Have you ever wondered who else held your library book? What if it was a historical, ancient textbook? Who tore that one page? Or stained the other? Or left a bookmark in it? Fascinating theme for a story, but if I'm honest, this book took a lot of work to get through it all.
An Australian woman who is a book conservationist has the task of examining and attempting to trace the history of an ancient Jewish text that has survived through the Crusades, the Inquisition, WWII, and more...historical times that such books were victims of censorship, burned and destroyed. Different chapters examine the book's survival through such times and important players surrounding the life of the book.
Again, fascinating concept. Sadly, it didn't work for me. As I ask myself "why?", I think I never connected to really any of the characters of the story. One character's story engaged me more than others, but there were so many that didn't, I was left disappointed.
A lot of readers on goodreads thought highly of this book. Another blogger and book lover enjoyed this book immensely as well. Maybe I'm just not as smart as them. If a book feels like I'm laboring while I'm reading it, then that book isn't going to be my favorite.
I read Year of Wonders by this same author. That book, I expected it to be work to get through, and it wasn't. I enjoyed it much more. She has other works that interest me as well, so I'm not giving up on Geraldine Brooks.
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It's the 7th year for the Aussie Author Challenge, and my 2nd year participating (click on the picture/link to take you directly to the site for more information). My working book list is as follows:
Female Authors:
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks- COMPLETED 23 April 2016What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty- COMPLETED 25 March 2016- The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington(non-fiction)- COMPLETED 17 January 2016
Male Authors:
- Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
- Life or Death by Michael Robotham
Guilt by Matthew Nable- COMPLETED 3 February 2016- The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman
Authors New to Me:
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Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett- COMPLETED 12 March 2016 This House of Grief by Helen Garner(non-fiction)- COMPLETED 25 February 2016- Thornwood House by Anna Romer
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic- COMPLETED 14 April 2016
It seems like such an interesting concept for a book. I'm sorry it fell flat for you.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really interesting concept for a book... Each chapter/part had a different character? That's kind of neat.
ReplyDeleteI love the premise too and it's a bummer that it didn't work for you. I hate that when that happens.
ReplyDeleteI really love the premise of the book but I could see how it could fall flat in many ways. That stinks!!! I hate when something isn't as good as I want it to be.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds so interesting, especially to think that a book would have been able to survive that long. Sometimes you just can't help if you don't connect with the characters though!
ReplyDeletehmmmm fascinating concept indeed. i haven't read any of her books so i will check out the one you liked more.
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