The Enchantress of Florence is all about a Florentine stranger who comes to the court of Mughal emperor Akbar the Great (heehee, get it?) with a story to tell. He claims that he is Akbar’s uncle (ish), the son of a great-aunt Akbar never knew existed. It’s a bold claim, but the stranger is a bold man; and in the days that follow, he entrances Akbar with the story of three Italian friends (including Machiavelli because, you know, it’s Salman Rushdie, and why not?), and the parts they played in the tale of the stranger’s purported mother, the “hidden princess”…
13 CommentsTag: stories we tell
Dream Country, Neil Gaiman
Published 13 Jan 2009
by
Gin Jenny
Evidently the stress of writing a nice coherent plot in The Doll’s House proved temporarily too much for Neil Gaiman, and he took a break to write some single-issue self-contained stories. And these are some damn good stories. Except I don’t like “Façade”. I remember not liking it so um, I sort of skipped it this time. I know! I could read “24 Hours” but not “Façade”? I don’t know what’s wrong with me. No, actually, I know exactly why I did that. Lately I’ve been getting ready for bed around eight, then lying in bed reading for several hours. …
2 CommentsThe Doll’s House, Neil Gaiman
Published 13 Jan 2009
by
Gin Jenny
Ooh, this volume is spookier than I remember. It’s a bit hard to explain the plot, which is intricately linked to other storylines, but in short, it’s about a girl called Rose, who is looking for her little brother. A number of other people are milling around: G.K. Chesterton, a woman who’s been pregnant for several years, a serial killer with teeth in his eyes, women with enormous spider collections, and that makes it interesting. Still, essentially it’s all about Rose. She has multicolored hair and numerous connections to the previous volume. She is also a vortex, which means that…
3 CommentsTom Finder, Martine Leavitt
Published 27 Sep 2008
by
Gin Jenny
I just bought a bunch of new books. Tom Finder is the fifth from the bottom. Two of the other books I got, I have not included in this picture, because I am going to get them for my oldest sister for Christmas, and although I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog, I don’t want to take chances. See, it turns out I was entitled to get this gift card from Amazon for $100, so I claimed it, and then I spent it. I spent my money very sensibly, which allowed me to get free shipping and two of…
5 CommentsThe Interloper, Antoine Wilson
Published 26 Jun 2008
by
Gin Jenny
Recommended by: an adventure in reading When I say that this book reminded me of how much I love to read, I don’t want you to take that as too much of a compliment to the book. With that caveat – The Interloper really reminded me of how much I love to read. I went to the library today with a massive big list of books to get, and all the ones I wanted most, they hadn’t got (ain’t it always the way). But this was the one I was most interested to read so I sat down and read…
2 Comments