![]() The world and magic of fairy tales permeates most works of literature these days. One day, a young man does … Three women, three lives, three stories, braided together to create a compelling story of desire, obsession, black magic, and the redemptive power of love. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth The written word is a magical thing to behold, and there is nothing more magical and amazing than a fairy tale and its retellings. Called La Strega Bella, Selena is at the centre of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.Locked away in a tower, growing to womanhood, Margherita sings in the hope someone will hear her. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1513 and still inspiring him at the time of his death, sixty-one years later. She is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of Bitter Greens … After Margherita’s father steals a handful of greens – parsley, wintercress and rapunzel – from the walled garden of the courtesan, Selena Leonelli, they give up their daughter to save him from having both hands cut off. ![]() In 1697, Mademoiselle Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force was banished from the royal court of the Sun King to the Benedictine abbey of Gercy-en-Brie. ![]() Synopsis: Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from court by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. In Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth braided together fantasy, romance and history into a lovely, intricate tale full of magic, mystery, intrigue, and strong, beautiful women. ![]()
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![]() ![]() While reading that scene I dropped the book, jumped to my feet and hollered “YESSSSS!” which was a tad bit embarrassing as I was in the middle of a coffee shop at the time. ![]() ![]() Now, my very favorite moment in the series so far is when Alexia inducts Ivy into the Parasol Protectorate by administering the oath. She names inanimate objects because it is rude to yell at them without calling them by name, and she rides a motorcycle named Carmen. When her writing and promotional duties allow her to be at home, she enjoys food, fashion, and fabulous shoes. She ended up back in California with a tea habit inherited from her mother (she insists on Twinings gold label (black box) English Breakfast imported from the UK), a scribbling habit inherited from her father, and a penchant for gadding off to foreign countries in hot pursuit of fascinating ancient artifacts – dragging both habits ruthlessly in her wake. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning, including a BA with Honors in Classical Archaeolgy, an MA in Anthropology, and an MS with Distinction in Materials Archaeology. Award winning & New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger was born in small California town to a British ex–pat gardener with a tea habit and a woodworking Dane who sidelined as a philosophical scribbler. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Yes, the book is peppered with words from language that Stephenson made up for the planet of Arbre where the story is set. The book follows the adventures of Erasmas, a young “avout” who is trying to save his planet from an attack from another civilization while also trying to find his mentor who was “anathemized” from the “concent” where they used to live. The topics the book grapples with along with the dense prose requires one to be alert and actively engage with the story anything less, and one will be left feeling dazed and lost! ![]() At 932 pages, it’s not a book which one can breeze through. It led me to look up more on him, finally resulting in my buying Anathem, his latest novel.įinally done with this behemoth of a novel I can say with confidence that in a word Anathem is an intellectual feast (ok that’s two words but you get my drift)! It’s also – to repeat myself – a behemoth of a novel. A while back while browsing through some sites I came across the name Neal Stephenson again and again and this piqued my curiousity. ![]() |