Our Book Reviews
Here you'll find reviews of novels that have come our way and that we think are of particular interest to tea and/or history lovers. If you'd like to contribute, send your review along with the book title and author to editor@glily.com.
Please keep your review to 150 words and keep in mind we review modern books written about our eras of interest, which span 1800 through 1940. Reviews of modern tea mysteries are also welcome.
Book titles featuring
are Lily Bluestocking selections, and we encourage you to share the book and the questions with friends.
Winter 2008: The Winter Rose, By Jennifer Donnelly
You’ll find the second tale of Jennifer Donnelly’s Rose Trilogy almost impossible to put down! It’s 1900 and after graduating from the London School of Medicine for Women, aristocratic India Selwyn Jones risks everything in order to follow her dream of practicing medicine in London’s poorest slums.But, her life is turned upside down after she saves the notorious crime boss, Sid Malone, from near death. Hard, violent, and driven by a tortured past, he is the very opposite of India’s fiancé, Freddie Lytton. Love, seduction, ambition, and greed carry us and Donnelly’s characters on an intense journey that spans three continents before ending in a dramatic climax.
Ms. Donnelly's attention to historical detail is second only to her ability to weave a story. We eagerly await the final book of this trilogy, The Wild Rose.
Winter 2008: The Silver Needle Murder, By Laura Childs
Lovers of tea and cozy mysteries rejoice! Laura Childs latest story reunites us with our old friends and delivers the genteel tea drinking we’ve come to expect of the Indigo Tea Shop. However, as first noticed in her last tale, Dragonwell Dead, she’s again kicking up the action.It’s the first night of the Charleston Film Festival and Theodosia and Drayton are busy brewing tea and mingling in the renovated Belvedere Theatre when a controversial LA director is murdered in front of the entire festival audience. The killer escapes by jumping into a dumb waiter and, Theodosia, who by now has even earned the respect of Inspector Tidwell, has no choice but to get involved. The sleuthing and sipping doesn’t end until poor Drayton has two close calls, there’s a second “icy” murder, and Theodosia ruins two of Delanie dresses! It’s a fast paced and enjoyable read.
Winter 2007: The Crimson Portrait, By Jody Shields
World War I rages in England and Catherine, following the wishes of her recently deceased husband, allows her country estate to be turned into a bustling military hospital designed to serve the war's most irreparably injured men.Grieving, perhaps almost to the brink of madness, Catherine finds unexpected solace in the company of a wounded soldier whose face, concealed by bandages, she cannot see. Their affair takes an unexpected turn when fate presents her with an opportunity to remake her lover in the image of her lost husband - with the unwitting help of a visionary surgeon and an American artist.
Inspired by the little-known but extraordinary collaboration between artists and surgeons in the treatment of wounded men in the World War I, the story is intriguing and illuminates both the mysteries of identity as well as the ravages of war and love. This second novel of Jody Shields, released late in 2006, firmly establishes her excellence at creating compelling characters and is a highly recommended read.
Winter 2007: Dragonwell Dead, By Laura Childs
Although still a cozy and with all the characters we've come to love, Laura Childs' newest Tea Shop Mystery can be described as pulse pounding. Theodosia now not only witnesses a poisoning, but also arson, a stalking madman, and becomes part of a bizarre river adventure while hunting wild orchids. The kidnapping/shooting/chase finale will surely leave you needing a good cup of strong tea.
Winter 2007: Darjeeling, By Bharti Kirchner
When Pranab becomes engaged to Aloka Gupta but decides it is Aloka's sister, Sujata, that he truly loves, the Gupta family is torn apart and their lives forever altered. Both sisters must discover their hidden strengths and powers of forgiveness. Capturing the life, landscape, culture, and culinary delights of life on a Darjeeling tea plantation, you'll likely find yourself longing to hear the Bengali language, inhale the aroma of ghee, and see for yourself a tangerine sun rising the above the peak of Kanchenjunga. A particularly interesting read for westerners.
Fall 2006: The River's Edge, By Lenore McKelvey Puhek
New York socialite Libby Townsend and Irish orator Thomas Meagher seem worlds apart, but destiny threw them together in The River's Edge and in real life. Meeting in 1852, they fell deeply in love and soon married. Ms. Puhek has searched through personal diaries, letters, and newspapers to give us a moving novel that replays the lives of these two people and those who loved them. Included is the love letter Thomas Meagher wrote to Libby Townsend - a letter so eloquent and heartfelt that it became the reason Ms. Puhek chose to write the The River's Edge. A very interesting read.
Spring 2006: The Fig Eater, By Judy Shields
Although somewhat slow paced and with perhaps not the most satisfying of endings, The Fig Eater has much to recommend it. The hunt for a killer begins in 1910 in Vienna after an eighteen year old girl named Dora (loosely inspired by Freud's famous patient) is found murdered near the Imperial Palace. Not only is the Inspector trying to solve the crime, but his Hungarian wife, Erzebet, and her friend are also following their own leads. Erzebet is superstitious and well versed in spells and divination and her involvement begins to alter her relationship with her husband. The author does an excellent job of creating atmosphere and the mood of old Vienna. Those attached to our modern CSI television shows will find the truly old fashioned means of detection fascinating.
Spring 2006: Blood Orange Brewing, By Laura Childs
Luckily for Laura Child’s fans, the citizens of Charleston don’t yet realize the dangers of gathering together! This time Theodosia quickly finds herself keeping pace with Detective Tidwell after Duke Wilkes is found stabbed to death with a Civil War era dirk at the Candlelight Concert. With a second murder, busy days at the Indigo Tea Shop and her dog Earl Grey in possible danger, Theodosia barely has time to solve this mystery. A great beginning in a spooky deserted mansion and a great twist at the end makes Blood Orange Brewing another cozy winner!
Spring 2004: Photographing Fairies, By Steve Szilagyi
With mystery, fantasy, and a bit of darkness, author Steve Szilagyi's first novel tells an offbeat tale of what happens when a series of events lead American photographer Charles Castle to begin a quest for fairies. Mr. Castle discovers more than he had ever imagined and learns that "purity and depravity can be found together in the human heart." An interesting book that keeps your attention and that will surely leave you with interesting thoughts to ponder upon. A more thoughtful book than one imagines at first glance.
Winter 2004: The Jasmine Moon Murder, By Laura Childs
Murder hits close to home in Laura Child's newest Tea Shop Mystery. Theodosia has been dating Jory Davis for some time now and when Jory's uncle, Dr. Jasper Davis, is murdered by a toxic dose of fentanyl at Charleston's Ghost Crawl, Theodosia has no choice but to help find the murderer. No matter what she promised Detective Burt Tidwell! Laura Childs never lets us down.
Autumn 2003: The English Breakfast Club Murder, By Laura Childs
When Theodosia discovers a dead body in the water during the annual sea turtle hatch, she and those of the Indigo Tea Shop find themselves once again embroiled in murder. The victim, a friend of master tea blender Drayton Conneley, had a passion for sunken ships, and it is not long before treasure and a strange group called the English Breakfast Club look very suspicious. Our hats are off to Laura Child's fourth Tea Shop Mystery and we wait, with teacups in hand, for spring 2004 and the arrival of Jasmine Moon Murder.
Summer 2003: Possession, By A. S. Byatt
This extremely well managed story, first published in 1991, is a literary novel, romantic quest, epic poem, critical essay, and fairy tale rolled in mystery with something to offer everyone. Roland Mitchell is a struggling literary scholar who discovers a previously unknown letter of the great Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash, a letter that ultimately changes the course of his life. Seeking out Maude Bailey, an expert on the writing of yet another Victorian poet, Christabel LaMotte, they begin a secret search for manuscripts and the missing pieces of a puzzle that links the Victorian poets to one another. Full of interesting characters and ideas, the story jumps back and forth in time and between literary genres, yet never loses its thread. The ending makes the story difficult to leave behind.
Questions
What does the concept of "possession" mean to the novel's various characters and can it be seen as the theme of the book?
Mortimer Cropper is presented as a grave robber while Beatrice Nest wishes to preserve Christabel's final letter to Randolph unread. Is there a fine line between a ghoulish intrusion upon the privacy of the dead and the legitimate claims of scholarship and history? One secret is revealed only to the reader. What difference does that secret make to Roland's future?
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, published in Origin of Species in 1859, delivered a terrible blow to the Victorians' religious faith. It also created a moment of crisis in the poets’ lives: "Doubt," says Christabel, "doubt is endemic to our life in this world at this time." How does Byatt compare this spiritual crisis with that which has befallen Roland and Maud's generation, who are taught to believe that the "self" is illusory.
Roland and Maud are aware they are taking part in a quest, a classic element of medieval and nineteenth-century romance. What other elements of romance can be found in Maud and Roland's story? In Christabel and Randolph's?
Upon returning to his flat at the end of the novel, Roland decides there is no reason why he should not go out into the garden. What is the emotional significance of his finally entering the garden?
Spring 2003: Shades of Earl Grey, By Laura Childs
The seemingly accidental death of Savannah’s Cory Buchanan arouses Theodosia’s suspicions and she soon comes to the conclusion that there is a cat burglar at work in Charlesto’s historic district. Together with Drayton, the master tea blender of the Indigo Tea Shop, Theodosia devises a clever plan for catching him – or her! The cast of Ms. Child’s tea shop mysteries have become old friends and this reviewer hopes that Theodosia Browning continues to“brew trouble.” Shades of Earl Grey is yet another winner.
Winter 2003: The Tea Rose, By Jennifer Donnelly
Fiona Finnegan is an Irish girl working in a tea factory and living in the slums of 1880's London, but dreaming of owning her own shop. When a series of crushing and life-altering blows befall her and she realizes that her own life is also in danger, she flees to New York where she takes over her drunken uncle's small grocery. With the support of new friends, Fiona builds a new life and, ultimately, her own tea dynasty. Ms. Donnelly's compelling debut novel successfully weaves murder and revenge, an indomitable your heroine, and love lost and regained, into a seductive tale that will draw you in at the first page and not let you go until the last.
Fall 2002: Goodnight Sweet Prince, By David Dickinson
When Lord Francis Powerscourt first agrees to investigate the murder of Prince Eddy, the son of the Prince of Wales, he is unaware of the scandal and debauchery that he and his friends will uncover. He is also unaware that it is his own life soon to be in danger. While definitely not complimentary to the monarchy, Goodnight Sweet Prince is a fast paced and well done Victorian murder mystery novel that is well worth your time. Highly Recommended
Fall 2002: Gunpowder Green, By Laura Childs
Theodosia Browning finds herself in hot water once again! The proprietor of Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop is convinced that the death of one of the town's elite at the annual yacht race is no accident and is determined to prove it. In this second cozy mystery by Laura Childs, Detective Tidwell is beginning to resign himself to Theodosia's help. Lovers of tea and mystery will find this novel as cleverly plotted as Death by Darjeeling, but will also be once more enchanted by life at the Indigo Tea Shop. As readers, we must ask Ms. Childs one question. Where can we find the intriguing teas she mentions in her books! Recommended.
Summer 2002: Masterpiece of Murder, By Mary Kruger
This is the third Gilded Age mystery by Mary Kruger to feature the newly married and very charming Brooke and Matt Devlin. Having barely returned from their honeymoon, they are thrown into yet another murder case. As Matt Devlin is a Detective Sargent with the New York police, it is a matter of course that he be involved. It is rather less conventional that Brooke continually finds herself embroiled in murder. A light, fast paced, and enjoyable story whose main characters you will hate to leave behind.
Summer 2002: The Year of Jubilo, By Howard Bahr
As Gawain Harper walks the southerly road home, returning in 1865 from a war he did not want to be a part of to begin with, he begins to have the sensation that he is walking through someone else’s memory. His thoughts are of Morgan Rhea, a woman he loves but whose father insisted that marriage was not an option unless Gawain first enlist in the Confederate army.Indeed, Gawain’s community is no longer the same. However, it was not altered only by the war: The deeds of the violent white supremacist, Solomon Gault, have also left a mark. A deluded and violent man, Gault is the self appointed leader of a group of vigilante insurrectionists who are ready to do his bidding.
The Year of Jubilo contains an array of vividly interesting characters, each with his own intertwining story. The tale is very lyrically told, with the conversation between Gawain and his friend Stribling being especially eloquent. The thoughts and ideas of men returning home from the Civil War, not as victors, will give you pause for thought and perhaps more clearly define words such as chivalry and honor. Highly Recommended.
Spring 2002: Unraveling, By Elizabeth Gravers
Exquisitely poignant, Ms. Gravers intensely imagined and thoughtful writing draws the reader into the soul of the novel's main character, Aimee Slater. Born in 1829 to a small New Hampshire farm family, Aimee is a girl approaching womanhood. However, she is also a girl who wants more, who is filled with desire for something – so much so that “her skin tingled and the world seemed an itching, prying thing."After a one time incestuous experience with her brother, her guilt and longings change her relationship with her family, especially with her mother. At 15, she is reluctantly allowed to go to the fabric mills of Lowell, Massachusetts to work. The death of her brother and her mother’s letter telling her not to come home for the funeral brings an inconsolable sense of loss. She then finds herself pregnant and abandoned, although her mother makes arrangements for the twin babies she carries to be taken, unseen by Aimee, to a foster family. Aimee then returns home but the tangled threads of her relationship with her mother are too much for her, and she leaves to build a home for herself on the edge of her family’s property.
It is here that she lives as the story begins, for the novel moves back and forth in time from her childhood to her life as an adult. Aimee defies the conventions of her time, but the story is actually a timeless one of the process by which a woman comes to terms with the painful decisions and events in her life. It is a story of acceptance and of finding one’s own peace. Highly recommended.
Spring 2002: Aftershocks, By Richard S. Wheele
"The four-poster bucked Harry Barnes White to the hardwood floor and then attacked him. White dodged the bed by rolling away, spinning himself into his bedclothes like a crepe suzette. But the four-poster reared like a stallion, landed like a wrecking ball, and pinned him to the floor, which gave way under him and then delivered an uppercut to his flailing body…."And so begins Aftershocks, with the devastating earthquake in which thousands died and which left tens of thousands more homeless and destitute. Aftershocks deals with the aftermath of April 18, 1906 in San Francisco.
Mr. Wheeler’s story is built around the victims of the quake; his intent is to explore the various ways people react to disasters that are beyond the reach of blame. The story bears truth to the fact that in such circumstances people will find direction in their sense of self. Calculations during the crisis are not what primarily guide people; rather, it is the experience gained from education and life experiences, family wisdom and folklore, and religious beliefs that determine their actions.
While the central characters are fictional, Mr. Wheeler employs primary sources and documents about the earthquake and its aftermath. He also successfully describes San Francisco in its glittering heyday: it’s great hotels, its temples of finance, its literary and artistic centers, as well as its notorious Barbary Coast and Chinatown, its rat-infested sewers, and its graft-infested city hall.
A worthy read that may well leave you wondering what fault lines would be torn open in your own life and relationship, were you to experience a similar fate.
Winter 2002: Cold Sassy Tree, By Olive Ann Burns
A warm and often humorous novel, Cold Sassy Tree is the story of a turn of the century family in a small Georgia town as seen through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Will Tweety. When Will’s grandmother dies, his grandfather, Rucker Blakeslee, marries a pretty and much younger milliner less than three weeks later. This seriously challenges the mores of the town and creates a family uproar.Ms. Burns, thanks to her research, shows a good grasp of small town life in this era and many readers might well be surprised to learn of the attitudes of Cold Sassy’s residents regarding a number of topics. Very interesting is the fact that the town is moving forward into the automobile age, yet the Civil War is barely 40 years past and is a topic still felt keenly by men such as Rucker Blakeslee. As Will Tweedy matures during the course of the story, his grandfather becomes a younger man and all members of the family struggle with the timeless issues of love, death, growing up, and the ties that bind families and generations. Highly recommended.
Winter 2002:The Biograph Girl, By William Mann
Florence Lawrence was the world’s first movie star. She entered films in 1906 and by 1908 was known world-wide as The Biograph Girl. In a 1910 publicity stunt she faked her death, but actually died in 1938 from drinking rat poison.By cleverly combining true characters and details with fictional ones, Mr. Mann has created an entertaining novel based on the assumption that perhaps Ms. Lawrence did not die in 1938, but rather managed to again fake her death and begin a new life for herself.
Alternating between the past and the present, The Biograph Girl begins with the discovery of Ms. Lawrence, now 106 and living in a Catholic nursing home, by one of two twin brothers – both of whom have professional reasons for discovering her. As the story of her life unfolds and the question of murder arises, the reader is given wonderful glimpses into the early days of movie making.
The Biograph Girl is an enjoyable read that raises some interesting ideas regarding how a life begins in one place and ends in up in another. What happens in between and what gets left behind? Recommended.
Fall 2001: The Dress Lodger, By Sheri Holman
While best described as an historical tragedy, The Dress Lodger is also part thriller, part character study, and part social commentary.Sunderland, England in 1831 is quarantined by a cholera epidemic. Gustine, at 15, is mother to a fragile baby boy. Living in the poor East End of Sunderland, she serves as a potter’s assistant during the day and as a dress lodger at night, ever followed by her shadow, the Eye. When Gustine meets Dr. Henry Chiver, she believes she has found the one hope for her son and so offers him her help. Dr. Chiver operates a small anatomy school, and is a man tortured by a dark past and by what he believes to be the ignorance of men. Attracted, yet repelled, by Gustine, Dr. Chiver accepts her help for securing the bodies he needs for his work, and their lives become irrevocably linked.
Holman’s writing, which many believe to be reminiscent of Dickens in style, is both lyrical and intelligent. Her use of a multiple mysterious narrator, while often taking the reader out of the direct story line, allows for a distance in perspective, adds to the realness of the story, and sharpens the story’s climax.
The book was meticulously researched. The town and the pub, the cholera epidemic, the play, the frog plague, and a number of the characters were real. The author’s knowledge of the period and of the thinking of the two opposing classes, especially the thinking of the poor, makes for an enticing and completely thought provoking read.
Although unsettling and sometimes heart breaking, The Dress Lodger is highly recommended.
Fall 2001: On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, By Kaye Gibbons
This eloquent novel is the story of Emma Garnet Tate Howell, as told by herself on her last day of life. Emma Garnet grows up on a prosperous southern plantation with a cruel, tyrannical father and a loving mother. She marries a northern doctor by the name of Quincy Howell, a fair man with modern ideas who loves her deeply.When the Civil War breaks out, they are living in Raleigh, North Carolina, and become tireless in their dedication to save as many lives as possible. Emma Garnet learns to operate on the soldiers, and the couple allows many of the wounded into their home, sometimes performing surgery on the lid of their grand piano.
The language used is particularly pleasing, as Emma Garnet speaks with a graceful and calm cadence, rather reminiscent of Charlotte Bronte. While never melodramatic, her voice successfully depicts the reality of the bloodshed. One comes away with a better understanding of the true madness of the war years, the way in which it ravaged people's souls, and how one woman moves on. While the story is much about the war, it is more about family, honesty, and strength of character.
"On the occasion of my last afternoon, I feel no sorrow, I feel no regret, for I have done what Quincy told me to do: Face it all dry eyed. Say it. Say it. This has been such a glorious afternoon - my heart would not weep if I did not live to see another."
This book is highly recommended.
Fall 2001: Death by Darjeeling, By Laura Childs
This very light and easy read is the first in the new Tea Shop Mysteries series by Laura Childs. Aside from being the savvy owner of Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop, Theodosia Browning is an amateur sleuth. While drinking tea provided by Theodosia, an unscrupulous land developer is poisoned at the annual historic homes garden party. As Theodosia's interest is piqued and her reputation is threatened, she leaves the running of the teashop to her employees, one of whom is a suspect, in order to pursue the mystery. Lovers of tea and mysteries will find Death by Darjeeling enjoyable. Particularly interesting are the numerous references to unusual tea varieties and tea trivia along with the fact that a good part of the story takes place in the Indigo Tea Shop.
Summer 2001: A Cup of Tea, By Amy Ephron
More a novella than a novel, this very sparsely written story is an expanded version of Katherine Mansfield’s (1888 -1923) short story of the same name. Set during World War I, it is a story about choices and the subsequent chain of events that are possible when separate lives chance upon one another. Easily read in barely more than two hours, Ephron’s version quickly engages and keeps your attention. However, while one part of the story feels rather cliché, the twist at the end verges on not quite believable. It is Ms. Mansfield’s version that is the powerful and thought provoking story. However, A Cup of Tea is a worthy read and, for discussion purposes, it would be especially interesting for individuals and book groups to read both versions.
Summer 2001: The Other Anna, By Barbara Eastman
Anna Bertram is a young teenager growing up in a wealthy family in pre World War I Iowa. Her world is strongly influenced by two very different women – her domineering and cold mother, “the Prussian,” and her adoring Scottish housekeeper, “the Old One.” While the Prussian demand rigid obedience, the Old One fills Ann’s imagination with Celtic legends and tales of the Selchies, magic seals who shed their skin and take on human forms.Although Anna does not understand her mother, and feels that her mother does not really understand her, the course of her life runs smoothly until events unfold that quickly throw her into the problems and issues of adulthood, and which forever change both her thinking and her relationships.
While some reviews have claimed the ending to be a bit on the melodramatic side, The Other Anna is a worthy read. The book effectively reveals how an intelligent and idealistic young girl on the verge of womanhood comes to grips with the less than imperfect and often dishonest and hypocritical adult world. In the end, Ann courageously decides she must be true to herself and chooses her own course, forcing her family to take a different look at their lives. Recommended.
Spring 2001: Fortune's Rocks, By Anita Shreves
Set at the turn of the century, Fortunes' Rocks is the story of Olympia Biddleford, the well educated 15 year old daughter of an elite Boston family. While vacationing with her family at their New Hampshire home, she falls passionately in love with her father's friend, John Haskell. Haskell is 41 years old, a physician, and a husband with four children.Deeply drawn to one another, Olympia and Haskell begin a reckless love affair that ultimately proves cataclysmic for them and their families. The second half of the book revolves around Olympia's attempts to reconstruct a life for herself. While the book is controversial, the story is extremely well crafted, compelling the reader to continually turn to the next page. Shreves manages to combine passionate romance, commentary on 19th century life, and a courtroom drama into a tale that raises many questions of conscience for her readers. Highly recommended!