Thursday, August 6, 2009

Seriously booking through it

btt button

What’s the most serious book you’ve read recently?

I find that most of what I read are fairly serious books. Checking through my July reads, I find that I read three very serious books out of the seven I read.

Taking one by one:

Title: Year of Wonders
Author: Geraldine Brooks

Year of Wonders is about plague that took place in 1666, in an isolated Mountain village. The plague might have come there with an bolt of cloth from London. Anna Frith, the narrator, is a housemaid. In the midst of all this madness, she emerges as a strong heroine, who tries her best to heal. The plague destroys almost all of the village and also reason. Poeple go frenzy with madness and resort to witch hunting. Anna comes out stronger out of all this with faith, and love for people.


Title: The Jewel Trader of Pegu
Author: Jeffrey Hantover

This novel is set in 1598 in Burma. A period and place, most of us know nothing about. Abraham is a 28 years old Jewish Gem merchant, who leaves Venice to seek his fortunes in Pegu, a Burmese kingdom. He is able to fit in the culture, yet follow his own faith. However, he is asked to do a task, that is to serve young brides so that they bring good luck into the families they are married, in exchange of his pursuits. This task is only performed by foreigners. He is revolted by it yet can't avoid it. He performs it without attachment and making is easy for the brides. Thus, he meets Mya, who is barely more than a girl. Next morning tragedy befalls on her and she ends up living under Abraham's protection. Eventually, both fall in love. All this time, there is social and political changes taking place, which affects them. And their future seems a distant dream.

Title: The Lost Book of Salem
Author: Katherine Howe

This novel is based in Salem, where witch trials took place and Deliverance Dane, was one of the accused. Even though she is a healer, she is taken to be a witch and hanged. Where myths, illiteracy, mis-information persists, such happenings are no surprise. The book moves back and forth from 1691 and 1991 effortlessly. We can see history happening and how to come in terms with it in the present.

30 comments:

anthonynorth said...

Some good books there.

You'll find mine here.

BooksPlease said...

Year of Wonders is on my list of books tbr.

Melody said...

I haven't read any of those. They sounds good!

Amy Reads Good Books said...

Great choices! I haven't read any of those either. They all look fascinating

Janet said...

None of these are familiar to me. They sound intriguing!

Yvonne said...

I haven't read any of these, but they do sound good.

Pam said...

Ah Brooks she's defintely the right kind of serious!

jlshall said...

Those all sound like interesting reads, but I don't think I could handle that many serious books in one month!

serendipity_viv said...

Two out of the three I want to read . I have Year of Wonders, but I really want to get my hands on The Book of Salem.

Jo-Jo said...

These all look like great reads...I really haven't read anything serious yet this summer.

bermudaonion said...

You do read a lot of serious books! American Lion is the most serious book I've read recently.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

All 3 of these sound great. I had not heard of the first two.

JoAnn said...

These all sound good...and Year of Wonders is in my tbr pile!

Unknown said...

Most people I've read so far today have no trouble coming up with a serious book.

Sandra said...

Those are serious subjects. I recently read and reviewed The Jewel trader of Pegu-fascinating culture and what a dilemma for the protagonist. Plagues and witch trials are even scarier as subjects. Good choices. My BTT is posted.

kayerj said...

I haven't read any of those but I enjoyed your comments about them. I’m booking thru Thursday here

Susan said...

Your picks look SERIOUSLY GOOD! Here's my response.

Lisa (Southern Girl Reads) said...

I need to check those books out! I love the more serious ones. One I forgot to mention in my post was The Heretic's Daughter - very serious topic and a great read!

karen! said...

Is 'The Lost Book of Salem' the same as 'The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane'? I hate it when the publishers use different titles in different areas of the world.

In any case, 'Physick Book' is on my find-a-copy list. I enjoyed 'Year of Wonders' very much and I'm now curious about 'Jewel Trader'

Anonymous said...

Those sound like good books. I don't tend to read many serious books, though.

Anonymous said...

I love reading about history and these seem quite interesting books.

kay - Infinite Shelf said...

That's an interesting list of books. I'm specially curious about the Lost book of Salem!

Unknown said...

I have heard of all three of them but didn't read any. I really have to get myself in shape here :)

Michelle said...

I am literally reading Year of Wonders right now. I never even thought to consider it as a "serious read" but that just proves how differently we each interpret that adjective. Great choices!

Leslie said...

year of wonders is actually on my to read list

Ti said...

Most of the books I read are fairly heavy. It's a rarity for me to read a "light" book.

The Bookworm said...

those sound like good books, I've got the Salem book on my TBR.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks said...

I picked up YEAR OF WONDERS, but it sits waiting for me on the shelf. I loved Brooks' PEOPLE OF THE BOOK, have you read that?

Ted said...

Nice selection. I always learn something at your place.

Sheila (bookjourney) said...

These look wonderful. I guess I didnt think of many of the books I read as serious until I read your post and realize that these topics are ones I would love to read...