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books

Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel

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I love historical mysteries set in palaces, particularly when the sleuth is a girl spy masquerading as a servant or lady in waiting. I feel like there are enough books fitting this particular mold out now that it can almost be considered its own subgenre within YA: historical female spy palace mysteries? Over the weekend, I read Sarah Zettel’s excellent Palace of Spies, which kicks off her series of the same name. I read these sorts of books for the palace intrigue, the historical details of court life, and the intelligence of the amateur sleuth; Zettel’s book did not disappoint in any of these aspects.

One of the hallmarks of these stories is the teenage sleuth thrown into a life of espionage through desperation or blackmail – it doesn’t usually happen by choice. Such is the case with our protagonist, Peggy Fitzroy, an orphan who decided to refuse marriage to the wealthy jerk her rich uncle had picked our for her. Kicked out of said uncle’s home and with nowhere to turn, Peggy decides to accept an offer from the dubiously-named Mr. Tinderflint. He convinces her to pose as Lady Francesca Wallingham, who was very recently a lady in waiting to Princess Catherine (wife of George, the Prince of Wales, who would go on to be George II) – until her unfortunate death of a fever several weeks ago.

As Peggy bears more than a passing resemblance to Francesca, the deception isn’t difficult to pull off. She’s instated at Hampton Court Palace with no one the wiser, instructed to observe and report back. What precisely she is to look for isn’t deemed knowledge she needs to know, though she is told she must pay careful attention to the games of cards that the noble men and women entertain themselves with nightly.

Peggy is a smart girl. It doesn’t take her long to realize that not only is Mr. Tinderflint hiding something from her, but so is nearly everyone else at court. But the truly alarming realization is that Francesca did not die of a fever; she was murdered. It only follows that the murderer may come after Peggy next, thinking to finish the job.

As with any good palace mystery, there are a lot of threads to the story. The main mystery involves a Jacobite plot to instate the Stuart King James II to the throne of England, removing the Hanover King George I. It’s up to the reader (and Peggy) to puzzle out which subplots are integral to this central mystery and which are distractions (but interesting distractions nonetheless). Mixed up in this is the mystery of Peggy’s own past – her mother may have been a spy herself, and her father left them when Peggy was a young child. And of course, there’s plenty of court gossip to keep the reader entertained as well.

Peggy’s voice makes this an above average mystery. She’s sharply observant and learns quickly, making her ideally suited to her deception. She’s got a bit of a wry sense of humor, too, and sometimes lets her desire to one-up her court rivals get her into hot water. Watching Peggy try to puzzle out Francesca’s life without letting Francesca’s acquaintances catch on brings its own share of amusement, too, particularly when Peggy is greeted by what appears to be Francesca’s secret paramour in her bedchamber.

Zettel’s writing is confident and the story is well-plotted. Mysteries often hinge strongly on the final reveal at the end, and Palace of Spies has a great one, speaking to the way society underestimates the will and intelligence of teenage girls (both in the 1700s and today). Like all good mystery series, it also leaves a few questions about Peggy’s family’s past unanswered, giving Zettel fodder for future installments.

Hand this to readers who have enjoyed similar books in this historical female spy palace mystery subgenre (I’m gonna go with it) like Jennifer McGowan’s Maid of Secrets, Michaela MacColl’s Prisoners in the Palace, or Y. S. Lee’s The Traitor in the Tunnel. It’s also a great choice for readers interested in learning more about this period in England’s history – there aren’t many books that tackle the early 18th century and I know Jacobitism would fascinate many teen historical fiction junkies.

Audio Review: Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

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Strands of Bronze and Gold is the story of Bluebeard set on a plantation in the antebellum South. I feel like that sentence perfectly sums up everything you need to know plot-wise, but in case you want a little more: Sophie is an orphan, a member of a family that is now what we may call “impoverished gentility.” When her godfather, Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, who had quite an admiration for her mother, invites Sophie to live with him, she is happy to accept. His plantation home is opulent and he treats her like a precious jewel. She admires him deeply, even finding him attractive, despite his age (he is portrayed as perhaps a man in his 40s).

And then things change, slowly. de Cressac begins to exhibit worrisome behavior, like being upset with her befriending a stray cat. Sophie learns that his moods are changeable and she never knows what will set him off. Worst, though, is that she senses he has romantic feelings for her, which makes her own childish affections for him disappear entirely. By this point, she’s a prisoner in all practical ways, though he doesn’t lock her in a room and bar the windows. And then, of course, there are the former wives. Four of them, all who met tragic ends. Accidental, of course…

Nickerson does some things very well. I really liked the slow pace of the story. It gave time for adequate, un-rushed development of de Cressac, as well as for Sophie’s slow realization of his awfulness. It also enhances just how creepy de Cressac really is. As readers, we are expected to be familiar with the Bluebeard story. The fact that de Cressac is a murderer and creep is not news to us. But the way Nickerson allows his character – and Sophie’s discovery of it – to unfold, slowly, deliberately, is quite excellent. I felt my skin crawl multiple times before there was any hint of violence.

Nickerson also does some things quite poorly. There’s a subplot involving the slaves at M. Bernard’s home and Sophie’s desire to help them run to freedom that is so tone-deaf, it was almost painful to listen to. She also meets a free black woman in the woods named Anarchy who teaches her Important Lessons About Life. Frankly, I could have done without this entire storyline. I didn’t find any part of it redeemable. (Delia Sherman is much more successful in writing about a white girl among black slaves in the antebellum South in The Freedom Maze.)

Some readers will likely find themselves frustrated at Sophie’s naivete. It’s necessary for the story to work, but I also found it refreshing to read about a girl who isn’t already worldly and tough as nails. It seems perfectly reasonable to me that a girl in Sophie’s circumstances would be innocent. In many ways, this story is about the loss of that innocence (and how easy it is for a predator to take advantage of it). While many teen protagonists seem much more like adults, Sophie is clearly still a child.

I’m of two minds about the narration, done by Caitlin Prennace. Prennace is very good at portraying Sophie’s innocence. She doesn’t know much about the world and is easily scandalized, so Prennace’s voicing has a lot of gasps and shocked intonations. Sometimes it seems a little affected, though, and Prennace never quite sounds like a teenager. It’s not the greatest narration, but it’s more than passable.

Frankly, that’s a good summation of the book as a whole – not great, but passable. It’s an enjoyable listen and I don’t feel like I wasted my time, but I’m not sure I’m rush to recommend it. Ultimately, it wasn’t as atmospheric or creative as I think it could have been. It will be a good match for readers who like retold fairy tales, though I doubt it will be among their favorites. It also has a bit of a Southern gothic feel to it and should find a welcome home among those readers as well.

Review copy received from the publisher. Strands of Bronze and Gold is available now.

Get Genrefied: Historical Fiction

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Every month, we’re highlighting one genre within YA fiction as part of Angela’s reader’s advisory challenge. So far, we’ve discussed horror, science fiction, high fantasy, mysteries and thrillers, verse novels, and contemporary realistic fiction. July’s focus is historical fiction. 

The definition of historical fiction is something I feel strongly about. (Perhaps not as strongly as I feel about the definition of a dystopia, but the feelings are there nonetheless.) In the simplest terms, historical fiction is a story set in the past, but it’s important to go beyond just that simple definition. There are a couple of other essential things to know: 

A story set in a time period contemporaneous to its publication date is not historical fiction.

Jane Austen wrote about her own time; ergo, her works are not historical fiction. This also means that all the authors writing contemporary fiction in 2013 will not be considered to have written historical fiction by readers in 2050.  Of course, these types of stories may certainly appeal to fans of historical fiction.

Stories set in the recent past are still historical fiction.

Ask yourself: Is the time period of this book vital to its story, or could it be set in this year without any loss of sense or meaning? If the past time period is vital, it’s historical fiction. (So all those books set in the 80s that rely on lack of a cell phone are historical fiction.) This means that a 30-year old writing a story about a teenager’s experiences with 9/11 is writing historical fiction, even though the writer lived through it herself.

This is hard for a lot of people to reconcile. I remember having a discussion with my grandmother, who lived through World War II, about whether WWII stories were historical fiction, and I was surprised when she said she didn’t consider them so. It’s easy for us younger adults to think about WWII stories as historical fiction, but so many of us won’t push it further and realize that stories set in times when we were kids are historical as well. I know there will be people who disagree, but they are wrong. (There’s some honesty for you.)

It should be noted that historical fiction can often cross genres (a common theme in our genre guides!). Historical mysteries and romances are popular in the adult world, and they’re making a splash in the YA world as well. Historical fantasy is experiencing a surge in popularity thanks in large part, I think, to Grave Mercy (see Elizabeth May’s The Falconer and Amy Butler Greenfield’s Chantress).

If you’re looking to brush up on your knowledge of historical fiction, check out the following:

  • The Scott O’Dell award is given each year to a children’s or young adult book published in the previous year. The recipients of this award tend to skew young. The winning title must have been published by an American publisher, and the author must be a United States citizen.
  • Corsets, Cutlasses, and Candlesticks is a blog run by a group of debut YA and middle grade historical fiction authors whose books are being published in 2013 or 2014. They write regularly about their books and about writing historical fiction (including trends, authenticity, and fashion). 
  • The History Girls are a group of authors who write historical fiction for all ages, including Mary Hoffman, Mary Hooper, Celia Rees, and Adele Geras. They post almost daily on a number of topics.
  • The Historical Novel Society aims to “review all US and UK mainstream published titles,” which is quite an undertaking. They include young adult titles, and membership is open to anyone interested in historical novels.
  • There are a few authors who turn out a historical fiction novel rather reliably every year or so: Carolyn Meyer, Ann Rinaldi, Mary Hooper, Michaela MacColl, Esther Friesner, Susanne Dunlap. Their backlists are worth checking out. (Readers: are there any I’ve missed?)

Historical fiction has the potential to be incredibly varied and diverse, but there are times and places that are more popular – the 1920s, World War II, and Victorian and Tudor England are perennial favorites. (Personally, I’d love to see more ancient and prehistoric fiction.) Like much of the world of English-language fiction, there seems to be a significant lack of non-Western stories and stories featuring people of color. In the list of historical fiction titles published since 2012 below, I tried to seek out those books not set in Europe or North America, and I quite simply didn’t find very many. Please chime in with suggestions in the comments, particularly if you know of some set in Asia or Africa. All descriptions are from Worldcat or Goodreads.

 
Born of Illusion by Teri Brown: Set in 1920s New York City, this is the story of budding magician Anna
Van Housen, who has spent her whole life playing sidekick to her
faux-medium mother–and trying to hide the fact the she actually
possesses the very abilities her mother fakes.

A Moment Comes by Jennifer Bradbury: As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to
Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden
interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose
affection for him might help with his dream of studying at Oxford.

The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats: In medieval Wales, follows Cecily whose family is lured by cheap land
and the duty of all Englishman to help keep down the “vicious”
Welshmen, and Gwenhwyfar, a Welsh girl who must wait hand and foot on
her new English mistress. Kimberly’s review

Spirit’s Chosen by Esther M. Friesner (sequel to Spirit’s Princess): As Himiko traverses ancient Japan in order to free enslaved members of
her clan, she encounters members of many other tribes and emerges as the
leader who will unify them.

Chantress by Amy Butler Greenfield: “Sing, and the darkness will find you.” This warning has haunted
fifteen-year-old Lucy ever since she was eight and shipwrecked on a
lonely island. Lucy’s guardian, Norrie, has lots of rules, but the most
important is that Lucy must never sing. Not ever. Now it is 1667, Lucy
is fifteen, and on All Hallows’ Eve, Lucy hears a tantalizing melody on
the wind. She can’t help but sing—and she is swept into darkness.

The Disgrace of Kitty Grey by Mary Hooper: A hugely romantic new novel set in the time of Jane Austen, from the popular author of Fallen Grace.

Velvet by Mary Hooper: In Victorian London, orphaned Velvet leaves her backbreaking job in a
steam laundry for the mysterious and exciting world of famed
spiritualist Madame Savoya, who harbors dangerous secrets.

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers (companion book to Grave Mercy): Sybella’s duty as Death’s assassin in 15th-century France forces her
return home to the personal hell that she had finally escaped. Love and
romance, history and magic, vengeance and salvation converge in this
sequel to Grave Mercy. Kimberly’s review

The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee (third in a series): Queen Victoria has a problem: there’s a petty thief at work in
Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency assigns
quick-witted Mary Quinn to the case. Posing as a domestic in the royal
household and fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales
are challenge enough, but when the prince witnesses a murder in an opium
den — and scandal threatens the royal family — Mary learns that the
accused killer may be someone very close to her. Kimberly’s review

Gilt by Katherine Longshore: In 1539, Kitty Tylney and her best friend Cat Howard–the audacious,
self-proclaimed “Queen of Misrule”–both servants to the Duchess of
Norfolk, move to the court of King Henry VIII, who fancies Cat, and when
Cat becomes queen, Kitty must learn to navigate the complexities and
dangers of the royal court.

Tarnish by Katherine Longshore: King Henry VIII’s interest in Anne Boleyn could give her an opportunity
to make a real impact in a world with few choices for women, but when
poet Thomas Wyatt reveals he’s fallen for her, Anne must choose between
true love and the chance to make history.

Nobody’s Secret by Michaela MacColl: When fifteen-year-old Emily Dickinson meets a charming, enigmatic young
man who playfully refuses to tell her his name, she is intrigued–so
when he is found dead in her family’s pond in Amherst she is determined
to discover his secret, no matter how dangerous it may prove to be. Kimberly’s review

  
Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan: In 1559 England, Meg, an orphaned thief, is pressed into service and
trained as a member of the Maids of Honor, Queen Elizabeth I’s secret
all-female guard, but her loyalty is tested when she falls in love with a
Spanish courtier who may be a threat.

Victoria Rebels by Carolyn Meyer: Through diary entries, reveals the life of Britain’s strong-willed
and short-tempered Queen Victoria from the age of eight through her
twenty-fourth birthday, up to her third wedding anniversary with her
beloved Albert in 1843.

Cinders & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed: The intertwined lives of the prominent Averley family and the servants
of Somerton Court are forever changed when an old secret comes to light. Kimberly’s review

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross: When Maude Pichon runs
away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as
quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad.
The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service—the
beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive. 

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys: Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute,
is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith
College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation.

Passion Blue by Victoria Strauss: In fifteenth-century Italy, seventeen-year-old Giulia, a Count’s
illegitimate daughter, buys a talisman hoping it will bring her true
love to save her from life in a convent, but once there she begins to
learn the painter’s craft, including how to make the coveted paint,
Passion blue, and to question her true heart’s desire. Kimberly’s review

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and
the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage and great
courage as she relates what she must do to survive while keeping secret
all that she can. Kimberly’s review

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters: In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their
toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners
flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her
scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first
love, killed in battle, returns. Kimberly’s review

Below are a few books to keep an eye out for later this year or early 2014.

Love Disguised by Lisa Klein: After a mixed-up courtship with the Hathaway sisters ends badly,
eighteen-year-old Will Shakespeare jumps at the chance to go to London,
where he can pursue his dream of becoming an actor and where he is about
to meet the girl who will change his life forever. (July 2013)

VIII by H. M. Castor: VIII is the story of
Hal: a young, handsome, gifted warrior, who believes he has been chosen
to lead his people. But he is plagued by the ghosts of his family’s
violent past and once he rises to power, he turns to murder and
rapacious cruelty. He is Henry VIII. (August 2013)

Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem: After a harrowing defection to the United States in 1982, Russian
teenager Marya and her father settle in Brooklyn, where Marya is drawn
into a web of intrigue involving her gift of foresight, her mother’s
disappearance, and a boy she cannot bring herself to trust.
 

The Falconer by Elizabeth May: Lady Aileana Kameron,
the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life
carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a
faery killed her mother. Now it’s the 1844 winter season and
Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of
parties, tea and balls. (September 2013)

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein: When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis and sent to
Ravensbrück, the notorious women’s concentration camp, she finds hope
in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery, and friendship of her
fellow prisoners. (September 2013)

Beauty’s Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy by Carolyn Meyer: When renowned beauty Helen runs off to Troy with Prince Paris, her
enraged husband, King Menelaus, starts the Trojan War, leaving their
plain daughter, Hermione, alone to witness the deaths of heroes on both
sides and longing to find her own love and place in the world. (October 2013)

A Most Dangerous Deception by Sarah Zettel: In 1716 London, an orphaned sixteen-year-old girl from a good family
impersonates a lady-in-waiting only to discover that the real girl was
murdered, the court harbors a nest of spies, and the handsome young
artist who is helping her solve the mystery might be a spy himself. (November 2013)

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller: A teen in Edwardian
London, after getting expelled from her French boarding school, pursues
her passion for art—and for an attractive police constable—despite the
restrictions of her upper-class family. (January 2014)

Secret Historical Societies of Teenage Girls: A Brief List

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I don’t know if I can fairly call this a mini-trend, since it seems like something that’s been ongoing since I was a teen, but it’s one I love: historical girls who join all-female secret groups or societies to carry out dangerous but important activities. Usually the secret group has an innocent, innocuous, and thoroughly gender-appropriate cover – it’s a finishing school or a nunnery; the girls learn to be lady’s maids or governesses. In reality, though, the girls learn how to spy, how to kill, how to be physically and intellectually powerful in a world where otherwise they would have had almost no agency of their own.

Women and girls in the time periods highlighted in these books generally would have had very little power in any of the traditional roles, and I think this is a fun way to subvert that. Y. S. Lee, who writes the excellent Agency series, states as much in her author’s note, which I return to again and again:

Women’s
choices were grim in those days, even for the clever. If a top secret
women’s detective agency existed in Victorian England, it left no
evidence – just as well, since that would cast serious doubt on its
competence. The Agency is a totally unrealistic, completely fictitious
antidote to the fate that would otherwise swallow a girl like Mary
Quinn.

The title of her series is a nod to this as well, I think.

Complicating these stories is the fact that in many of them, the girls are forced against their will into these secret societies. What does that say about the power they have – or don’t have – within the group compared to the world at large?

I have always been drawn to these sorts of stories. As a girl, it was a
way for me to have my cake and eat it too: I could escape to another
time while also not encounter all the strictures of that historical
period most girls would have endured. A lot of what I read as a teenager
was a way for me to read about girls with power (magical and
otherwise), since I felt I had so very little of it myself. I think this
is a major reason these stories continue to be popular today.

I’ve collected just a smattering of recent titles that explore this concept below. Each book is the start of a series, and all descriptions come from Worldcat. I’ve linked each title to either Goodreads or my review.

Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan

In 1559 England, Meg, an orphaned thief, is pressed into service and
trained as a member of the Maids of Honor, Queen Elizabeth I’s secret
all-female guard, but her loyalty is tested when she falls in love with a
Spanish courtier who may be a threat.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old
Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the
sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god
of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts–and a violent destiny.

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
Sophronia, a fourteen-year-old tomboy, has been enrolled in a finishing
school to improve her manners. But the school is not quite what her
mother was expecting — here young girls learn to finish…everything.
As well as the finer arts of dress, dance and etiquette, they also learn
how to deal out death, diversion and espionage.

The Agency by Y. S. Lee
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary
Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls where she
is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The
Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant’s home in
hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.

Have I missed any biggies published for teens within the past few years? I’m looking specifically for historical titles, so stories about girls training at a secret school to be spies in modern times aren’t the target (though I do love those sorts of books, they are not quite the same). Do you read and love these books as much as I do?

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

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By now, I’ve learned I don’t particularly care for ghost stories, but I keep trying them, usually when I read a glowing review. In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters was my latest experiment, and it wasn’t much of a success. 
It’s 1918, and Mary Shelley Black (a name I never warmed to – it seemed just too much for this type of story) saw her childhood friend and sweetheart Stephen go off to fight in World War I. She worries for him, fighting in France, but she’s also facing a horror at home: the Spanish flu, which has swept the globe, killing most people it affects. Though she and her aunt (whom she is living with, her mother dead and her father in prison for protesting the war) have not yet been afflicted, they live in terror of it. 
Because of the war and the flu, spiritualism flourishes. (Winters mentions in her author note that the average life expectancy dropped to below 40 during this time.) People are desperate to connect with loved ones who have passed on, leading to a rise in spirit photography, where convincing charlatans photograph bereaved people and then present a photo with the loved one’s “spirit” standing near them.    
Stephen’s older brother Julius is one of these photographers, and he claims Mary Shelley is his muse. He convinces her to sit for him, and presents a photo of her with Stephen’s ghost hovering near her. Immediately after, Mary Shelley learns that Stephen has died on the battlefield. She is so stricken with grief, she goes out in the middle of a storm and is struck by lightning. She is dead for several seconds, and when she is resuscitated, she finds she is…changed. Previously a skeptic, she can now see Stephen’s ghost, and he is tormented. He claims he’s being tortured by murderous blackbirds, and Mary Shelley soon realizes that the accounts of his death aren’t quite right. She sets out to determine what happened to Stephen and allow him to rest.
The setup is intriguing, and Mary Shelley’s haunting look on the cover drew me in. But ultimately, I found the book disappointing. The first misstep was the inclusion of the flashback right at the beginning, which threw the timeline off for me for a bit. This flashback is important, since it establishes Mary Shelley’s and Stephen’s relationship, as well as Stephen’s relationship with Julius, but I’m just not a fan of flashbacks in general.
Yes, it’s a fairly atmospheric story (thanks in large part to the period photos sprinkled throughout), with some interesting historical details. Yes, the romance is nicely sensual for a change (as opposed to many historical teen novels where holding hands is the farthest either party wants to go). And yes, it does get quite creepy at moments. But the main plotline involving Stephen’s ghost never completely grabbed me. I feel like most ghost stories rely on the ghost either being unwilling or unable to reveal what’s distressing it, and that’s the case here, too. How compelling of a mystery can it be if it can be solved by the ghost just letting go of its stubborness and sharing the information it has? I understand that Stephen’s ghost was not necessarily able to share, but it seems like a cheat. 
This is not a situation particular to In the Shadow of Blackbirds, and to be fair, many people enjoy this aspect of the ghost story, where the ghost is so tortured it simply cannot act rationally. Alas, I am not one of those people. This is a case of “It’s not you, it’s me.” In addition, I found the mystery fairly easy to solve (there was not a large pool of suspects), though I have to admit, Winters surprised me with some of it.
I did enjoy reading about how the flu affected the population. That era is not one I’ve studied much, so I was surprised to learn how large the death toll was (larger than the death toll from the war), and it was fascinating to read about the home remedies desperate people resorted to (onion soup and garlic).
For established fans of ghost stories, this should fit the bill, but I’m not sure it will convert the uninitiated. (Since, you know, it didn’t convert me.) For a different take on this book, check out Lenore’s and Christina’s dual reviews (and, incidentally, the place where I got the review copy).