Book reports

I just finished reading Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. While I was sick I didn't feel like doing much more than laying on the couch and this gave me something to do to pass the time. I like historical fiction and the recent movie and flurry of book releases surrounding it piqued my interest in Marie Antoinette again. I studied the French Revolution in several different history classes and always got the idea that Marie Antoinette was completely out of touch with reality and did nothing but spend money while the people of France starved. This novel made me rethink that previous judgment. I realize it's fictional, and M.A. may well have been every bit as selfish and delusional as I learned before, but the author has really written it in a way that left me sympathetic with M.A. and feeling like maybe she was misunderstood--as we know, history is usually written by the winners, and the French Monarchy didn't exactly come out on top during the Revolution. I agree that she spent exorbitant sums of money on frivolity (working replica of a peasant village on the grounds of Versailles, anyone?) that could probably have been put to better use elsewhere. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction. I'm dying to see the Sofia Coppola/Kirsten Dunst movie that came out last year but since it's a total chick movie I haven't been able convince Quin to watch it with me. I think I'll have to save that one for while he's gone.

The second book I have to review is Thunderstruck by Erik Larson. I read his earlier book, The Devil in the White City, back when it first came out. Both books are in a similar style: he tells two stories that seem parallel but eventually come together. In the first book, I found myself skipping over the architecture mumbo-jumbo to get to the juicier parts about the serial killer. In Thunderstruck I ended up doing the same thing. The two stories are of Guglielmo Marconi (inventor of the wireless telegraph) and Dr. Harvey Crippen, noted wife-killer. The parts about Marconi held my attention only briefly--I started skipping those pretty early on and just reading about Dr. Crippen. Larson's books are well-researched, but they're just plain boring. I gave him two chances and that's it for me.

The third book I've read recently is Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine. I'd heard a little about her on the news and thought her premise was interesting--not that I'd be remotely interested in doing it myself, however. I ended up skimming most of this book as well. Levine comes off as a self-absorbed, elitist New Yorker who in one instance throws a fit because she can't find that day's edition of The New York Times in a 7-11 in Bozeman, Montana. How very provincial, indeed. She never misses an opportunity to bash the Bush administration, at times seeming to invent reasons to throw in barbs. Her ultra-liberal, ultra-feminist, aging-hippie dogma was so overpowering that I found it hard to get past and see her message. Hey Judith--I can't hear what you're saying because you're yelling too loud! That was a big waste of my time. Not recommended.