Burial Rites

Haunting and starkly beautiful, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person executed in Iceland.

A book review in 25 words or less....the beginning of series.

Insert The Sound of Angels Singing

A magic man visited my office and left me a present - a cute little box with treasures inside:

Three marketing / business books and one novel to add to the six linear feet of books I haven't read, yet. But, I needed them all. The top book is my TedEx book club book. The second book has been the subject of a lot of chatter at AMA (American Marketing Association) lately. The third book was recommended by the speaker at the last AMA luncheon. If I read it maybe I'll understand what the hell he was talking about because it all sounded really cool. And, finally, there's the last book, Unmarketing, written by Scott Stratten, one of the super-smart marketing people I follow online.

Eat, Pray, Love

The work of a self-indulgent, narcissistic, shallow dilettante. That is the way Eat, Pray, Love was described to me when it first started making national waves. Ordinarily, I would have dismissed this condemnation and checked it out myself. But the source of this damning review was not only one of the most open-minded people I know, this was the person who first taught me to crack open my tiny little mind and stop seeing everything and everyone in black and white. Subsequently, I have had no interest in this book at all, even blackballing it from a book club.

Fast forward to the first week of July. I dropped by the library to pick up some audio books for the drive to North Texas and found myself reaching for “Eat, Pray, Love.” I can’t explain why I picked it up. Or, how I was smart enough to listen to the Janet Evanovich on the way out of town; waiting for EPL until after three days of inactivity, trapped inside by rain, quieted the non-stop frenzy in my head enough to allow me to really listen. I’m just grateful.

It didn’t take me five minutes of the first disc to fall head-over-heels in love with this book. I highly recommend the book and the audio version. Elizabeth Gilbert’s search for grace is one of the most beautiful and moving stories I have ever encountered. I still marvel at the seemingly random events that brought this story to me at this particular moment in time when so much of my life is completely unmoored. And, again, I am grateful.

Cinderella Has Left The Building

I don't know if anyone notices my "currently reading" feature, but for over a month, I've been working on a book called "Sex with Kings - Five Hundred Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry and Revenge" by Eleanor Herman. I expected a fun, frivolous and maybe a little bit naughty tale about palace romance and intrigue. What I got was a fantastic, incredibly well-researched, thoroughly depressing work of non-fiction.

Granted, I've always been a little bit naive, but even at the ripe old age of 41, I found it disappointing to discover that the idea of the prince marrying the princess and living happily ever after to be complete bunk. It turns out, for centuries, the prince (or king) was marrying the princess and giving up other women for the length of his honeymoon, maybe. In the French court there was even an title for the "official" mistress (there was more than one) "maitresse-en-titre".

Despite the cold dose of reality, I highly recommend this fascinating book.