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11th out of 76 books
—
40 voters
Rachel & Leah (Women of Genesis #3)
Leah was so young when her sister Rachel was born that she could not remember a time when Rachel was not the darling of the family- pretty, clever, and cute, whereas Leah plugged along being obedient, hard-working, and responsible. Then one day a good-looking marriageable kinsman named Jacob showed up, looking for a haven from his brother's rage, and Leah fell in love at o...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
November 29th 2005
by Forge Books
(first published July 30th 2004)
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I love the plot in Rachel and Leah. What if Leah's marriage to Jacob wasn't such a surprise? What if it was done because Rachel did not want to marry Jacob at the time? What if Leah and Rachel's father did not mean to fool Jacob but was left with little choice. I love the way Orson Scott Card can go back into the time before Christ and create a believable world and story that we can relate to so well in our time. I can't wait to read the sequel, The Women of Genesis.
I really loved this book. I stumbled across it because of the author, Orson Scott Card. I had read Ender's Game and thought it to be so cleverly written so I was interested in the three books in this series, Women of Genesis. This is the first that I read in the series even though it is the third and I certainly will be reading the other two.
Card gives Rachel, Leah as well as their handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, such distinctive personalities. And he invents such a clear and logical reason for...more
Card gives Rachel, Leah as well as their handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, such distinctive personalities. And he invents such a clear and logical reason for...more
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I really liked this book, but I couldn't give it a four because it made me angry. The resolution of how Rachel and Leah both became wives of Jacob was upsetting, and the way Jacob is a know-it-all perfect human being until, arguably, the end, was infuriating. It's hard to tell if this or The Red Tent was more accurate. I know many people's dislike of RT - too fairy tale, too perfect, etc. I think if you're interested in the women of Genesis in a historical fiction context, both books are worth y...more
I've come to really enjoy fiction based on biblical stories. This is actually the third in a series with a fourth in the works to finish the tribes of Israel story. I really enjoyed "The Red Tent" and was interested in how the same story was depicted by a different author. Whereas "The Red Tent" really focuses on life after the marriage to Rachel and Leah, this deals with the years of servitude that Jacob performs in order to marry Rachel. Though there are similarities in the portrayal of events...more
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"If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." (LDS Article of faith 13)
Shame on you, Card. There is absolutely nothing virtuous about the manner in which women were portrayed in this novel. I will certainly never be picking up another book by Orson Scott Card again, religious, fantasy or otherwise. I am that deeply disappointed.
The idea of an LDS author picking up what little is written about the specific women in the Old Testament and ela...more
Shame on you, Card. There is absolutely nothing virtuous about the manner in which women were portrayed in this novel. I will certainly never be picking up another book by Orson Scott Card again, religious, fantasy or otherwise. I am that deeply disappointed.
The idea of an LDS author picking up what little is written about the specific women in the Old Testament and ela...more
Card quickly became my favourite author, just a few years ago, and he's still up there at that top. I'll have to be honest, though: having read/listened to several of his books in relatively rapid succession, I've noticed that his voice is not only very consistent (that makes perfect sense, of course), but it doesn't have a great deal of variation, and that does, in my estimation, impacts his characterisation just a bit. Card more than makes up for it, however, with a massive degree of plausibil...more
If you take a few verses of scripture and try to turn it into a full-fledged novel, you have to make up all the details. Give everybody a personality. Figure out what they do all day. Establish relationships between characters. Try to find out why things happened as they did. What were they thinking? Whose idea was it, after all? That's the case in this story based on the four ladies who became the mothers of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
This is Rachel and Leah, Laban and Jacob, Bilhah and Zilpa...more
This is Rachel and Leah, Laban and Jacob, Bilhah and Zilpa...more
Here's my problem. And I am sure it is just a problem I have. Any time that, to me, a real person from the scriptures is written about in a fictional setting and thoughts and feelings are interjected in a fictional sense I get a cringe of feeling that it is "man's thoughts and opinions mingled with scripture". That was the constant thing that popped up in the back of my head. I know there are events that I believe to be true but beyond that I don't feel comfortable blending fiction with bible pe...more
This is the first part of the story of Jacob and his wives, up to the marriage of Rachel and Leah. With so many characters to follow, there was too much to fit in a single volume and so while it did feel incomplete, I did appreciate the difficulty trying to squeeze more of the story into one book. It would have felt much too rushed and the entire point of the story -- to get to know the women of Genesis -- could not have been realized.
I liked this book slightly better than Rebekah, but not as m...more
I liked this book slightly better than Rebekah, but not as m...more
This was a book club choice by Donna Brown. I haven't ready any Old Testament fiction books before, so I was pretty excited to check it out. Orson Scott Card is a pretty good writer. Sometimes things move slowly in the book - but this was set in the deserts afterall and I can't imagine that anything moves too quickly in sheep herds anyhow. It was a good story... but has definitely piqued my interest to find out what the scriptures have to say about Jacob and his wives.
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Out of the three stories Card wrote about the biblical women I didn't like this one the most. Two sisters pitted against each other in a fight over love, children and recognition is a real theme but one I do not wish to visit.
Synopsis: Rachel and her tender-eyed older sister Leah are the daughters of Lord Laban, brother of Rebecca (who married Isaac, the son of Abraham). Rachel dreams of meeting a man at a well as a young teenager. He kisses her and asks Laban if he may serve 7 years for her hand in marriage. The young man was Jacob, the brother of Esau. For those who recall the story from Genesis, Jacob becomes the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, but the situation surrounding his marriage makes a great story....more
Since The Red Tent is one of my all-time favorite books, I really wanted to like Card's Rachel and Leah, but I found it highly irritating and lacking in depth. Leah's character is horrible the first half of the book, but becomes likable toward the end. Rachel is Miss Perfect throughout the book until the very end where she loses it and reverts to the tantrums of a two-year-old. Laban is a doting father, honest in his dealings with Jacob and fair to the servants, but inexplicably becomes deceptiv...more
Blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, moan.
For more insight into my feelings for the books of this series, see my reviews for Sarah Women of Genesis and Rebekah. After reading one, the others feel like the same characters reincarnate.
One may wonder, if these books cause me such irritation, why I continue to read them. OSC does bring a unique perspective to these stories and his offerings may have some validity. His development (limited though it may be) of these women will help in my gospel studies as...more
For more insight into my feelings for the books of this series, see my reviews for Sarah Women of Genesis and Rebekah. After reading one, the others feel like the same characters reincarnate.
One may wonder, if these books cause me such irritation, why I continue to read them. OSC does bring a unique perspective to these stories and his offerings may have some validity. His development (limited though it may be) of these women will help in my gospel studies as...more
When I finished the novel I couldn't stop thinking "poor Leah!" I felt so bad for her. Her personality throughout much of the book was very frustrating and if Card hadn't done such a wonderful job with the transformation of her character for the positive, I might not have had the same amount of compassion for her. By the end of the novel, I felt like I had come to know Leah and Bilhah on a deep level. Rachel and Zilpah were depicted in a personal way too but on a lesser level and I didn't feel q...more
A nice read (and if you’re Mormon then I definitely recommend this one over The Red Tent, which tended to be a bit perverse), but where’s the second half of it?!?!?! It stops just after Rachel’s wedding to Jacob, leaving off before we get Zilpah and Bilhah added to the scene and LONG before everyone begins having children! I demand more! (Yes, I know, Card is writing another one—maybe it’s already done by now—but it was still disappointing as I neared the end of the novel and realized that there...more
I read this book as a comparison piece to The Red Tent. Overall, I was disappointed. I read many reviews criticizing The Red Tent for not being generous to the male characters, and if that was a problem for you, Rachel & Leah is the book for YOU! :) I also thought it was interesting that, in this book, Rachel is made out to be the superior sister and Leah is made out to be cranky and tyrannical. It surprised me that Jacob's relationships with Bilhah and Zilpah were described as a business de...more
I really enjoyed this book by Orson Scott Card, but I feel gypped that he stopped the story when Leah and Rachel married Jacob. He's promised us that he would continue the series, but it's been a few years since he wrote this one and I'm afraid with all the other projects he has going on, that it may never happen. Our loss.
This book not only focuses on the complicated relationship between Rachel and Leah, but also the relationship each of these too human girls has with Jacob, their father Laban,...more
This book not only focuses on the complicated relationship between Rachel and Leah, but also the relationship each of these too human girls has with Jacob, their father Laban,...more
I really liked the 1st book in this series. The next 2 were just okay. I'd have to say this one was my least favorite. Leah was annoying througout most of the book (major emphasis on Leah's character and the two handmaids) and I was very disapointed in how the author portrayed Rachel at the end of the book (very imature). I guess I enjoy when the author is generous to the scriptural women and this book didn't do that for me :). The only woman I really ended up liking in this book was Bilhah. And...more
This book was better than the previous one. He added a lot of life to the four women to become the wives of Jacob. Once again, Card has to take a lot of liberties, but I felt he did a better job. His characters are flawed, but in ways that better explain some of the circumstances these women find themselves in. Also, he makes them likable, and they grow and learn from the flaws they have. Despite the fact that this book is totally fiction again, and just based on an author's opinion, I liked it...more
This was a nice and relaxing read. I read it in around five hours. Orson Scott Card generally creates great historical fiction, and this continues that track record. He takes all four female characters in the Genesis story of Rachel and Leah (for whom I am named) and creates very strong, individual characters for each.
For most who will pick up this book, the Biblical story is known, so know that the interest is in how he develops the story and the characters, and the spin he creates to explain...more
For most who will pick up this book, the Biblical story is known, so know that the interest is in how he develops the story and the characters, and the spin he creates to explain...more
It was really good, but I found some parts improbable, like young girls (10 and 12 years old) speaking maturely of serious matters of life. But it gave me more insight to the Bible story.
The story of Rachel and Leah as written by Orson Scott Card is a very different interpretation of the bible store, allowing Laban off the hook as the greedy father who wanted Jacob's free labor for another 7 years under the excuse that the elder daughter should by custom marry before the younger. It is well written and an intresting slant on the story as most of us know it. Be sure to read it as written in Genises too. There are no bad guys here with the possible exception of Laban's sons who a...more
I liked this novel a lot. It has four women as the protagonists, which in itself makes a convoluted story; it has two main males, Jacob and Laban, which lend more varying viewpoints. I wonder if Jacob came across as the wonderful man he seems to be in this story; Leah wanting to marry a good man like him makes sense. It stops just after the marriages of Leah and Rachel and is 406 pages. I enjoyed the differing perspectives; my childhood impression of Leah was decidedly not good. Orson Scott Card...more
I've been wanting to read these books for awhile now. I heard this one was the best, so I started here to debate if I wanted to read the whole series. The first half or so was very slow (and a tad bit boring) as Card developed the characters. He did a superb job, though, as I really felt I knew the 4 main women very well. I think he has an incredible imagination as he explained what little the Bible touches on. I definitely want to read the sequel, *Wives of Israel, as this book left me wanting...more
Card quickly became my favourite author, just a few years ago, and he's still up there at that top. I'll have to be honest, though: having read/listened to several of his books in relatively rapid succession, I've noticed that his voice is not only very consistent (that makes perfect sense, of course), but it doesn't have a great deal of variation, and that does, in my estimation, impacts his characterisation just a bit. Card more than makes up for it, however, with a massive degree of plausibil...more
I LOVED THIS BOOK! Orson Scott Card does an amazing job (how does he know women so well?)! Another "can't put it down".
These two women were just not as interesting as Sarah and Rebecca in previous books by Card. There was not the conflict between old ways & new- here it was more plain jealousy & misunderstandings among the women. No matter how hard I tried, I could not stop picturing Matthew Modine as Jacob (from the TV version of Jacob's story) as I read this. Also, I found the language too modern & colloquial and it detracted from the period feel. Got all the way to the end and there is a cliff-ha...more
Interesting look into the life of Rachel and Leah - Mormon aspects to book -need to read with caution.
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Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series Th...more
More about Orson Scott Card...
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series Th...more
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Mar 12, 2009 02:19pm
Nov 01, 2009 08:02am