Shomeret's Not So Numerous November Reads 1/3

[Shomeret]

Here it is Christmas Eve and I've taken this long to finish blogging the November books, and there aren't that many of them. I do have to say in my defense that I've had a hectic time preparing to be a Teaching Assistant next semester.

1)Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingenby Mary Sharratt (historical fiction) 274 pages. Source: Library Started: 10/30 Finished: 11/2

Why Read: This is a novel about Hildegard of Bingen who was an awesome medieval abbess and one of my favorite historical personages.

Comments: I liked the complexity of the characterization. Even the least sympathetic character was worthy of compassion. I also liked Sharratt's view of Hildegard. Rating A

2)Libriomancerby Jim C. Hines (urban fantasy) 305 pages. Source: Library Started: 11/3 Finished: 11/5

Why Read: The central character is a librarian with the power of being able to create things mentioned in books. This is the power of the word made manifest and irresistible to a library student.

Comments: What an original novel! Libriomancers go back to the 14th century. A real historical personage became the first Libriomancer. Yet the implementation of this wonderful concept turned out to be not very interesting. The characterization was mediocre. I did like the resolution. I gave this book an A- because the concept was so superb and there wasn't enough wrong with the book to take it down to B+.

3)Francesca Pascalby Frederik Nath (historical fiction) Source: The Bookplex Started: 11/5 Finished: 11/8

Why Read: This is the third book in Frederik Nath's World War II trilogy. I read and liked the second one, Farewell Bergerac. This one has a female MC and I wanted to see how Nath handled her.

Comments: I thought he did very well with his portrayal of Francesca as an artist and as a mother. I was disappointed in the way her friend Charles started off interesting and then became stereotypical. I gave it a B. See my November blog post "Francesca Pascal: Good But Not Great" at http://www.maskedpersona.blogspot.com

To Be Continued...

[Donnajo]

Shom, I was behind on keeping up my GRs bookcase for finished books that I'm at the point of just putting the title, author, shelves, date I finished it and how many stars. no comments. I"m now up to Novembers. hopefully I'll get nov & dec up this week so I can set up the new shelves for the new year and start getting back on track doing it after every finished book and maybe starting it under current read when I start it in the first place. my resoluation is better reviews or comments. because they haven't been worth anything lately. even with my written book journal. at some point I would love to start a blog but don't know where to start or how to start one.

[Ann]

Shomeret: I like the sound of that idea too!
Shomeret wrote: "Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (urban fantasy)The central character is a librarian with the power of being able to create things mentioned in books. This is the power of the word made manifest and irresistible to a library student."

[Shomeret]

Donnajo wrote: "Shom, I was behind on keeping up my GRs bookcase for finished books that I'm at the point of just putting the title, author, shelves, date I finished it and how many stars. no comments. I"m now u..."

The easiest blog site is Blogger which is what I'm using. Take a look at my blog at http://www.maskedpersona.blogspot.com The one thing you definitely need to be able to do is have a way of grabbing images or your blog is going to be all text. I use Microsoft's Snipping Tool. I search Microsoft's free image site for images I can use. It's at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ima...
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