside of the Louvre, but we didn't make it inside because the lines were too long We hadn't purchased ahead. It was summer, and so the tourists came in packs. It began to feel like a betrayal to be in Paris without Henry. How could I do this without him? And yet I saw him in the crowds - a glimpse of sneakers; his face hidden momentarily behind a camera; and, once, a Red Sox ball cap, perfectly faded and frayed. I glanced. I didn't let my eyes linger. I always looked quickly away, and we kept driving through the throngs, Abbot chirping, "Excusez-moi!"

I insisted that we go to Place de l'Opera, where my grandparents once kissed. I told Charlotte and Abbot my grandparent's love story on the Metro as we made our way there. I set up the end of World War II, the massive crowds, how they kissed then got separated and how, later, after the war, he came back to France, and, through the ever-mysterious series of miracles, found her in the house in Provence. I ended the story the way it always ended: "They vowed never to be apart again." When I said it, I felt a chill run across my skin, just like when I was young.

"That's very romantic," Charlotte said, and for once, she didn't sound jaded.

"The house in Provence has a long history of love," I said. "I've told you the stories, Abbot. Haven't I?"

"No," he said. "I know all the Henry stories, but not any house stories."

"Oh," I said. It crossed my mind that maybe I believed the stories still, after all this time, and I hadn't been telling the stories because I didn't want anyone to poke holes in them, as I once had in my youth. But Charlotte and Abbot needed to know where they were headed. "Well, I can fix that." and that's when their history lessons began, the history of the house in Provence, its long history of love, as I put it, all of its miracles.

And Place de l'Opera itself? It was stunning. We stood in front of the huge building, standing as broad-shouldered as it had been when my grandparents found each other in the crowd. I saw it as a cake - the tiers of arches then pillars then ornate trim and beading, topped with beautiful greened-copper dome and brightly shining gold angels.

We bounced through the city from story to story, monument to monument. At Notre-Dame, Abbot was impressed by the stained glass portrayal of the man condemned to hold his decapitated head for eternity and, of course, the gargoyles. Charlotte lit a candle and stuffed money into an offertory. this surprised me. Wasn't she too jaded for this? The three of us took seats in the back of the cathedral in the cool darkness.

Tourists shuffled at the edges, creating a hushed noisiness.

I said, "I could use some buttresses, you know, support. Maybe I have buttress envy."

"You could crouch lower to the ground," Abbot said. "Except it's all dirty."

"I hear buttresses take a long time to build," Charlotte said, and she handed me the brochure, and then seemed to disappear into herself. She could do this in a way I'd never seen before - turn her presence on and off.

But she seemed to be taking everything in, even if she was quiet about it and kept her commentary to a minimum. She was impressed by the crepe vendors on the street, the quick wasps of their instruments. She said," I love the way the French shove chocolate into everything. It's, like, the best nervous tic ever." She loved the morning coffee and the cubed sugars. She wanted to stroll through the market and look at the fish and roasted pig. She stopped to read the menus that were posted outside of nice restaurants - the ones translated into English. " You could really just eat your way through this town and understand it just as well as walking around and looking at it."

Special thanks to the hosts of Paris in July - Tamara at Thyme for Tea and Karen at Bookbath.

Almost French by Sarah Turnbull

Unlike a lot of us, including those of us that participate in the Paris In July event, freelance journalist Sarah Turnbull wasn’t all that desperate to visit France when she was spending a year backpacking through Europe back in the mid 90s. She was mainly spending her time in the eastern European countries. In her travels, she meets a French lawyer named Frederic a couple of times and when he asks her to come and visit him in Paris, she agrees.

What starts out as a week long visit turns into a month long holiday affair and then into more and, after a brief separation while Sarah finishes her travels, she moves to Paris to be with Fred. Moving to a different country requires adjustments for anyone, let alone when there is a different language and very different cultural values involved. For a relatively laid back Aussie, the rules that permeate French society are difficult to understand let alone to follow, and that is before you throw the fact that Sarah needs to learn the language quickly and to find a way to break into the freelance journalism market so that she can start to earn some income. Being a freelance journalist means that she must work from home which is a way that the author is isolated from others, and she must find ways to counteract this loneliness.

Turnbull takes us through some of the well known French clichés but also some of the less well known quirks as well. She writes about the French obsession with food, talking not only of the lunch that she ate in a Michelin star restaurant but also of her joy at eventually moving to an area of Paris where there is still a fresh food market. She tells of starting most days with a café crème at her local café, and attends dinner parties where it is expected that there will be numerous courses and if they aren’t right there will be criticisms made - very different to the barbecue in the backyard that most Australians would be used to.

One of the other things that Turnbull talk about included fashion, and the way that seeing seeing how the French dress influenced her to dress better. At one point, she and Frederic had a conversation about how no French person would wear their tracksuit pants to the bakery for fear of upsetting the baker. A few days later I thought about how I would manage in France as I just popped down to the shops in my trackydacks, old smelly trainers and jumper! Non, non, non!

Other subjects to be examined include making friends, the French concept of home (wherein Frederic returns to his small town in Normandy on a very regular basis), moving house to a fabulous sounding apartment in central Paris and the joy of living in the beautiful city but also the issues that brings, Frederic's first visit to Australia and more. All of the anecdotes are told with humour and with a candour that at times can verge on harsh (for example when she talks about how difficult it can be to make friends with French women), but I can also definitely imagine. One of the other fun stories was when Sarah and Frederic decide to buy a dog. Sarah is determined that there do Maddie is not going to be a pampered Parisian pooch, but it doesn't take long before Maddie goes everywhere with her and often provides entres into conversation that might not have otherwise existed.

One of the strengths of the book for me was that Turnbull not only observes as an outsider looking at French society but that she was trying to understand so that she could assimilate as much as it would be possible for an Australian moving to France could, especially someone whose partner is French and so she doesn't want to let him down at all. Also, she took the time to compare and contrast the two cultures and the way they approach everyday things like food or the service that they expect in shops or aesthetic beauty whether it be in their own home or in hotel rooms with terrible art on the walls for example.

One of the other things that was quite interesting to me was that Sarah and I were both travelling at around the same time and so there were some key events that were mentioned during the book that I remember quite clearly. For example, when France won the soccer World Cup in 1998, I remember watching the final and then seeing the news reports of the people of Paris celebrating whilst Sarah Turnbull writes about being there. Whereas she ended up living a fabulous life in Paris I ended up living for 5 years in the UK, and I obviously came back to Australia a lot sooner than she did.

While I was living in an English speaking country with a similar culture and so did not face a lot of the same difficulties as she did, I was involved with a Nigerian man whose friends were predominantly other young Nigerian men and so could really relate to the feeling of ostracism that comes with sitting around a table or lounge for a meal and not being able to follow the conversation because it was in another language that you either didn’t know or weren’t fluent in, to having no one make any effort to include you in the conversation, to that feeling of just filling a space rather than being an integral part of the gathering.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book which was narrated by Caroline Lee, who I am almost convinced is pretty much the only female Australian narrator out there. I know that isn’t true, but this is the fourth audiobook that I have listened to this year where she was the narrator, and she also narrates several that I have considered listening to. I did like her narration in this book. I think her voice is more suited to contemporary storytelling, or at least I didn’t like her as much when I was listening to historical novels, particularly ones where there was a wide variety of different accents.
This book was published in the early 2000's and it has taken all this time for a follow up book to be released. I am looking forward to finding out what happens next to Frederic and Sarah.


Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A delightful, fresh twist on the travel memoir, Almost French takes us on a tour that is fraught with culture clashes but rife with deadpan humor.

Sarah Turnbull's stint in Paris was only supposed to last a week. Chance had brought Sarah and Frédéric together in Bucharest, and on impulse she decides to take him up on his offer to visit him in the world's most romantic city. Sacrificing Vegemite for vichyssoise, the feisty journalist does her best to fit in, although her conversation, her laugh, and even her wardrobe advertise her foreign status.

But as she navigates the highs and lows of this strange new world, from life in a bustling quartier and surviving Parisian dinner parties to covering haute couture fashion shows and discovering the paradoxes of French culture, little by little Sarah falls under its spell: maddening, mysterious, and charged with that French specialty—seduction.

I read this book for following challenges/events: