It’s time again to play some catch-up, with quick reviews of recent releases that have come my way. All are heartily recommended!
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
I don’t have much to add to others’ reviews of this stellar new fantasy. If you like immersive, otherworld fantasy, you will want to read it; if you think you don’t, give it a try and you might change your mind. Note that it’s on the dark and mature side, but while I’m usually not a fan of that genre, here I found it worked beautifully in service of a complex and humanly rich story.
May 19, 2015 from Del Rey
Source:Purchased
Sophie and the Sibyl by Patricia Duncker
George Eliot seems to be a hot author right now. I enjoyed Rebecca Mead’s literary memoir The Road to Middlemarch last year, which gave me a new perspective on Eliot, and was eager to read this fictional take on the same subject. I was quickly engaged by the characters, both real and invented, and absorbed by their saga of love and publishing in Berlin during the period of Eliot’s great late works, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda. I found Duncker’s metafictional touches only mildly amusing, though she seemed to be having great fun with them, and the story also petered out at the end in a somewhat odd way. Still, lovers of Victorian fiction who can tolerate some postmodern posturings will find much to savor. And now I have to reread Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, and am newly inspired to try Romola again…
August 4, 2015 from Bloomsbury
Source: ARC from publisher
The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks
Written out of generations of experience of traditional Cumbrian sheep farming, this is a celebration of an ancient and endangered way of life, as well as a moving personal story of family, change, and reconnection. I’ve never been a tourist in the Lake District, but if I am lucky enough to go there someday, I will look at it with new eyes.
May 12, 2015 from Flatiron
Source: Hardcover from library
Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti
A young Brooklyn butcher, former pastry chef, and author of the Yummy Books blog serves up a delicious assortment of literary recipes in this memoir-cum-cookbook. Many of the recipes are quite simple (a soft-boiled egg inspired by Mr. Woodhouse in Emma, parmesan pasta for Strega Nona), but seeing them in context with their literary associations gives them special interest. And then there are the elaborate and out-there choices (most notably a whole pig’s head for Lord of the Flies), which I would never actually prepare, but that are fun to read about. Nicoletti’s memories of reading, cooking, and eating throughout her life are pleasantly mixed with brief musings on the role of food in literature and life, and it all goes down as smoothly as her perfect chocolate pudding.
August 18, 2015 from Little, Brown
Source: ARC from publisher
Aside from ARCs, no other compensation was received, and all opinions expressed are my own.
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
As I am currently reading Middlemarch for the first time Sophie and the Sibyl looks to be interesting.
With that I am a bit skeptical of reading fictionalized versions of author’s lives. I do want to read The Road to Middlemarch. Eliot seems to have been a very interesting person.
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I do understand your reluctance to read about fictionalized versions of real authors. Sophie and the Sibyl is not from George Eliot’s point of view, but from that of her German publisher — which means we’re still seeing her from the “outside,” as it were. And it’s very conscious of itself as a literary construct. But still, you might want to stick with non-fiction.
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Goody! Glad you enjoyed Uprooted. Did it remind you a bit of Howl’s Moving Castle? A teensy weensy bit? It did me, and it made me enjoy the romance aspect of the book more than maybe I otherwise would have.
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Yes, the resemblance is certainly there, although the tone is completely different.
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Oh Uprooted! I loved it so much! So happy to see it in your round-up here, it’s totally deserving of the praise it’s been getting. I think I’m the same as you in not really caring for darker stories, but this was done perfectly. 🙂
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It’s certainly one of the outstanding books of the year, in any genre.
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Voracious sounds like fun! I tend to like books like this, so I will probably check it out.
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It really was a fun read with some interesting points about the role of food in literature as well. Do try it!
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