Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Dark Monk

The Dark Monk: A Hangman's Daughter Tale by Oliver Potzsch

This is the second book in the Hangman's Daughter series.  There is a third book and I will be reading it.

This is really fun historical fiction.  Potzsch began his story with his own geneology.  His ancestor Jacob Kuisl who was the hangman of Schongau in Bavaria.  His own family had many generations of hangmen from which he could draw information.

This book begins in 1648.  Potzsch has once again created a great murder mystery while combining the historical information of the area, some of the people who actually lived then and there as well as what life would have been like during that time.

At the end of the book, Potzsch lets his readers know which characters and scenes are historical and which are fiction.  He also gives us a walking/biking tour of the region and the settings in the book.  If I ever get to Bavaria, I will definitely check it out.

The Snow Child: A Novel

The Snow Child: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey

Check your scepticism at the door and enjoy the fairy tale that this book has to offer.

In 1918, few things sound harder than homesteading in Alaska but that is just what Jack and Mabel have decided to do.

Jack was raised working his families orchards along with his brothers.  He never had a chance to do anything on his own and really show himself and the world just what he could do.  Mabel was raised by a University professor and seemed much more suited to the life of a professor's wife rather than a farmer's wife let alone a homesteader.

After the stillbirth of their only child, Mabel convinces Jack that the Alaskan wilderness is just the place for them.  In the first years it seems that this was the worst choice they could make.  They both struggled with what they perceived as their roles in their new life.  They were struggling with themselves and each other and it seemed all was lost.

All it took was snowfall, a moment of forgetting themselves and their lives and the snow child was created.  From there, their lives would never be the same again.

This is a wonderful story of hope and mystery and possibility.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Book 6 of the Outlander series does not disappoint.

The book begins in 1772 and the American Revolution is closing in on the people of Fraser's Ridge North Carolina.  The key people know what is to come and they know the outcome so they know which side they will need to be on to survive.  Just how to manage it is the issue.

Jamie Fraser is requested to work as the King's liason to the indians in the area.  As much as Jaime doesn't want to work for the king in such a public manner, the alternative person would wreak havoc in the area.  Jaime decides it's in everyone's best interest to take the job.  Later, he will have a hard time convincing everyone on both sides of the conflict just where his loyalties lie.

Always looming in the distance is the knowledge of the newspaper story about the demise of Jaime and Claire in the year 1776.

I will definitely keep reading and I am thinking of reading her supporting books in the Lord John Grey series.