Showing posts sorted by relevance for query cleopatra's daughter. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query cleopatra's daughter. Sort by date Show all posts

September 15, 2009

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran (Giveaway)

Have you ever wondered what happened to Cleopatra's twins when she died? Didn't even know she had twins? Me neither. That's the beauty of historical fiction, you learn things while engrossed in the depth of a beautiful story.

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran is the story of Cleopatra's twins, Alexander and Selene as they are taken to Rome after Egypt is conquered. The story is told from Selene's point of view and a fascinating look at Roman rule and Egyptian culture. It follows Selene and Alexander from the moment Egypt is overtaken to the time Selene becomes queen. Moran is an archeologist turned author that used her research to write this captivating work. The characters come across as real, relatable people rather than the rulers of Rome or the princess of Egypt. The boys go to the circus to gamble, the women worry about the jealousy of other women, and the slaves rebel against the Roman rule. Moran teaches you about Egyptian and Roman culture without even trying, and I just wanted to read more.

If you're a fan of historical fiction, or even if you're not, this is a book I would recommend to everyone. There were times I just forgot that the book was historical fiction and read it as a romance or a thriller. For me that's what makes good historical fiction, something that makes history real and relatable. One of the best books I've read in the past few months; I'll definitely be picking up her other books as well. 5 stars.

If you're interested in reading this book, I've got a copy to give away. Just leave a comment on this post (if you feel like telling me your favorite historical fiction novel that'd be even better), and I'll pick a winner from all of the comments on this post and my other blog. The book comes out tomorrow so the giveaway ends at midnight EST tonight. I'll announce the winner tomorrow.
This giveaway is closed. Cate is the lucky winner!

November 16, 2009

The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran

After reading Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran, I wanted to read Michelle Moran's other two books, Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen. I just finished The Heretic Queen over the weekend and I loved it.

Nefertari is the niece of Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, who is known in Egypt as a heretic and no one will speak the names of Nefertiti nor her pharoah husband, Amunhotep, fearing a curse would come upon them from speaking of heretics. Because her ancestors were known as heretics and wiped from the history books, Nefertari was shunned by the people of Egypt. She is the only living person of her ancestry after her mother, who was also a queen of Egypt, died in childbirth. However, because Nefertari is still a princess and came from a long line of queens and pharaohs, she is allowed to remain in the pharoah's palace as she grew.

Nefertari was raised in the palace with the pharoah's son Ramesses, who she fell in love with as they grew up. When Ramesses became pharoah, Ramesses and Nefertari wanted to get married but the people refused to accept Nefertari as their queen. Ramesses and Nefertari worked to win the affection of the people of Thebes so that their marriage would be blessed.

The Heretic Queen is an amazing historical novel that draws you in and tells the fascinating story of Nefertari. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars.

June 27, 2010

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Every time I pick up a historical fiction novel I am expecting to be blown away because of my experiences with novels like Cleopatra's Daughter. But lately every time I get through one, I'm highly disappointed because maybe my expectations were too high. The back cover of Girl with a Pearl Earring says, "The bestselling novel hailed by critics from coast to coast." It's a good thing I wasn't one of those critics.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is about a real artist, Vermeer, and a fictitious muse that becomes the source of one of his most famous paintings. The muse is a young girl, Griet who has to go to work as a maid to make money for her family when her father cannot. As she cleans the artists studio, she becomes his apprentice/assistant of sorts. As is the case with many instructor/student relationships, Griet quickly falls into adoration with her master both physically and artistically.

The book was well written and had a good plot, but I was left dissatisfied in far too many ways to put it on my book recommendation list. As hard as her life really was, the author made it seem like life was easy for Griet and things just worked out in the ways they were supposed to. I didn't feel her emotions at all and didn't connect with her at all. 3 stars for good writing but definitely not on the top of list.


April 10, 2011

Celebrating Good Books

Three years ago when I posted my first review of My Sister's Keeper on Book Nook Club, I had no idea how much Book Nook Club would evolve. I went to a book club meeting this week and mentioned that I'd reviewed the book on my book review blog a couple of years back. When everyone got really excited and asked for the blog, I realized how much I take the opportunity to review books for granted. And it got me thinking about how grateful I am to have the chance to review books by both new and established authors, as well as how grateful I am for the other reviewers that make Book Nook Club what it is - literally a virtual book club, except we are all reading and reviewing our own books. There is nothing about any of us that makes us qualified to review any of these books other than the fact that we all love reading.

So this post is to celebrate the 600th post here on Book Nook Club. As my own celebration, I went back through and picked ten of my favorite books (out of all 110) that I've reviewed here in the past three years. I tried to keep a good mix of categories so it's not all historical fiction or classics. I'm constantly asked for book recommendations (especially after mentioning that I review books) so hopefully this will be a good one to start out with.

Congrats to everyone involved that's made Book Nook Club a place that I, and I hope you do too, come back to and time and time again to get book ideas and see what my peers thought of a book before buying it. 
  1. Non-Fiction (Relationships) - The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
  2. Non-Fiction (Self-Improvement) -  Good Girls Don't Have to Dress Bad
  3. Science Fiction/YA - Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
  4. True Story - The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow
  5. Mystery/Crime - If Tomorrow Comes by Sydney Sheldon
  6. Historical Fiction - Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
  7. Romance - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  8. Christian Fiction - Redemption Series (and anything else) by Karen Kingsbury
  9. Chick-Lit -  Perfect on Paper by Marie Murnane
  10. Legal Thriller - My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
I'd love to hear what everyone's favorite books are and if there are things that you love or would like to see changed about Book Nook Club as we move forward with post 601 and on.


March 6, 2011

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

When you think of the French Revolution, what do you think of - Marie Antoinette? Storming the Bastille? How about Madame Tussaud making death masks for people that were executed?

A couple of years ago I was given the chance to review Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran, a book that has forever turned me onto historical fiction. So last month when I received a surprise package in the mail that was Michelle's newest book, Madame Tussaud, I couldn't wait to get started reading it. And it was worth it.

I'll admit I knew nothing about Madame Tussaud before I read this book, I'll even go so far as to say I had no idea she was a real person. All I knew was that there was a famous wax museum with the name. Michelle has a knack for finding characters in history that are mostly unknown and revealing them to the general public in an exciting fashion. She's done it many times before with women in Egypt and now she's done it with the French Revolution, somehow building an incredible story about a woman's life who I didn't even know existed.

Marie Grosholtz's (later Marie Tussaud) life revolves around the wax museum she and her uncle Curtis run and she does all she can to get the king and queen of France to come visit to boost the museum's visitors. What she doesn't know is how that one visit will lead her into leading a double-sided life during the upcoming French Revolution. One side as the tutor and friend to Princess Elizabeth, the king's own sister, and one side as the a host and enabler for some of the greatest influencers in the Revolution. Not to mention, her duty once the daily executions begin to go to the dead to create "death masks" so their death can be proven and remembered forever.

Marie is a fascinating woman that I loved and hated all at the same time. A woman who did things that I could never dream of doing and a woman that was in the end punished for her ambition and loyalty, a punishment that was yet another major turning point in her life. Michelle does a great job at telling Marie's story in a way that you forget it's actually a part of history. And that to me is what great historical fiction is all about.

Would I recommend this book? Definitely. And while you're at it, pick up the rest of Michelle's books. I've yet to find one that I didn't love. 5 stars.


January 15, 2010

100 Books in 2010

I saw this idea on my friend Jaclyn's blog and just had to jump in. I love to read and thought this would be a fun way to try and hit 100 books. So the idea is that in 2010, I'll read ten books within ten different categories of my choosing. And eventually read 100 books in total. If anyone has any great ideas in any of these categories, I'm open to suggestions.

1- LDS non-fiction books (stole this category)
2- Classics (because as an English major I really should have read these)
3- Historical fiction (fell in love with these after Cleopatra's Daughter)
4- Books from Oprah's book club list
5- Books written in 1985 (the year I was born, stole this one from Jac too)
6- Books that were made into movies (or vice versa)
7- Books I'm sent to review by publishers (since I'll do this anyway)
8- Books that have the number ten in the title
9- Books set in DC (at least partially)
10- Books from the 2009 NY Times Best Sellers List.

With Richie studying for the bar this summer, I think this is the year I can do it. I'm going to update my main blog as I go but may post about it here every once in a while too.
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