Holiday Reading

Happy New Year! I did some serious holiday reading in December. Encouraged by Oprah herself (LOL), I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens who is described as one of the grand masters of Victorian literature. This was a well written emotional story set in the time of the French Revolution about friendship and sacrifice. It was hard reading at first because the language was difficult to follow. I may continue to read Oprah's other selection, Great Expectations, but I read that book and watched the movie version years ago.

Book club member, Christine, gave us all books for Christmas. She bought lots of books at a warehouse in Savanna for giveaways. I loved my book about the 'Fishing Fleet', that is, British women going to India by ship 'to fish' for British military husbands. The book title is East of the Sun by Julia Gregson. In this book we followed the lives of three girls going to India. One already had a fiance in India, one that she hardly knew before becoming engaged. Her friend accompanied her but her intent was to fish for a husband. The third girl was their paid chaperone who was British but born in India and was on a mission to get back to her roots and make money as a writer. The chaperone was also in charge of a troubled teenager named Guy.

I also got Plain Jane by Laurien Gardner from Christine. It was about the third wife of King Henry VIII. I am just learning that Gardner is a pseudonym for a group of writers and that this is the third of a series. The other books in the series include: The Spanish Bride about Catherine of Aragon and A Lady Raised High which is about Anne Boleyn