Labyrinth

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

July 2005. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig, stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth.

Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade that will rip apart southern France, a young woman named Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. Now, as crusading armies gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take a tremendous sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

Labyrinth Audio Version


After only a few chapters of this book, I started to have such disturbing dreams that I had to stop reading it. This has happened before, occasionally, with books that touch on some violent time in history. My husband, however, was interested and was able to read it to the end. I asked him to write a review for my blog, but he declined. His comment, "It was pretty good." He is a man of few words.

Blind Submission

Blind Submission: A Novel by Debra Ginsberg

This book caught my eye when it was described as The Devil Wears Prada for the book publishing industry. Those of us who have a passion for books will identify with Angel Robinson: she has our dream job. Those of us who have worked for The Boss From Hell will also identify with her. Lucy Fiamma, I suspect, is based on a real person somewhere; she certainly seems realistic to me. Let's just say I had no problem visualizing Angel's demanding employer, her smarmy coworkers, and her desk piled to overflowing with papers, memos and obscure scribblings from a clueless boss*. The title carries a double meaning, blind submission is a term used to describe manuscripts sent by unknown authors for consideration and is also what the employer expects from her employees. The story takes on a mysterious tone when an anonymous author submits chapters of a book, one at a time, that mirror Angel's life in an increasingly sinister way.

*If my most recent (and dear) boss or coworkers are reading this, please be assured I am not referring to you!! My BFH experiences happened before I bailed from the suit-and-pantyhose gigs and came to work for/with you.

Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

In this memoir of her buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy, and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the color, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden, and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced, and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll. --Amazon review

I am in love with this book. The author has enchanted me with her vivid descriptions of the Tuscan countryside, the food, and overall the Italian life she leads whenever she can spend time in her beloved Bramasole, the villa she and her husband purchased and renovated. She writes almost entirely in present tense, which pulls the reader into a vicarious experience. I concur with the statement of another reviewer on the Amazon site, who says "Halfway into the book, I became heady with the desire to just run away to Tuscany."

If you have only seen the movie based on this book, forget everything you think you know about this story. To its detriment, the plot was changed so drastically for the screenplay that it hardly resembles the original and it captured nothing of the charm and appeal of the book.

I am now working my way through Frances Mayes' other books about her life in Tuscany: Bella Tuscany and In Tuscany.

You Can Be Happy No Matter What

I blogged about this on my lifeblog but since it is about a book, I'm blogging it here, too. I came across an interesting idea, a "meme" to write about. I'm so new at blogging I don't know anyone to tap and say, "tag, you're it." So if you have actually found this blog and read this far, please consider yourself tagged, if you wish.

This is how it works:
1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book & the author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Tag three more folks.

You Can Be Happy No Matter What by Richard Carlson
Subchapter heading: Happiness Lies In The Present Moment

Excessive thinking about your past and your problems will convince you that you do, in fact, have good reasons to be upset and unhappy. But you don't want to be unhappy. And your past is over. It is a harmless memory, carried through time, through your own thinking. It was real then, but it isn't now.

[Some of those sentences were so short, let's cheat and finish the paragraph] You can learn from your past, but it is a mistake to continually go into your past or overanalyze life in a search for happiness. If this worked, you'd be happy already!

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I purchased this book nearly ten years ago and, typically for me, it languished in one of my many TBR piles until we moved. When it was time to start unpacking, I grabbed a random box of books and this one jumped out at me. With all the hassles and sadness of the last year, I know I have had a bad habit of doing exactly what is described above. Isn't it interesting how a book will come into your life, or in this case, reclaim your attention, just when you need it? This one was propping up the laptop which has been overheating and shutting down, in an effort to allow more air to circulate to the fans underneath. Thus it was "the nearest book." I think I'll be up late reading tonight.