Barbara Taylor Bradford's 'Master of His Fate' is about as suspenseful as a glass of milk -- and that's okay

This week, I have a few things to say about a book that was relatively unremarkable at first glance. I think the ability for a reader to enjoy “Master of His Fate” by Barbara Taylor Bradford depends entirely upon the usual variables that reviewers face when determining how to assess a book. I’ll get to those in a bit.

“Master of His Fate” is a sedate romance set in Victorian England that follows two story lines. The first is James Falconer’s story. James is a 17-year-old wannabe merchant who divulges to his grandparents his 5-year plan early in the book. James respects and strives to emulate his father who also is a merchant, and his family members do their best to set him on the right path for success. As James’ story unfolds, the author reveals James is somewhat of a genius with merchandising. On the side, James carries on an affair with a 30-year-old widow.

The second story line, and the more interesting one in my opinion, follows Alexis Malvern, a young woman whose father is a wealthy commercial realtor. Alexis is in her early twenties. She has no interest in getting married, and she opens a women’s shelter with a handful of her friends, including one other woman, Claudia. Claudia’s father, Sebastian, who is 40 years old, immediately falls in love with Alexis. Alexis, in turn, falls in love with Sebastian. They get engaged within days of meeting.

This book was one of the most unsurprising, literal, straightforward books I have ever read. Has there ever been a time when you wanted to read something uncomplicated? When you just wanted a story without twists or turns? This would be the one.

Every character in this book was uncannily honest, save for a few instances. When James’ rival, Albert, spreads the news of James’ affair with the widow, James lies to protect his lover’s honor, and everyone believes him, no questions asked. Alexis’ romance with Sebastian happens almost instantly. They see each other, they get a feeling they have a connection, they communicate their feelings accordingly, and they get engaged. The dialogue is open, formal and expository. It was odd that a book could have no foreshadowing or plot twists. The narrative was remarkably transparent. When someone dies later in the book (I won't spoil it,) readers will see it coming from a mile away.

Here is one very specific thing I expected from this book: Alexis and her friends make a big deal out of opening a women’s shelter. Partway through the book, when Alexis’ friend Claudia gets married, Sebastian takes Alexis aside during the wedding and insists they announce their engagement during Claudia’s wedding; a faux pas by any stretch of the imagination. Alexis was wearing her engagement ring on her right hand to avoid stealing Claudia’s thunder, and Sebastian insists she wear the ring on her left hand to show others she is engaged. He takes her to pick out tiaras for their wedding and he insists she wear his mother’s tiara. I felt strongly that Sebastian’s controlling behavior was a warning sign that pointed to future abuse. It was not. I was wrong.

I expected more tension between either Claudia and Sebastian or Claudia and Alexis because Claudia was only slightly younger than Alexis and Alexis was to become her stepmother. I expected that James and his much-older lover would be found out and forced to marry. I expected something tragic would happen to any of James’ family members.

I wanted this book to have teeth. To have more conflict, more drama, more feeling. These were my expectations. This book did not deliver on them, and that’s okay. It’s up to the author to tell the story she wants to tell, not me.

Not every book needs to be my cup of tea. This one just happened to be a cup of watery chamomile tea with warm milk when I’ve grown accustomed to strong, spicy chai. I’ll still drink the chamomile and enjoy it when I’m in the mood for it. I’ve been reading a lot of intense books lately. It’s been an intense year. What’s more, I read a lot of news every day, and it’s not all pleasant. When I’m used to my reading material dialing it to 11, and when I’m so used to being defensive and cynical about humanity and expecting the worst from everything, a book like “Master of His Fate,” which is so earnest and open, comes as a shock.

After I finished this book, I went on a long walk and I was able to think more about what this book was and my expectations. Too often, reviewers want books to be something else for them. We see this a lot with any fan culture. When was the last time you experienced a piece of pop culture where the fans of said culture insisted it was about them? When was the last time you projected your expectations onto something, knowing full well no one was asking you?

I can’t just say a book is bad because it wasn’t my taste. There is an audience for "Master of His Fate." The author has written dozens of books since the late 1970s that presumably have done fairly well for her. That said, this would be a 3-star book for me, simply because I felt it lacked conflict and the writing was a little weak. There was a lot of telling, instead of showing. The author seemed preoccupied with the characters’ clothing and the décor of the room instead of cultivating meaningful and realistic connections between the characters. It seemed like every character had the same speech patterns and mannerisms, the same pure thoughts and good intentions, and were, therefore, the same.

Someone who likes mild romances will love this book. That someone is not me.

I received “Master of His Fate” by Barbara Taylor Bradford from St. Martin's Press on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"If, Then" and the power of the slow burn

“There are an infinite number of possible worlds inside God’s mind, but only one actual world, which God chose as the most perfect of all possibilities.” (From "If, Then" by Kate Hope Day)

“If, Then” by Kate Hope Day is an eerie, beautifully written novel set in a small town in Oregon. In the shadow of a dormant volcano, ominously named Broken Mountain, a few of the folks in the town begin to experience hallucinations. It’s not immediately clear what these hallucinations are supposed to represent, but they’re disturbing enough to shake the characters who experience them into action. For Samara, who has just experienced her mother’s death, she sees her mother wandering around the neighborhood. Cass, a new mother at a crossroads between raising a child and pursuing her career, sees herself pregnant again. Ginny, an overworked surgeon, sees herself in a relationship with her coworker, Edith, instead of with her husband. Mark, a scientist studying animal behavior, sees himself paranoid, homeless and living in the woods.

The hallucinations prey on each person differently, causing them to reconsider the trajectories of their lives. Setting the story in a remote location only added to the individual characters’ isolation and the atmosphere of quiet panic throughout the novel.

Kate Hope Day has a knack for writing tense, domestic scenes, then adding some sort of mundane, yet terrifying occurrence to scare one of the characters. This book was genuinely spooky, and the characters were meticulously crafted, so not only was I scared, but I was invested. I wanted to put the book down, but I couldn’t look away.

The books I’ve been reading lately are on either end of two extremes. “If, Then” was slow-paced, the cast of characters was limited and the time frame of the novel was very short. I’ve also recently finished Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy ("The Bear and the Nightingale," "The Girl in the Tower" and "Winter of the Witch"), which was sprawling, took place over years, but was fast-paced with a lot of Russian characters with multiple, confusing nicknames. I’m down for adventure/fantasy novels, but I almost always get hooked on a slow burn. I’m trying to decide which type of book I enjoy more, but I think it’s one of those things that depends on my mood.

I was eternally grateful to receive “If, Then” from Random House Publishing Group on NetGalley. I’m always glad when a publisher takes a chance on my little sliver of a blog on a minuscule corner of the Internet. "If, Then" will be published on March 12, 2019.

Other slow burn books I’ve read this year
“The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky” by Jana Casale
“A Place For Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Sprawling epics I’ve read this year
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

You can see what I'm reading now on my Goodreads list, but take it with a grain of salt. I put books that have a deadline on there, but some books that I want to read but don't have a deadline have been sitting there for months. Not the greatest method of organizing books, I know.

I read sports books now. Sports books are cool.

I know I said last week I would talk about the "Throne of Glass" series, but I'm not done with it yet! I'm stuck on "Tower of Dawn" so we're going to talk about sports books today.

Five years ago, I never would have picked up a book that had anything to do with sports. But a combination of my work and my sports-obsessed boyfriend seems to have dragged me, kicking and screaming, in that direction. Now I read sports books willingly. They're... cool, I guess? I'm learning a lot, at least!

I recall reading romance novels that had to do with sports, occasionally. I can't even remember the titles, but they were utterly ridiculous as romance novels often are.

One was about a woman who was responsible for taking care of a hockey player who was possibly injured, or maybe just needed some help answering fan mail, and being cooped up in his house made them fall in love in that Stockholm syndrome sort of way. The other was a reporter and an Alabama football coach falling for each other over the Crimson Tide.

Anyway, I read sports-flavored romance novels years ago, and my tastes have altered slightly. I still enjoy a good romance novel, but I haven't been into any lately. What I HAVE been into are actual fact-based books about sports, and I'll link to a couple that I thought were pretty decent!

1. "Trophy Son" by Douglas Brunt: It is a fictional story, but it tells the story of a young man, Anton, who has a contentious relationship with his father around tennis. For the Manhattan book review, I wrote: "While his tennis career takes a meteoric rise, Anton’s personal growth and development is stunted, leaving him vulnerable to exploitation. For those parents with young children who practice sports, this book would be a cautionary tale."

2. "Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America’s Sport of the Future Since 1972" by Roger Bennett and Michael Davies: Dan and I listen to the Men In Blazers Podcast on our drives to work sometimes, and I always enjoy the jokey commentary around soccer. I might have even picked up a thing or two. And when the FBI indicted several international soccer officials for corruption in 2015, I totally read all of the court filings. We've been up to Orlando a handful of times to see the women's soccer team, the Pride, play. I think of all the live sports I've even seen, soccer is one of the most exciting. This book is kind of weird if you don't listen to the Men In Blazers, but I understood it well enough to write a review of it for Manhattan Book Review.

3. "Born Fanatic: My Life in the Grip of the NFL" by Michael McCormack: This book was just OK. It was about the real-life struggles of a man whose father was a mildly famous NFL coach, Mike McCormack. The author seemed not to want to blame his father for being abusive, but rather, blame the NFL for creating a fan culture that made his father abusive. The one interesting thing he said was that the NFL doesn’t sell football to fans, the NFL sells fans to marketers. He talks a little bit about how the NFL can change to make living with the people in its employ less miserable. Overall, I think the author had more he needed to work out about his father.

4. “Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Remade American Politics” by Jesse Berrett: For as much as I've tried to understand the mechanics of how sports work, I'm still a little fuzzy when it comes to sports history. This book was truly over my head, but if you're a football fan and a true history nerd, you'd likely enjoy this book. It basically talked about how journalists worked to turn football from a sport for the unwashed masses to a gentleman's game, and then how politicians used football as a way to make them seem like an everyman to the unwashed masses. At least that's how I understand it. My main issue with this book was that it doesn't include modern-day examples of how sports intersect with politics, which I think would get dated fairly quickly, but would be useful. This is strictly a historical account.

Those are the sports books I've picked up in the past year or so. I think Dan has some older books such as "Moneyball" laying around, but I haven't picked those up yet, mostly because I've been nibbling at other things. Have you seen what I'm reading on Goodreads? It's a lot.

What are your favorite sports books?

Revisiting "The Silmarillion" and my newfound love for audiobooks

After The Great Book Slump of 2017-18, I've been feeling fairly no-nonsense about which books I pick up, put down and don't finish. I decided to pick up The Silmarillion because what could be more motivating than a dry, plodding, 300-page biblical tome about gods and elves and more elves and maybe some dwarves and men?

I had read The Lord of the Rings trilogy in high school, but I had never attempted to read The Silmarillion, or as a former coworker of mine calls it, The Silma-millionwords. So I tried.

And in the spirit of generally trying to be kind to myself, my reduced anxiety around failure, lessons learned from The Great Book Slump, and generally not devoting my time to things I'm not interested in I... asked if anyone knew where I could find an audiobook. I'm not utterly devoid of determination.

The same former coworker furnished this link to an unabridged version of The Silmarillion in audio form.

I had a much better time with it.

For as wordy as The Silmarillion is, it's a really beautiful story. And since I'm an aural learner, I could actually retain what I was hearing.

The Silmarillion is the story of how J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth came to be. A bunch of gods sang, some super-trees sprouted, and some guy took the light from the trees and made it into three jewels called the Silmarils. Morgoth, the baddest of the bad guys, coveted the jewels and eventually stole them with the help of his spider-lady-friend, Ungoliant (my favorite character -- she vomits poison and makes everything generally awful.) Ages passed, and there were wars and quests. There are some humorous moments, but many of the tales are tragic. All of the events of The Silmarillion lead up to the events of the Lord of the Rings. I won't spoil it because I believe this book to be worth your time, whether you read it or listen to it.

The stories in The Silmarillion contain themes and lessons that are good to hear in these troubled times. The characters who are jealous, greedy and covetous usually meet terrible ends, but not before making things terrible for other people. If there's an opportunity for a character to take the easy road, it almost always leads to their doom. Suffering makes you stronger. If you suffer with a bunch of other people, it'll bring you closer together. If you work hard at something, you'll eventually master it. Et cetera.

It's not an easy read by any means, and listening to it made it far more interesting to me. The prose is pretentious and wordy. A lot of the characters have similar names. It's difficult to keep track of which places are what and who's going where.

I listened to The Silmarillion on and off all summer, and I eventually finished it last month. I waffled for a long time about whether or not I wanted an Audible account because I really enjoy the experience of absorbing a book into my brain while I'm doing something else, usually cross stitching or knitting. I know audiobooks aren't a new thing. I had a copy of "Fight Club" on a bunch of CDs that I got from Borders back in the olden days when Borders was a store and I had a long commute to work. I don't really gravitate toward absorbing my books through my ears because I can read much faster with my eyeballs.

I pulled the trigger last week and I've already listened to Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale, which was a retelling of the Russian fairy tale, "Morozko," and the first in a trilogy. I have the third book, The Winter of the Witch, as an ARC to review for City Book Review.

As a somewhat funny aside, the same Russian fairy tale is lambasted in its movie form, "Jack Frost," on an episode of MST3K.

What have I learned? Some books aren't so terribly intolerable when you can listen to them. Audiobooks are good for long commutes and for pursuing multiple hobbies at once. And from The Silmarillion: Even if things in the world change, and they're not as ideal as they once were, you can always take comfort in the people around you who share your values? I'll keep thinking about that one.

If I get around to blogging next week, I'll chat about my adventure with the "Throne of Glass" series. Because that's been interesting.