Signora Da Vinci by Robin Maxwell

A lie. I needed a fresh lie to help me escape the house this day. Call it "deceit," I corrected myself as I threw another log in the furnace, enduring its search blast on my face before shutting the iron door with a clank.


Title: Signora Da Vinci
Author: Robin Maxwell
ISBN: 9780451225801
Publisher: New American Library/2009
Pages: 422

This book is about Caterina, mother of the great maestro, Leonardo Da Vinci. She bore him illegitimatelly at the age of fifteen and he was taken from her soon after. To be with him in his initial years, she endured insults, indignity and abuses at the hands of the Da Vincis. When Leonardo was sent to Florence to apprentice under Verrocchio, Caterina devised a plan to be with him. Her scheme was filled with wrought and danger. If caught she would taken to be a heretic and burnt at stake. But she had to take that risk to be nearer him and also for her own sake. She was an outcast in her own village, Vinci.

Caterina has the ability to redefine herself. Her father Ernesto, made sure she is well read and also knows all about medicinal plants. She is a passionate woman, who deeply loves her son, Leonardo and living away from him is unendurable for her. Yet she wants him to excel in his life. He has great talent for art and imagination and he must pursue that, no matter what. While apprenticing under Verracchio, he meets other great masters like Botticelli.

This novel takes us to the richly cultured Florence, Rome and Milan. A love affair ensues between Lorenzo Medici and Caterina. We get to see the brilliance of Leonardo Da Vinci, a man of many talents. This story is about a mother and her son, who are very free to discuss anything and yet be a parent and a child.

This, according to the author, is a work of fiction as nothing much is known about Caterina. Maxwell built a story from whatever little she had access to, about Caterina. She used her imagination to build the character of a mother, who is always supporting of her son. There is so much of history and political facts in this book that the fiction becomes believable. That's what matters, doesn't it?

Letters Between Us by Linda Rader Overman

This journey could have started differently, but the fact is that it didn't.


Title: Letters Between Us
Author: Linda Rader Overman
ISBN: 978189386626
Publisher: Pain Views Press/2008
Pages: 165

Letters between us is an epistolary novel covering the lives of two friends. Katherine is found dead mysteriously and Laura, a writer is much saddened by it and tries to find why and how Katherine died. Laura starts reading the letters they sent to each other since they started their friendship. She tries to keep the letters in some chronological order so that she can make some sense into those.

From those letters, we can see their past in which they shared so much-friendship love, pain and so much more. Reading the letters and remembering the past is painful but Laura has to do it for her friend's sake. We read about secrets they shared and also about those they did not share. Katherine had kept a Journal too as had Laura. So we also get to read their innermost thoughts unknown to each other but themselves.

Everything from childhood secrets to sex and drugs, from which unexpectedly Laura comes out, the one person, who is impulsive and not expexcted to make it. The sensible Katherine turns out to be more troubled one. It is growing of age novel, with deep dark secrets and pain. Reading through the letters back and forth, Laura finally understands the strange compulsions of her friend and also about her death.

Maybe life comes full circle. Very vividly portrayed, intricately written, this short novel is powerful and very thoughtful. Not a book to breeze through. It does not cater to all readers as it a difficult read but well worth it once you begin it.

Also reviewed by
Sandra

Weekly Geeks: Covers

Weekly Geeks: Judge a Book By Its Cover!

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I like the first and the one with a crow. These describe the book well along with the cat covers.

Least I liked was the one with purple colour. It seems so loud. However, irrespective of covers, this remains one of my favourite books.

Booking through too much information

Have you ever been put off an author’s books after reading a biography of them? Or the reverse - a biography has made you love an author more?

I read the book cover and start reading the book. If there is some info given about the author, I do read it but that has not affected my reading so far. A author's personal opinion are his/her own. Anyway, that does get reflected in the book we are reading. I feel every author puts something of his/hers in the novel. Why should reading the biography affect one's reading? I like to read biographies for their own sake. Not for the sake of reading a novel.

For me the book is foremost, not the author. And if I don't like a book, I don't wish to know anything about the author. And if I do, then I try to learn more about the author. Blog interviews are one good way to know contemporary authors. Knowing about classic authors is not as important. They are well known, anyways!

Frantic by Katherine Howell

Monday 5 May, 2.21 pm

'Seventy-four to Control.' The paramedic's voice was tight. Sophie Phillips leaned forward and turned the volume of the ambulance radio.


Title: Frantic
Author: Katherine Howell
ISBN: 9781405037976
Publisher: Pan Macmillan/2007
Pages: 282

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From Kathrine Howell's site:

In one terrible moment, paramedic Sophie Phillips’ life is ripped apart – her police officer husband, Chris, is shot on their doorstep and their ten-month-old son, Lachlan, is abducted from his bed. Suspicion surrounds Chris as he is tainted with police corruption, but Sophie believes the attack is much more personal – and the perpetrator far more dangerous...

While Chris is in hospital and the police, led by Detective Ella Marconi, mobilise to find their colleague's child, Sophie's desperation compels her to search for Lachlan herself. She enlists her husband's partner, Angus Arendson, in the hunt for her son, but will the history they share prove harmful to Sophie's ability to complete her mission?

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Since 2009 started, I have been reading crime fiction. Frantic too is one such novel. We want to find Lachlan just as much as Sophie, who is beyond consoling. Can anything be worse than death? Yes, disappearance of a child comes under that category.

The whole of police force is looking out for him but Sophie has lost faith in their ability. She sets about finding him, at one point going over the edge.

For a parameduic, saving lives is so important. If someone dies, they have to face the wrath too. Sophie knows that and is frightened by what could happen to her son. Who kidnapped him and for what purpose? With Chris in hospital, she has no one but Angus to turn to. Can he help her? Does he help her? How far can they go to save that child? The line between right and wrong blurs. Are Sophie's means justified?

The novel is fast paced, keeps us on edge. It is very difficult to know who took that child and why? What is the motive? Does Chris too has something to hide? Katherine Howell has lot of potential. She does well with keeping our interest alive.

Fire at Midnight by Lisa Marie Wilkinson

Saint Mary's of Bethlehem Hospital ('Bedlam'), London, England, 1703.

"I am sane."
The sound of her own voice anchored her.


Title: Fire at Midnight
Author: Lisa Marie Wilkinson
ISBN: 9781933836546
Publisher: Medallion Press/2009
Pages: 360

Rachel Penrose is has been sent to a mental asylum by her Uncle Victor who wants to inherit her family fortune. He has her infant brother James, in his custody. He intends them both dead. Victor is involved in all sorts of criminal activities and has spread rumours that Rachel is the informer about Sebastien Falconer's smuggling/privateer activities.

A very ill Rachel somehow ecapes Bedlam only to end up in the carriage of Falconer. Sebastien is after Rachel's blood, unknowing that it is she who is in his care. Sebastien's twin brother, Jacques Falconer, a custom officer, is intent on bringing his brother to justice. He wants him hanged for all his unlawful activities.

Rachel escapes from Sebastien and everyone's lives get connected to each other in one way or the other. With distrust and double crossing from all sides, it becomes difficult to know who is good and who is evil. Rachel has to save her brother, James and also to save her love too, who is too proud to save himself.

The plot is good, relationship between various characters is interesting, Sebastien, his house keeper Mrs. Faraday, his brother Jacques Falconer, their mother Eleanor, Tarry Morgan, and his father Phillip Morgan. But it felt too long in the ending. At least to me. Falconer's capture and his trial/non-trial took up a lot of space. That could have been reduced. Still, it is an extremely readable novel and historical buffs will find it very interesting due to the England-France connection, as I did.

There is a reference of an inventer, Henry Winstanley, which kind of interested me to know more about him. Thanks Lisa Marie, for sending me this novel. I loved the cover very much. This book has got numerous awards too. Check it out here.

Musing about choosing books

How do you choose what do buy from your local bookstore? Do you have a list, or just browse? What is the selection in your book store like? Do you find what you're looking for? Do you feel pressured to buy the kind of books the store makes prominent?

Few times I do have specific choices. I look out those books. But However, most of the times, I browse, look through and pick out books that interest me. I go for books which are not very well known. There are two prominent bookstores I visit in Delhi. Both usually have book sellers, which I seldom read. Many a times, I tell them to get certain books for me a few weeks before I go there to buy. Both mostly accomodate.

Frankly I never feel any kind of pressure to buy the reccomendations of the book stores. I seldom even glance through them.

Then there is a Sunday pavement book Bazaar in one part of Delhi, which is favourite haunt for me. I spend hours, looking, browsing, searching books. All dirt cheap. I go there once a month. Doing that for the last years or so.

Short story: The Missing Statues by Simon Van Booy

Thanks to CB James, I found Fifty-Two stories. Each week a new story will come up. There are four short stories as of now. I read the first one, The Missing Statues by Simon Van Booy.

"One bright Wednesday morning in Rome, a young American diplomat collapsed onto a bench at the edge of St. Peter’s Square.

There, he began to sob."

With that beginning, this story got hold of me. It is St. Peter Square, where a young man is crying. A priest comes and hugs that young man and lets him sob on his shoulder. The young mans says that he is crying for a missing statue, which no one even knows being there in the first place. it is something the young man had remembered from long time ago. then he starts to tell the priest a story about a young woman Molly and her four years old son. They are waiting outside a Casino for Jed, Molly's Fiance. It takes a long time. The boy is hungry and tired.

An old Gondolier comes and offers food to the boy and also takes them both in his Gondola. When he sings there Molly is touched to the core and the little boy too feels something unexplained. The Gonodolier has such a voice that whenever he sings, it is with so much feeling and depth that everyone is compelled to listen and touched by it. When times comes for Molly and The boy to leave the Gondolier, they don't want to part with him.

When the narration ends, there is a complete hush in St. Peter Square, with huge lines of people listening to the young man. Maybe he is that young man revisiting his past, remembering the kind Gondolier, who had thought of Molly as his daughter Lola, even if only for a short while. The Gondolier had told that little boy about the missing statue.

While the story is being narrated by the young man, in that moment of time, the past merges with the present. The Gondolier, Molly and little boy are as vivid as the Priest, the young man and the huge crowd out there.

The ending is open for speculation. Maybe not.

Long After Midnight by Iris Johansen

Title: Long After Midnight
Author: Iris Johansen
ISBN: 0553571818
Publisher: Bantam Books/1997
Pages: 430

I had picked this book a long time ago. And had not got around reading it as I thought it was a romance like other Johansen novels I had read, although the back cover had nothing of that sort. Recently I was sorting through my books to give away a lot to the old age home. I don't know what made me pause and pick it up to read yesterday.

Kate is a doctor who is really into researching genetic engineering. She has a nine-year old son, Joshua, who is the core of her existence. Noah Smith, another genius in the same field wants her to join forces with him. To test run something called RU2, which can save people suffering from diseases like cancer, AIDS as it has ability to repair the degenerated cells. Even before she can make up her mind to join him, her ex-husband, a police officer is killed in a car explosion. It becomes apparent that she and her son were the main target.

Noah Smith's research centre had being bombed and he had been presumed to be dead. But he is alive and warns Kate about the danger on her life. She does not believe him until she is confronted by a psychopath killer, Ishmaru. Thats when Noah gets Seth, a friend of his to watch over Joshua and her mother-in law, Phyliss. They do develop RU2 but something happens that can completely stall it. The pharmaceutical giants don't want it to come out to save their big bucks.

With desperate people after her, Kate has to save her own skin along with Joshua's. And also she has secret which must not come out.

With a psychopath killer stalking Kate at every point, Seth being there to protect her, Joshua being her main concern, Kate still wants RU2 to come through. She knows it can save millions of people. She is very scared but she has to go one and push it forward.

The novel is fast paced, with a nail-biting edge. I am glad I finally read it.

Weekly Geeks: Interests other than reading

What are you passionate about besides reading and blogging?

Very timely geeks question, this! I love to do crossword puzzles, all kinds, mathematical or words, including sudoku. On Sundays, thats the first thing I do from the newspapers. I like to play scrabble on my computer and/or other word-power games. I also like to solve mathematical problems.

Music is another part but I am only a listener of it. I am crazy about Rock music-hard, acid, heavy metals- you name it, I love it. Lately I also like a lot of jazz along with African Music. I wish I could play an instrument but I can't. I like to dance to the tunes of Rock Music.

I like to cook too. Exploring new recipes. I even make up certain ones. Like to experiment. And I invite my family.....that is my brothers so that they are my guinea pigs! (Psst, don't tell them. Please!)