Midnight Crossing by Charlaine Harris
This is the first book in a new series by Harris.
Our main character appeared briefly in the Harper Connelly series, I believe. Manfred Bernardo was born with psychic powers like his grandmother. Since his grandmother has passed away, Manfred has decided it is time to buckle down and focus on work. Work being his many internet psychic sites. Manfred has decided that moving to the extremely small, back-water town of Midnight, Texas will allow him to focus on his work. He is partly right.
Midnight apparently attracts those who are trying to disappear a bit and live a quiet life. Unfortunately, a missing person becomes a murder mystery and only Manfred is safe from suspect.
I am looking forward to the rest of this series as well as anything else Ms. Harris writes. Her writing style is fun and easy and her characters are quirky but believable.
Showing posts with label witches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label witches. Show all posts
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
The Line
The Line (Witching Savannah, Book One) by J.D. Horn
This was a good light read. I wanted to smack the protagonist several times though because she was being so obviously stupid and whiny.
This book takes place in Savannah and definitely uses the lore of the city to it's advantage. The protagonist comes from an old Savannah family known to be witches. Her life has been both benefited and not because of this bit about her family.
I can sort of see how the author will make more books in the series but it wasn't engaging enough, didn't leave me hanging enough, to want to read further. I bought the book on a $.99 deal on my Kindle and I think I definitely got my money's worth but I am not sure I can give it more recommendation than that.
This was a good light read. I wanted to smack the protagonist several times though because she was being so obviously stupid and whiny.
This book takes place in Savannah and definitely uses the lore of the city to it's advantage. The protagonist comes from an old Savannah family known to be witches. Her life has been both benefited and not because of this bit about her family.
I can sort of see how the author will make more books in the series but it wasn't engaging enough, didn't leave me hanging enough, to want to read further. I bought the book on a $.99 deal on my Kindle and I think I definitely got my money's worth but I am not sure I can give it more recommendation than that.
Monday, January 20, 2014
The Bloodletter's Daughter (A Novel of Old Bohemia)
The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty
Hungary was at war with the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1526. During the time that the Catholics were fighting the scurge of Islam, they had dissent within their own ranks, the rise of Protestantism. in 1606 Archduke Matthias (Matthias II) managed to negotiate the Treaty of Vienna which allowed for religious freedom and united the people of Christianity against the Ottoman Empire.
In 1608, a bathmaid, Marketa Pichlerova, was butchered by the bastard son of Rudolf II. His son, Don Julius was reportedly insane. After this event, Rudolf II fell into a deep melancholy and dismissed his advisers and ministers, leaving his valet, Philip Lang, in charge of state affairs. In June 1608, Matthias and his allies marched toward Prague and forced his brother Rudolf II to yield the kingdoms of Moravia, Hungary and Austria. Rudolf II lived out his life in seclusion surrounded by his personal servants until his death in 1612.
A year after the death of Don Julius, a two-tome book Malleus Maleficarom, explaining sorcery and witchcraft was found in his possessions in Rozmberk Castle where he died. A supposition was made that the book was purchased because he believed, like his father, that he was bewitched and he was perhaps taking steps to locate the witch.
The subsequent Thirty Years War, involving most of Europe in the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, devastated Bohemia. Doctor Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, a Catholic prisoner was exchanged for a Protestant prisoner, Doctor Jan Jesenius. In 1621 Jan Jesenius was shot along with twenty-six other Protestants in Prague's Old Town Square.
Doctor Horcicky wrote a pamphlet entitled "Catholic Confession, or Description of the Right common Chrisitian Confession, about Hope Credence and Love." He was quite successful professionally creating a medicine from the distillation of plants called "aqua sinapii" (water of mustards) that proved quite profitable. He held the title of imperial chemist both under Rudolf II and Emperor Matthias.
In the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University is a mysterious tome written in an indecipherable text known as the Voynich manuscript. On the first page of the manuscript is written the name Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, botanist and personal physician to Rudolf II.
With these historical events, Lafferty wove an engaging tale of a young girl of Krumlov who grew up in the shadows of Rozmberk Castle working in her mother's bathhouse and assisting her father, the Barber/Surgeon in his bloodletting. Lafferty has created a great story based in the solid footings of historical events.
I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction.
Lafferty has two other books, The Drowning Guard: A Novel of the Ottoman Empire and House of Bathory (starting in Slovakia in the early 1600's and concluding 400 years later in Colorado). I have put them on my Kindle Wish List and I look forward to reading them both. I just have to get through a few more of my started but not yet finished books first.
Hungary was at war with the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1526. During the time that the Catholics were fighting the scurge of Islam, they had dissent within their own ranks, the rise of Protestantism. in 1606 Archduke Matthias (Matthias II) managed to negotiate the Treaty of Vienna which allowed for religious freedom and united the people of Christianity against the Ottoman Empire.
In 1608, a bathmaid, Marketa Pichlerova, was butchered by the bastard son of Rudolf II. His son, Don Julius was reportedly insane. After this event, Rudolf II fell into a deep melancholy and dismissed his advisers and ministers, leaving his valet, Philip Lang, in charge of state affairs. In June 1608, Matthias and his allies marched toward Prague and forced his brother Rudolf II to yield the kingdoms of Moravia, Hungary and Austria. Rudolf II lived out his life in seclusion surrounded by his personal servants until his death in 1612.
A year after the death of Don Julius, a two-tome book Malleus Maleficarom, explaining sorcery and witchcraft was found in his possessions in Rozmberk Castle where he died. A supposition was made that the book was purchased because he believed, like his father, that he was bewitched and he was perhaps taking steps to locate the witch.
The subsequent Thirty Years War, involving most of Europe in the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, devastated Bohemia. Doctor Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, a Catholic prisoner was exchanged for a Protestant prisoner, Doctor Jan Jesenius. In 1621 Jan Jesenius was shot along with twenty-six other Protestants in Prague's Old Town Square.
Doctor Horcicky wrote a pamphlet entitled "Catholic Confession, or Description of the Right common Chrisitian Confession, about Hope Credence and Love." He was quite successful professionally creating a medicine from the distillation of plants called "aqua sinapii" (water of mustards) that proved quite profitable. He held the title of imperial chemist both under Rudolf II and Emperor Matthias.
In the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University is a mysterious tome written in an indecipherable text known as the Voynich manuscript. On the first page of the manuscript is written the name Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, botanist and personal physician to Rudolf II.
With these historical events, Lafferty wove an engaging tale of a young girl of Krumlov who grew up in the shadows of Rozmberk Castle working in her mother's bathhouse and assisting her father, the Barber/Surgeon in his bloodletting. Lafferty has created a great story based in the solid footings of historical events.
I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction.
Lafferty has two other books, The Drowning Guard: A Novel of the Ottoman Empire and House of Bathory (starting in Slovakia in the early 1600's and concluding 400 years later in Colorado). I have put them on my Kindle Wish List and I look forward to reading them both. I just have to get through a few more of my started but not yet finished books first.
Monday, March 26, 2012
A Discovery of Witches
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Vampires, Witches and Daemons oh my. This is a fun novel set in modern times. Our heroine, Diana, is a historian doing research at Oxford. She also happens to be a witch although she has shunned the use of witchcraft and magic her whole life. She encounters an ancient manuscript and chooses to ignore the magical aspect she senses and looks at it from a human perspective only then sends it back into the stacks of the library where it has been undisturbed for 150 years.
Shortly after encountering the manuscript, she meets an ancient vampire. Soon, all sorts of creatures are lurking around Diana and the library in which she works.
This is the first in a planned trilogy. It is a fun book that takes a different perspective of witches, vampires, daemons and the world in which we all live.
I liked this version of "girl meets vampire" as opposed to some others that I have read. This is an interesting story and I am looking forward to the second book that is due to be published this summer.
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