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#238 ~ The Wives of Henry Oades ~ Review & Giveaway
The Wives of Henry Oades
Published by: Ballantine Books
Published on: February 2010
Page Count: 384
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: ARC snagged through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program
Availability: paperback and eBook
Today it is my great pleasure to be Johanna Moran’s host on her TLC Book Tour for her novel, The Wives of Henry Oades. I would like to thank LibraryThing and her publisher for sending me a review copy. I would also like to thank Random House for a copy to giveaway on this blog! Please see the end of my review for a list of the blogs who are on this tour with me.
I have a lot of fun working as a tour host for TLC Book Tours. They always have great books and authors on tour. Check out their website for more information on this tour and the others that they are hosting.
My Review
During the late 19th century, Henry Oades was looking to get ahead in his career and make an even better life for his family when he agreed to take a position that required he move his family from England to a much less civilized New Zealand. His wife Meg didn’t really want to leave her family, but supported her husband because it would only be for a few years. What neither of them anticipated was the hostility between white settlers and the native Maori increasing after their arrival. One evening, in revenge of a Maori beating, Henry’s family is kidnapped while he is away at work. From there begins a heart wrenching nightmare almost beyond comprehension. After holding out hope longer than most people felt sane, Henry eventually leaves New Zealand for America. In San Fransisco, he discovers a love for farming and eventually falls in love with a young widow. Shorty after Henry and Nancy marry, Meg brings her family out of captivity. When Henry and his first family reunite, a struggle of a much different kind begins.
When I saw information about The Wives of Henry Oades while reviewing the list of Early Reviewer books last year, I knew it was one that I’d have to read. I could not imagine what it would be like to be in Henry Oades’ shoes. He believed he had lost his entire family and it was only reluctantly that he set off to start his life over again. Just when he found purpose and contentment, he learns that his original family was alive and well. What would you do? Worse yet, what would or could a woman in the late 19th century do if she was given up for dead and her husband remarried? What would or could a young widow with a small baby do when her new husband’s dead wife shows up on her doorstep. I was so thrilled to learn that I had snagged it because I was going to be able to find out.
This book was a perfect match for me. I love that it was told mainly through the voices of Meg and Nancy, Henry’s two wives. I was intrigued from the very first when Meg and Henry set off to New Zealand and I didn’t want to put the book down until it was finished. Some parts were difficult to read, especially the scenes of the kidnapping and the direct aftermath, but I could not stop reading. I also found it interesting how Berkeley society, now seen as such a liberal, accepting place, could not see the difference between purposeful bigamy and an accident of fate that fell upon both halves of Henry’s family. The community was too busy titillating themselves with what might be happening behind the Oades’ doors to take take stock of what really did.
The Wives of Henry Oades was inspired by a legal extract about the Oades case that Moran’s father brought home to her mother. What an interesting launching pad of a novel. I enjoyed it all the way through. I do have one lingering question about a decision Henry makes along the way, but mentioning that here would give too much of the story away. My question aside, there would be an evening’s worth of topics to discuss after reading this novel. It would also be interesting to read this novel and The 19th Wife back to back and discuss the impact of bigamy on the women involved during the 19th century. I highly recommend this novel. There are so many ways to look at this novel and the events it brings to life. I would love to hear what you think.
*****
Giveaway
I am excited to offer one lucky reader an opportunity to win a copy of this novel from the publisher. To enter, leave a comment to this post with your thoughts about how bigamy impacts the women involved. There is so much to say about it. As much as I could never see myself coping well with that kind of living arrangement, I wonder how much cleaner my house would be if I had a sister wife around here…
This giveaway will be open for entries until Thursday, March 18 at 11:59 EST. I will use the wonderful Randomizer to select the winner and will make the announcement soon thereafter.
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Check out Johanna Moran’s other TLC Book Tours Tour Stops:
Monday, February 15th: Luxury Reading
Wednesday, February 17th: Book Club Classics!
Thursday, February 18th: My Friend Amy
Friday, February 19th: Beth Fish Reads author guest post
Monday, February 22nd: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Tuesday, February 23rd: The 3 R’s Blog
Thursday, February 25th: It’s All About Books
Friday, February 26th: Thoughts of an Evil Overlord
Monday, March 1st: Rundpinne
Tuesday, March 2nd: Peeking Between the Pages
Wednesday, March 3rd: A High and Hidden Place
Friday, March 5th: Stephanie’s Confessions of a Book-aholic
Monday, March 8th: Bibliofreak
Tuesday, March 9th: A Lifetime of Books
Wednesday, March 10th: Starting Fresh
Thursday, March 11th: Savvy Verse and Wit
Monday, March 15th: The Calico Critic
#189 ~ Scottsboro
Scottsboro
One summer day, during the 1930s at the Scottsboro, Alabama train station, police officers wait to apprehend several black men on the inbound train after word of a fight between them and some white passengers was reported. When the train stops, two females dressed in overalls haul tail away from the police but are soon caught. During interviews with the police, the women accuse the nine “boys” of rape. The men were convicted on sight and were lucky to survive the wait for the trial without being lynched. Many people, mainly those from the liberal North, do not believe that the Scottsboro Boys received a fair trial. For Alice Whittier, who, as a female reporter and near-Communist Party member, was a minority herself, this case was the breakthrough her career needed. She was able to gain access to the female victims and the Scottsboro Boys that others were not able to because they lacked her temperament and finesse. While most suspected it, it was she who got Ruby Bates to admit that the Scottsboro Boys never raped her or her companion. Alice’s articles about and interviews with Ruby are enlightening in other ways. Alice learns that she is not free of prejudice and that the poor are not always innocent, noble victims of the capitalist world.
When I first met Alice, I wasn’t sure that I was going to like her. She came off as overly self-righteous and, because she was certain she was in the right, assured of her vast superiority as she made her way down to Scottsboro. That combination is a turn off. Yet along the way there was a glimmer of something else. Alice wasn’t blinded by her moral superiority to see her own faults, especially when she saw herself through Ruby’s eyes and gave thought to Ruby’s questions. The woman who set off to Scottsboro to help correct “their” problem discovered that she and those like her had some work of her own to do. She took those moments to heart and in doing so became a well-rounded character that I could embrace.
Although Scottsboro involves the events surrounding the real-life trials of the nine Scottsboro boys, it is a novel that can be read and enjoyed by those familiar and unfamiliar with these historical events. Given the quotes at the beginning of each chapter as well as illusions made throughout the novel by either of the novel’s narrators, the end of the story is not a mystery. It’s not completely spelled out, either. For me, someone who either didn’t know or couldn’t remember the specifics of these trials, this worked very well. I felt as though I understood the ultimate outcome from afar and then enjoyed it as all the pieces of the story fit together to get me there.
Despite the slow start, I enjoyed Scottsboro. In the human condition there is very rarely a sharp distinction between hero and villain when get close enough to examine the details. In her novel, Ellen Feldman is very open about how both sides of the aisle used those unfortunate Scottsboro Boys and their female accusers as pawns to further their own causes. Be they Southern “good ol’ boys” or Communist Party member working for the common man, everyone has an agenda and often it is the people they are protecting or for whom lobbying who pay the price. Feldman brought this experience to life and created an interesting and intelligent character in Alice. I may have been put off by her in the beginning, but I’m curious about the woman she becomes after the book closes. This is a good novel to use to open a discussion on the Civil Rights Movement, the media, and political parties and their motivations.
++++++
Special thanks to LibraryThing and W. W. Norton & Company for providing me a copy of this book. I was lucky enough to snag it through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.
Access to the Early Reviewers program is just one of the many reasons why I use LibrayThing to catalog my books online. You should check it out.
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To buy this novel, click here
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#184 ~ The Angel’s Game
The Angel’s Game
As a lover of Gothic fiction, I was over the moon to have been selected to snag a copy of The Angel’s Game from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. I was far from disappointed. Despite a vague sense that the novel was long, I loved the story and quickly became engrossed in it. Set in Barcelona, I loved mystery and darkness and enveloped David Martín’s life after he began writing stories in installment for a small local paper. His way was paved for him by his benefactor and legendary Barcelona author and his talent caught the interest of a strange Parisian editor, Andreas Corelli. Corelli wants him to take a year of his life to write a book written to his own specifications. In exchange, Martín would recieve a small fortune and a freedom from tight weekly or monthly deadlines. While researching Corelli’s odd request, Martín becomes embroiled in so deep in a sinister mystery that inevitably leads back to the history of his house and disrupts the few relationships he’s been able to maintain over the years.
Zafón creates a Barcelona of dark tunnels and secrets that is both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He clearly loves this place, right down to the underbelly where the witch’s reside. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect setting for this novel. Only Barcelona could house the cryptic castle-like home that Martín chooses to rent as soon as he has a reliable source of income. I love wondering what the house was all about and the sheer foreboding present in the novel whenever it was mentioned.
My favorite scene of the novel is when we first see Corelli. Martín isn’t sure he believes what he is seeing, but what he believes he sees in that moment is about the more freakishly alive thing I have read in a long time. I could clearly picture what Martín thought he was seeing and it gave me goosebumps. It was such a strong image that I could close my eyes and conjure the image back up again without needing to read that passage over again.
If what I’ve read thus far is any indication, Carlos Ruis Zafón is destined to become one of my favorite authors. According to Wikipedia The Angel’s Game is a prequel to Zafón’s first novel, wihch I have not read. [For the once this summer, I'll actually be reading novels in order. What a nice feeling! LOL!]. I will definitely be making time to read The Shadow of the Wind soon. I’m curious to learn more about The Cemetery of Forgotten Books the fate of Sempere & Sons bookshop. I can see enjoying his work more with each book I read. With the translation of this novel being so beutifully written, I cannot image what it’s like to read Zafón in his native language. This is a must read for fans of Gothic fiction.
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To buy this novel, click here
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- Q & A: Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon (time.com)
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Tuesday Thingers All About Popularity
Today’s Question: What’s the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What’s the most popular book you don’t have? How does a book’s popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?
The Most popular book that I own is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This is also the most popular book on LibraryThing as it is owned by 32,529 members. I haven’t read that book even though I own the entire series. I have many people at work who are encouraging me (in some cases badgering me) to read the series, and for whatever reason, I’m just can’t work up the motivation to get started. I typically don’t read fantasy, but I think I’m more hesitant because it’s just so darn popular. At this point, who would really care if I said that I’ve finally started the series? I’m quite probably the last person on earth who hasn’t. Do I really want to read these books just to say that I have? Do I want to wait and read them with my daughters (5 and 3) when they get old enough?
The most popular book that I don’t own is The Da Vinci Code (23,291 LibraryThing owners). I tried to read this at one point because my sister loved it and asked me to, but I couldn’t get past the evil monk flogging himself. There was something about it that just felt off to me and I stopped reading it. The Jesus and Mary Magdalen controversy doesn’t do anything for me. Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” explored this in a really meaningful way. If I did want to read about that, I’d pick up The Last Temptation by Nikos Kazantzakis off of my bookshelf and read that. I have absolutely no desire to revisit The Da Vinci Code.
In general, I don’t think that a book’s popularity affects me other than the hype surrounding it. If there is a really hot historical fiction book, I’ll pick it up and read it in a heart-beat. Even if I don’t end up liking it, I’m almost always glad I read it because I enjoy the discussions around it. The Da Vinci Code and Eat, Pray, Love are examples of books that were/are really popular that turn me off. In both cases, I didn’t finish the book and wished that I had followed my instincts and never picked them up in the first case. In those cases, if they weren’t popular I wouldn’t have been given copies of the books in the first place.
How about you? What’s your history with popular books?
Tuesday Thingers 6/3
Today’s Tuesday Thingers question is: Why LT?
Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?
I looked into LibraryThing after a friend’s daughter told me about it. I’m not a big researcher when it comes to these types of things. I jump right in. That being said, I’m not likely to dig too far into anything unless I know to look for it – which is bad. Tuesday Thingers is a case in point. I belong to the Early Reviewers group, but I had no idea about the bloggers getting together until I heard about it from Devourer of Books.
With social networking, I’m pretty much a follower. I have a MySpace account (which I rarely touch anymore) and a Facebook account. I didn’t join either until persuaded by my family or friends. Even though I use Facebook more frequently, there’s a lot of things you can do that I’m oblivious to. It’s pretty much a way to send messages back and forth for me.
This is a really good question for me this week. I’ve been meaning to do more digging into what LT is and can be for me. I need to spend more time reading up on all of the site’s features. I promise to report back a the end of my post next week about one aspect of LT that I’ve discovered and have started using.
#74 Love Marriage
Love Marriage
This debut novel tells the story of Yalini, a young woman who was born in the United States to parents who grew up in Sri Lanka. What makes her parents special is that they had a Love Marriage. They fell in love and decided to marry on their own. Their relationship was not Proper in that family did not make the arrangements for them. Because of this, there was heartache, albeit short-lived due to the distance, for both families. Yalini’s maternal uncle Kumaran went so far as to confront Yalini’s father’s family. When Kumaran comes to the Canada with terminal cancer, Yalini confronts the past not only of her family, but of Sri Lanka as well.
Before reading this novel, I knew very little about Sri Lanka. Learning about the history of this small nation was the most interesting part of this novel. Although I very much remember the terrible tsunami which hit there very recently, I was very interested in history that has taken place in Jaffna. I found the story relating to the Tamil Tigers very interesting and I plan to read more about them on my own.
Overall, I found the prose to be very self-conscious. I always felt the author’s presence and because of that, I never got lost in what could have been an engrossing story. I believe that this story would have flowed so beautifully if it were allowed free from Ganeshananthan’s tight control over style.
Despite the issues I had with the writing, this book is an example of what can make reading fiction so powerful – igniting a reader’s desire to learn about someone or something new. Encouraging personal growth is no small accomplishment. I would recommend this novel to anyone who might be interested in Sri Lanka, most specifically about the Tamil Tigers.
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To buy this book, click here
Smoky Mountain Vacation
Greetings from Gatlinburg, TN, located in heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s beautiful here despite the rain and I’ve enjoyed seeing my parents (I haven’t see my mother on Mother’s Day for at least 10 years), siblings, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. The kids did a great job on the drive. Even if they hadn’t, it’s just nice being out of the Roanoke Valley.
Although we’ll be away from home for 9 days, I’m planning on getting some good reading in:
- Taking Lisa’s advice from Books on the Brain, I rented Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan from the library.
- I snagged the latest book by Patrick McGrath, Trauma on the way to the checkout desk I was at the library.
- The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block, which I received through a trade with another Early Reviewer on LibraryThing.
- I picked up The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani for under $5 at Barnes and Noble last week. I’ve been wanting to read this since I read a review by Divia on HistoricalFiction.org.
- Finally, I’m finishing up The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir. I’d love to say that I’m loving it, but it’s just okay. No offense to Last Night at the Lobster, but I shouldn’t be looking forward to my next book. I should be savoring this one. Sigh…
Top 106 Unread Books on LibraryThing
Devourer of Books posted this meme earlier today and it was so inspiring to me. We might even come up with a way to make it a friendly, book blogging competition.
We both are fans of LibraryThing and this the list of what at least was once the listing of the top 106 unread books (annotated to match my experience as modeled by Dev):
Asterisk – I own the book
Bold – I’ve read the book – w/link if reviewed
Italics – I’ve started the book
Stricken – I hated the book
Underline – on my current TBR list
Jonathan Strange & M. Norrell
*Anna Karenina
*Crime and Punishment
*Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
*Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
*Life of Pi: a novel
*The Name of the Rose
*Don Quixote (read in Spanish, own in English)
*Moby Dick
*Ulysses
*Madame Bovary
*The Odyssey
*Pride and Prejudice
*Jane Eyre
*A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
*War and Peace
*Vanity Fair
*The Time Traveler’s Wife
*The Iliad
*Emma
*The Blind Assassin
*The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
*Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
*Atlas shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
*Memoirs of a Geisha
*Middlesex
Quicksilver
*Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian
*A portrait of the artist as a young man
*Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
*The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
*The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
*The Poisonwood Bible
*1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
*Sense and sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
*Mansfield Park
*One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse
*Tess of the D’Urbervilles
*Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
*The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
*Dune
The Prince
*The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
*The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
*A confederacy of dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
*Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
*Slaughterhouse-five
*The Scarlet Letter
*Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
*Lolita
*Persuasion
*Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
*Gravity’s Rainbow
*The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White teeth
Treasure Island
*David Copperfield
*The Three Musketeers
So I own 44
I’ve read 35
I’ve started 2
I’ve hated 2
And 5 are on my TBR list
How do you fare against the 106?
Without an ARC
For the past week it seems as though all it’s done is rain, and I’m without an ARC. Please don’t read that as a complaint, though. I have two on the way: Love Marriage by V.V. Ganeshananthan through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers for April and Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan through Barnes & Nobles’ First Look Book Club. Even if those books weren’t somewhere in the mail, I am still happy to be without an ARC. While I absolutely love getting to read free books (who wouldn’t), there is a special commitment made to read and review them in a timely manner. From the moment they arrive in the mail, they become my first in line to be read. Books I’ve actually purchased sit gathering dust on my bookshelf. So, right now, I feel pretty foot loose and fancy free – and my current choices are proving to be very interesting and very personal.
Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield – I bought this book at some point last year for my husband. At that time I bought the book, I knew nothing about the author. I had no idea that the author lived in Charlottesville around the same time as my husband. Last night, after midnight, Danny and I discovered that he knew Sheffield’s wife when she lived in Roanoke!!!! I won’t reveal any more here, because it will be repeated in my review. Suffice to say that I kept saying, “It’s a small f*#!ing world!” over and over again. I’m really excited to write my post about this memoir. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope by the Van Ryn and Cerak families. I remember when the story about this tragically deadly car accident hit the news. At the time, I must have registered that the Van Ryn family was from Grand Rapids, but I was surprised again to hear that familiar accent when I happened upon their interview on Dateline NBC at the end of March. The story was as beautiful as it was heart wrenching. This isn’t typically the type of book I would buy or read, but the hometown connection and the goodness of these people made it impossible for me not to buy.
So, I’m not fretting how long it’s taking Love Marriage to arrive. I’m basking in the glow of my own choices right now.
On the Horizon
I have some fun things to look forward to in Literate Housewife-Land:
- I received an Advanced Readers Copy of Artist’s Proof by Lander Marks in the mail on Monday. After I finish reading it, I will be interviewing the author. I’m really excited to get to do that again.
- I am on the look out for two other ARCs: The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker (snagged through LibraryThing) and Gilding Lily by Tatiana Boncampagni (through HarperCollins). Since I snagged The Venetian Mask last month and it has yet to arrive, I’m starting to have my doubts about receiving it. That’s a little disappointing, but I’ll survive. Besides, it will be nice change to read two novels that are not historical fiction. I love historical fiction as you know, but a girl needs a little variety every now and then.
- My parents and my Uncle Ryan are coming down for a visit this weekend. I love to watch my kids interact with my parents. It should be a nice, relaxing weekend.
- I have registered www.literatehousewife.com! I am busy dreaming about how I want the site to look and work. As I’m no artist, I am looking for someone to help me with the colors, graphics, and logo I’ll need to complete the website and I’ve finally found a good lead. I’m hoping to have the site up and running this summer. I’m going to incorporate my blog and my Tudor Fan Site, which I’ll be building on that as well as well as adding a forum. When all that happens, be on the lookout for changes here, too.
- I am going to Vegas in June!!!!! As part of my new position at work, I’ve been invited to attend a conference being held at The Venetian. Sometimes I really feel like my life is swimming in connections. Artist’s Proof takes place in Las Vegas and, assuming that my LibraryThing snag will arrive in time, I might be reading The Venetian Mask by the pool at the Venetian!
Before all of that, I’ll be quickly finishing up Devil Water by Anya Seton and posting my review. It’s been a much more interesting read than the last book.
Book Blogger Con
Have you heard about the 1st Annual Book Blogger Convention that will be held in NYC during the BEA? You should check it out. I know it will be a fantastic experience. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend due to family obligations, but I'll be trolling blogs for up to the minute news.
WE Magazine’s A Woman Blogger to Watch
Literate Challenges
What's in a Name? 3
Random Reading Challenge
