I hope everyone has a had a good weekend so far. I have hurt my back so I couldn’t get to work today so instead I did loads of reading which was nice but I wish my back would get better. This week has also been better blogging and reading wise which I hope continues.
David Franco, a talented young scholar, is introduced to Kathryn Van Owen, a beautiful and wealthy widow with a mysterious past. Van Owen owns a sketch of an amulet; a silver medallion with a carving of the Medusa’s face on one side, and on the other a mirror reputed to confer the power of immortality upon any who look into it on a moonlit night – and she is prepared to pay David a million dollars to find it for her. If the rumours of the amulet’s powers are true David could not only pay off his dying sister’s medical bills – he could offer her a chance of survival. But David will need help if he is to find the clues scattered through art and history to the mirror’s current location. And there are others who have heard of the mirror’s powers, and they will stop at nothing to find it…In his stunning new thriller, Robert Masello blends past and present and fact and fiction to create a gripping race through history.
Review
I still have some bookshelves at my parents’ house and these shelves are full of books. I had a hunt around on these shelves and found this book and I will be honest I can’t remember buying it or owning it so it was a nice surprise. Robert Masello is also a new author for me.
I love the story of Medusa and I have always felt rather sorry for Medusa as she was very wrongly treated so it was really good to read a story linked to Medusa but she didn’t really feature in the story.
The story centres around several characters and read quite like a Dan Brown novel but in my opinion it is better than a Dan Brown novel. David Franco is a scholar from Chicago who is an expert in Renaissance art and literature. Due to his expertise he gets asked to help in what seems an impossible quest, to find the lost Amulet of Medusa. David is given the quest by the mysterious Kathryn Van Owen. Kathryn has materials from the Renaissance period that people thought no longer existed. She also seems to have a mysterious past which gives her knowledge that others do not have.
This book is full of twists and turns and features some interesting times from history. You have renaissance artists in Rome and Florence, Marie Antoinette in France and World War Two. It really showed that Masello had done his research for this book.
I really enjoyed this book and found it a thrilling read where I never knew what was going to happen next. I did find one section rather cheesy and to be honest I could have done without the dark arts element but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I give this book 4 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, TV writer, and the bestselling author of many novels and nonfiction books. A native of Evanston, Illinois, he studied writing at Princeton University under the noted authors Robert Stone and Geoffrey Wolff, and served for six years as the Visiting Lecturer in Literature at Claremont McKenna College.
I’m really pleased I managed to read one non-fiction book and an Ancient Greek book this month hopefully I can continue. I had wanted to finish a book off my Classics Club list as well but I haven’t quite finished it yet but I do only have 40 pages left so it won’t be long.
I hope everyone has some fab books to read over the weekend.
My chosen poem this week is by the Jamaican- American poet and writer Claude McKay (1890-1948). McKay studied in the United States and became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
After the Winter
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning's white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We'll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee,
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.
Claude McKay
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you will read next?
Hello!
I hope everyone is well. Reading hasn’t been going quite so well this week, I’ve still managed some reading everyday but not as much as I would like.
What I am Currently Reading
The more I read this book the more bizarre it gets. I like how the author has used creations by William Blake within this book but at the same time it is just to strange and I really don’t like the main character.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I throughly enjoyed this book and it was great to get back into reading my classics again. Here is the review if you are interested.
What I Think I will Read Next
I have so many books I want to read this year and because of this I plan to be a lot more restrained with my book buying.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
I hope you are all having a good week so far. I am struggling with my current read but I am trying to get through it. If it wasn’t a book sent by the publisher I would DNF but I always like to try and finish a book that has been kindly given to me by a publisher.
There are so many books I intend to read this year so it has been hard to narrow the list down to 5 but here goes.
The Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris – I bought this last year and I have been eager to read it but I sadly ran out of time in 2022 so I am determined to make time for it this year.
The Persephone Book of Short Stories – I have decided to read this book this year and to try and read one short story a day. I like dividing a substantial book up into manageable segments as it makes me see my progress whilst reading and not feeling bogged down with a book.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – This is one of the books I plan to read for my challenge of reading an Ancient Greek or Roman book a month.
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski – I meant to start The Witcher series last year but again I ran out of time. This year I am determined to start the series but I probably won’t finish the series.
The Woman Who Would be King by Kara Cooney – This book was on my wish list for ages and I finally had it as a Christmas present off my wonderful husband. Now I have the book I can’t wait to get reading it.
Please drop me a comment if you have taken part in Top 5 Tuesday this week and I will head over for look.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far. I am feeling rather good about 2023 so far. Blogging and reading is going well and I up to date on all my book reviews. I actually feel organised with my blog for a change!
Anyway, here is what has been happening on the blog this week.
I’m nearly half way through with this and I must admit I am struggling. I suspect I have already worked out who the murderer is because the story is quite predictable but I am really struggling with the characters especially the main character. I will carry on till the end though as I am reading and reviewing it for the publishers but I am finding it all quite odd.
The Aeneid by Virgil (translated by by Frederick Ahl)
Blurb
After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, Virgil wrote the Aeneid to honour the emperor Augustus by praising his legendary ancestor Aeneas. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, the Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece. It tells of Aeneas, survivor of the sack of Troy, and of his seven-year journey: to Carthage, where he falls tragically in love with Queen Dido; then to the underworld,; and finally to Italy, where he founds Rome. It is a story of defeat and exile, of love and war, hailed by Tennyson as ‘the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man’.
Review
I have finally finished this book! When I first started reading it I was in the middle of my Masters and this sadly had to fall by the way side. However, on the 1st January I decided to read one book a day of this book and yesterday (yes I know a day behind) I finally finished.
The book begins in Carthage where Aeneas tells his journey to Queen Dido starting from the fall of Troy where Aeneas and the survivors he manages to gather including his father and son flee Troy and begin their 7 year journey to find a new home. Their journey goes from Carthage, to the Underworld and finally Italy his final destination.
My first thought about this book is what an amazing piece of propaganda. The amount of propaganda in this book really made me laugh but I think the pinnacle of it was in book 7. In book 7 Anchises shows Aeneas all the descendants that will come from his line and it is quite a list. Aeneas is basically the father of all the great leaders of Rome which seems highly improbable.
My husband kindly treated me to see Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas opera for my birthday which I absolutely loved but I do think Purcell was rather kind to Aeneas. In truth I always found Aeneas to be a bit of an ass. Whilst he is fleeing Troy he accidentally loses his wife, he does go back and look for her but really he shouldn’t have lost her in the first place. Then what he does with Queen Dido is in my opinion absolutely awful. Yes, I know the gods had something to do with it but really the man did not show any remorse at all and was a complete b__.
The last 6 books of the book is where Aeneas and his men, and we presume some women and children as they are briefly mentioned, land in Italy and all hell breaks loose in war. I loved how all the gods get involved and even some nymphs as this really parallels with Homer’s depiction of the war of Troy. In fact Virgil is very clever with his direct links with Homer’s work. When studying my Masters it was always amazing how much the Romans wanted to be as good as the Ancient Greeks. The Romans copied their sculptures, their texts and much more but always keeping their Roman values.
I really enjoyed this book and it was a great start to 2023 and my plan to read at least one Ancient Greek or Roman text a month. Virgil was a very talented writer who knew how to write an excellent piece of propaganda. I also loved Ahl’s translation but I knew it would be good as he is one of my favourite translators. I happily give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BCE – September 21, 19 BCE), usually called Virgil or Vergil /ˈvɜrdʒəl/ in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.
Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome’s greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Modeled after Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy—in Roman mythology the founding act of Rome. Virgil’s work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably the Divine Comedy of Dante, in which Virgil appears as Dante’s guide through hell and purgatory.
I hope everyone has had a good week so far and have some good plans for the weekend.
My chosen poem for this week is by another new poet for me, Sergei Yesenin. Yesenin (1895-1925) was a Russian lyric poet.
The Birch Tree
Under my window
Tucked in the snow
White birch retired
Clad in silver glow.
On the fluffy branches
Snowy-trim with silver-tinge
Melted around catkins
Forming white fringe.
Like golden fires
Snow-flakes blazed
While birch stood still
Asleep, or amazed.
Meanwhile, lazily
Strolling around,
Dawn threw more 'silver'
On the twigs (and ground).
Sergei Yesenin
Lady Book Dragon 