Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant writes historical fiction based in 16th century Italy. Her first two books, The Birth of Venus, set in Florence, and In The Company of the Courtesan, set in Venice,were rich in detail, written with sensuality and color, evoking Italy at that time. So, I had no hesitation in purchasing Sacred Hearts, especially as it concerned a young nun in a convent in the city of Ferrara in 1570.

I think it must have been my exposure to nuns and convents in Chauvin, Alberta, which gave rise to my endless fascination with the topic. Every Wednesday morning at 8:00 am, I took piano lessons in the front room of the convent from the Mother Superior, who was probably the best piano teacher I ever had, and I recall vividly how , at a couple of minutes to eight, my footstep on the front porch of the convent would announce the sweeping, black-vested exit of some four or more nuns from the small chapel, which was just off the room where I had my lessons. I was 10 years old when I began working with her- I don't even remember her name!- but I loved that swishing by me to the kitchen, from whence the most wonderful aromas of toast would come while I had my lessons, accompanied by their low, happy chatter: they certainly were not silent nuns, as these were in Dunant's book.

Three nuns are foremost in this wonderful story: Suora Zuana, the dispensary mistress, Madonna Chiara, the abbess, and Serafina, the young novice, sent to the nunnery by her family after she falls in love with her singing teacher. Zuana is gifted in working with herbs and remedies for various ailments, Chiara is elegant, informed, and probably my favorite character: I loved how she would smooth an already perfect fold in her habit, move silently to the altar rail for communion, or sweetly but accurately skewer her enemy - Suora Umiliana- with well-chosen words with not a hint of anger in her voice. Serafina is gifted with a high, soaring voice which entrances everyone after she finally adapts - in a way- to the life that she herself did not choose. These three nuns finally collaborate in an extravagant but intelligent scheme to save their convent, plus Serafina's life.

So, what did I learn from this book? Well, there is a wonderful paragraph in which Zuana describes the freedom she has within the cloister - freedom to have the authority she has in her dispensary, which she certainly would not have had in the outside world - freedom from:

"fathers to rage at the expensive uselessness of daughters, no brothers or sisters to tease and torment younger sisters, no drunken husbands poking constantly at tired or pious wives.....here no one's womb drops out of her body from an excess of pregnancies, no one dies in the sweated agonies of childbirth, nor has to suffer the pain of burying half a dozen of her own children"

I also learned that dowries were given to convents when a novice entered the nunnery, and this helped to finance them, as well as ensure the novice would remain in there. The more powerful politically the family, the more power the nun had behind the walls: Madonna Chiara's family was wealthy enough that she would easily rise to the position of abbess.

All in all, a great read, and highly recommended.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Well, I fell for it- the book was offered at 40% off, and I liked Da Vinci Code, so I got easily suckered in. And I did enjoy the first 350 pages, but it grew to be boring, so I skimmed through to the end. While I accept the author's premise- the lost symbol of the title ends up being "our limitless human potential" - the villain's main reason for cutting off one man's hand, among other gruesome things, was that the head of the Masons in Washington had turned his back on his own son! Seems a weak excuse for a lot of blood, tattoos, blood sacrifice,being buried alive, and so on. As an expose of the Masons, it was enjoyable, and I did learn a few things - for instance, the fact that a physical body weighs less after death than before, proving I suppose that one can actually weigh the human soul - but I decided that Dan Brown is an adult's J.K. Rowling, and I only read the first two of her Harry Potter books. Brown writes well- his characters are introduced gradually, as well as important plot details- and I liked the fact that the object of everyone's search- Peter Solomon- is not found until near the end, so Brown obviously planned things out well, and probably stepped back many times to judge the effect of certain things on his reader. I expect there'll be a movie- I won't bother going to see it. Anyway, I was disappointed in the movie of Da Vinci Code, too. When am I going to read a" sit down and get totally immersed" book??? It's been a while!

The Lost Symbol was a good book to take along on our trip to Ottawa, however, because I was still reading the most interesting parts at that point. And Katherine's monologue at the end is good, too: I agree that what we call God is within us, not above us; that we do have limitless abilities, we just have to harness them and cultivate them: become Creators ourselves.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Winner of the 2009 Booker, I bought this to read because it's from the Tudor period, and tells the story of Cromwell, whereas so many novels from this time focus on Anne Boleyn or Elizabeth. I enjoyed the first 350 pages, but it was hard slogging after that. The reasons are explained much better by these reviews:

In Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's arch, elegant, richly detailed biographical novel centered on Cromwell…characters are scorchingly well rendered. And their sharp-clawed machinations are presented with nonstop verve in a book that can compress a wealth of incisiveness into a very few well-chosen words." - The New York Times - Janet Maslin.

"Unfortunately, Mantel also includes a distracting abundance of dizzying detail and Henry's all too voluminous political defeats and triumphs, which overshadows the more winning story of Cromwell" - Publishers Weekly (YES!!)

"It should appeal to many readers, not just history buffs. And Mantel achieves this feat without violating the historical record! There will be few novels this year as good as this one." - Library Journal ( NOT SO SURE ABOUT THAT)

"The characters, including Cromwell, remain unknowable, their emotions closely guarded; this works well for court intrigues, less so for fiction. Masterfully written and researched but likely to appeal mainly to devotees of all things Tudor." - Kirkus Reviews ( RIGHT ON)

"This is a burstingly large book, so densely peopled that the cast-list alone takes up five pages.( GOOD THING IT WAS THERE) It rattles back and forth across the Channel and reaches, sometimes confusingly, back through time. Much of Cromwell's past is told in flashbacks - somnolent, slippery sequences that add to the novel's dreamlike sense. For all her meticulous historical reconstruction, Mantel's world remains a strange place, permeated by the many dead. None the less, it is both linguistically and sensually vital, stacked with images and phrases that linger in the mind." - The Guardian (UK), Olivia Laing

"Enfolding cogent insights into the human soul within a lucid analysis of the social, economic and personal interactions that drive political developments, Mantel has built on her previous impressive achievements to write her best novel yet." - The Washington Post, Wendy Smith.

More confusing to me was having to follow carefully her use of the pronoun "he". I found I had to backtrack a lot to make certain I knew who was being referred to: too much energy required from the reader. I did like Cromwell: he was a clever man and she portrays him vividly, as she does just about every detail in the book. It was obviously well-researched. But I can only give it two stars, and admit that, as a reader, as much as I like to be informed, I have to be entertained,too.

The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens

Mary Gooch is morbidly obese, and on the eve of their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, her husband, Jack, disappears, leaving $25,000 for her in their joint bank account. She sets off on a journey to find him, and ends up finding herself as she escapes a weary, confining life in Leaford, Ontario. Lansens also wrote The Girls, which is another of my all-time favorites, and this one is unforgettable,too. Some of Mary's adventures belie reality, but the search she goes on is far more important, what she learns about herself, and how the people she meets shape her new future.

THE BINDING CHAIR by Kathryn Harrison

This book has been on my list for some time, so when I found it in a used bookstore, I picked it up right away. The setting is Shanghai in the early 1900s where May-Li, a young Chinese woman, fights to save her life by running away from an abusive marriage, becomes a courtesan, then marries an Australian. As the title implies, she had her feet bound as a young girl- this story goes more deeply into the reasons for the binding than Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and it also explores the sexual fetishes around the custom. Then there is Alice, May's Caucasian niece, who also seeks freedom from a rigidly British upbringing, and who has more in common with her Chinese aunt than her English mother. I did get lost in there for a bit, while May is recovering from an addiction to opium, but the story is engrossing, and well-written. Some interesting characters suddenly appear, but their place in the story is well -laid out, and they give direction to the plot. This could have been what I call a "commuter read", but when a book is well-written and it informs me, I'm a happy reader!