For the month of March, we are to read a “Historical romance or fiction or mystery” and my choice is the sequel to Empress Orchid by Anchee Min, which I read for another TBR challenge some three years ago.

My fascination with history doesn’t just stop at wars, knights, and myths.  A large part of the curiosity has to do with the roles women play in those olden days.  Take the rare few female monarchs for example, Queen Elizabeth, Wu Ze Tian, Cleopatra, and the controversial Empress Cixi (Tzu Hsi), the kind of power play, politics and sacrifices they were inevitably drawn into sure make them intriguing figures to study.

The Last Empress, written in first person, traces the trials and heartaches the young widowed Empress Cixi experienced in trying to raise her young son, the heir to a doomed kingdom which has barely recovered from a damaging Opium War with several power hungry European nations. Now, in our part of the world, Cixi has always been portrayed, in drama, movies and TV serials, as a stern, insecure matriarch who refused to cede authority and government of the country over to her sons, first Emperor Tung Chih, and then Guang Hsu.

Any fellow reader looking at my bookshelf may wonder why there are so more tomes on the Arthurian legend than any other myths or fairy tales, with versions of the Trojan war/ Iliad coming a close second.

Well, I guess my love of tales of the legendary King and his noble Knights of the Round Table stem from the fact that my very first story book was a volume of Tales of the British Isles.  In it, as you would have guessed, are stories of Arthur, Merlin, Galahad, Gawain, Tristan, Percival, and other popular anecdotes surrounding this bunch of noble warriors of a bygone era that grew more mythical with each telling. Growing up, one of my favourite books is Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon, which offers a different perspective of the legend, which was subsequently made into a tele-movie, watched and loved by yours truly over the years.

So, when it came to Mary Stewart’s saga beginning with The Crystal Cave, then The Hollow Hills and followed by The Last Enchantment, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the series is written in the first person, with Merlin as the narrator.  The Crystal Cave recounts young Merlin’s childhood, and takes one through his formative years in his Roman father’s army, right until his father’s death.  The Hollow Hills follows Merlin abroad while he waited for Arthur to grow into the magnificent King and ends in his triumph and coronation as High King.

I made a mistake by watching the movie first before I finished reading the multiple award-winning, critically acclaimed novel Atonement by Ian McEwan.  Admittedly, the movie moved the story along a little faster, and intrigued me from the beginning with its casting of Keira Knightley as the lead actress, long before I set eyes on the novel itself.

But when I picked up the novel and read this synopsis on the back of the book:

On the hottest day of the summer 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of her country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend, who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge.

By the end of that day, the liver of all three will have been changed for ever.  Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl’s imagination.  Briony will have witnessed mysteries and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of life trying to atone.

I decided to plough ahead with the reading. However, halfway through chapter six, unable to withstand the suspense, I succumbed to temptation and put the video on.  The pace and dramatic tension sped up quite a bit in the film, and I like how it stuck pretty much close to the book and retain the use of the three main characters’ perspectives and flashbacks to bring the story across. The only difference was in the way Briony chose to reveal the truth at the end.

I’ve read most of Jane Austen’s more well-known works, but have never read Northanger Abbey.  So, when I chance upon a copy very early last year at a used book store, I was inspired to buy it. Many, many books later, I finally took this off the shelf for a long overdue reading. 

This is one of Austen’s most satirical novels, one of two complete works published posthumously, although it is her most youthful work. Besides being a comedy of manners, like most of her more famous works, this rather light-hearted piece serves as a sly commentary on the power of literature, or rather overindulgence of gothic novels, and also a cautionary tale warning young ladies embarking on society against being too naïve.

As seventeen year-old Catherine Morland discovered when she was invited to visit fashionable spa town Bath with her childless neighbours, the Allens. While there, she spent her time visiting newly made friends, like social climber Isabella Thorpe, and going to balls. At first, it seemed that was all she would be doing in her first outing to Georgian society, but as the author intends it, things started to look up:

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.

DanceChica is holding a discussion on The Scarlet Pimpernel , this month’s Classics Book Club read, until Thursday 31 August.  So , if you’ve read the book and would like to hear from others who’d read it, do pop by her blog in the next couple of days.

Having re-read this last August, I was ecstatic that DC’s initiative is stirring up new interest in this series, one of my favourite of all time. Here are my responses to some of her questions, most of which I’ve posted in the comments to the discussion post.

Does the book work? If so, why?
Definitely!  This is the forerunner of all spy stories/ movies. I like the theatrical high drama and suspense. BTW, did you guy know that the SP’s heroics started off as a stage play in 1901 before it came out in print in 1905?
So I guess that’s why there were some scenes which I swore could have come straight off the stage for the drama factor and convoluted plotting, as well as comical effects.

This month, we’re supposed to read a book that was recommended by someone I know (another blogger, author, friend, family member) or that got a lot of buzz. 

Prior to joining the challenge, I’ve already heard a lot about Mitch Albom  from some friends and my brother. What’s more, a friend from work gave me Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven as Christmas gifts last year. When Angie came up with this challenge, I immediately earmarked this for June’s challenge.

Title: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Author: Mitch Albom

Year published: 2003

Why did you get this book?
I’ve been hearing about this from friends and family, and besides, since it was given to me as a Christmas gift, I simply have to read it.

Do you like the cover?
The simple cover of the book belies the profound wisdom found inside its pages.