Now I will start this book and if I like it will read more of hers.
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Now I will start this book and if I like it will read more of hers.
I appear to have been on some kind of mission this month (called trying to catch up on my Goodreads challenge!), 12 books in a month must surely be a record for me.
Best by far was There Are Rivers in the Sky, a truly beautiful novel.
Worst by a huge margin was Starting Over (men who blame their own violence on others should never be considered as love interest material, in books or in real life).
#NovemberWrapUp
bailedI love Elif Shafak as a person who speaks about pressing issues & as an author. I‘ve enjoyed the diverse characters & warmth of her previous books. I didn‘t get on with this one - it felt too slow & the fable-like tone & lack of plot tension made it hard to connect with the characters or care what happened. It‘s also a little overwritten or descriptive. I‘ve heard people raving about it, but I didn‘t have the patience to keep going.
pickFor 50+ days, Constantinople defended itself and its 1200+ years of history as the eastern-most bastion of Christendom against the Turkish Ottomans‘ assault. This is a very detailed account of the siege and battle, and some of the aftermath. Sultan Mehmet was only 21 when he felled the city that had withstood many previous attempts. I suspect age aided his endurance. But he was also a young military genius and had extraordinary control of the ⬇️
The author of the tagged book describes the sources he most trusted to write this historical account of the siege and fall of Constantinople, Doukas being one of them. How crazy that Doukas‘s account stops mid-sentence!
“If there is any moment at which it is possible to recognize a modern sensibility in a medieval event, it is here in the account of reactions to the news of the fall of Constantinople. Like the assassination of Kennedy or 9/11 it is clear that people throughout Europe could remember exactly where they were when they first heard the news.”
