Book Review for: "the Royal Sisters"

Book Review for: the Royal Sisters
Written by Jean Plaidy
Broadway Books
ISBN: 978-0-307-719-52-2
Avail: print and ebook
3.5 Stars

Plaidy pens an intimate look at Mary and Anne Stuart, the sisters who both reigned as Queens of England. Mary and Anne have both been raised Protestant, whereas their father is Catholic to the bone. When England citizens choose the sisters over the father, they choose a course that the nation will follow to the present.

The novel opens with Charles II on the throne, his brother, James, is his heir. Charles is crafty. To that end, he has ensured his nieces have been raised in the Anglican faith. Mary is married and living in Holland with her husband, William. Eighteen-year-old Anne entertains a secret liaison with John Sheffield, Earl Mulgrave. When Charles discovers what Anne's been up to, he goes about finding her a husband and settles is George of Sweden. Anne is happy enough in her marriage and she tries to secure an heir.

Charles dies and James comes to the throne, but the British people are apprehensive due to his open practice of Catholism. When his wife becomes pregnant and gives birth to the Prince of Wales, the British find any excuse to send him packing. The Glorious Revolution occurs. James flees England and his daughter, Mary, along with her husband, ascends to the throne.

Mary is gracious! and an apt Queen Regina, but she is sadden over her loveless marriage. That's not her only problem. Mary is unable to draw close to Anne due to Sarah Churchill's interference and Anne refuses to forsake Sarah's friendship. With Mary, childless, she realizes the heir to the throne after Anne is Anne's young son, William, but can the sisters find peace between them so as to secure the Anglican/Protestant succession for future generations?

Plaidy's love for the British documentary shines in "the Royal Sisters." She's done her research and it shows. What makes Mary and Anne's story so poignant is how their strengths and weaknesses-Plaidy features painting them as deliciously human. Anne's strengths are her love for her son and loyalty. Mary shares these strengths. Yet both Mary and Anne suffer in their hearts for the wrong done their father they've.

What does exceptionally well is Plaidy blend fiction and fact to tell the story. She has an incredible knack of slipping in little known facts into the story as well, which makes her historicals stand out. Where is her writing style in Plaidy lags, often slipping into a "telling" style narrative, as opposed to showing the story. This style requires a bit more patience from the reader, but if you're a fan of the Plaidy's ability to weave fact and fiction, it doesn't hinder your ability to embrace the story.

Overall, "the Royal Sisters" tells a story of love, greed, loyalty, and betrayal that will leave you wanting to find out more about the Stuarts.

Reviewed by: s. Burkhart

StephB is an author who likes to read many books and a variety of different genres. StephB is an author at http://www.Writing.Com/which is a site for Creative Writing.

Hey Kid's, Want Some Chocolates? My Family's Journey to Freedon Written By Melitta Strandberg

AppId is over the quota

During WWII the Germans performed many experiments on humans. Just the thought of this makes me cringe and wonder how any human can experiment with another living human and not care what suffering would result from such a thing. Melitta Strandberg was one of these babies. Unknowingly Melitta's birth was at a hospital from which Hitler took babies without the parents' permission in order to perform his many experiments, many of which are believed to be switching around the reproductive parts of very young as well as older children. They would then give another baby to the parents without telling them it was not their own child. Gisela, Melitta's mother, knew it wasn't her own baby but was forced to take the baby she was given. She would never give up until she found her own baby, which occurred after searching and asking questions of many people. Melitta was on her doorstep one day and Gisela knew immediately that this was her own baby girl.

The family, Oskar Mohr and Gisela, lived in Romania. They were both born just before the beginning of WWI. They made plans to move to Germany not knowing the events coming in a few years. They did make the move but they had to dispose of almost every possession since they had no way to move any goods with them except the clothes on their back and one suitcase. One prized possession was a sewing machine the family could not leave behind, so they broke it down and hid all the parts in a baby buggy for their travel to Weimar, Germany.

The war years went on with much of Germany being bombed, decimating most of the buildings making most of the residents leave for a safer place, if one could be found. The family eventually settled in Augsburg, Germany, a beautiful town that became their home in the west. Any travel was dangerous. One never knew how many or of what attitude would be held by the Russians, then in control of East Berlin, during the many stops required to go anywhere. The family got on to the last train leaving East Berlin traveling to West Berlin, controlled by the Americans. Most of the book contains the story of the entire family and explained mostly through what Oskar and Gisela had passed along to Melitta. The book is short but full of details of life as the family was forced to live it. Read it and learn about the wonderful life Melitta has had since.

Reader review by Cy Hilterman of a book supplied by the author.

Araba Let's Separate: The Story of the Nigerian Civil War

The title, a word meaning "Araba" Let's Separate "or" Let's Dissolve, "refers to the Nigerian Civil War which began in 1966 and continued for nearly four years. The word was first used by rioters at a demonstration in the early stages of the civil war, in an attempt to signal their dissatisfaction with attempts to unify Nigeria under what was known as the "Decree Number 34."

Professor Mshelia has fashioned the events of that period into a something of a historical novel, mixing fictional characters in, and in some cases battles and confrontations, with the historical characters and actions that were a part of that war. In the book, Professor Preface.doc One to Mshelia states that they took this approach as "an attempt to present history in a fictional form for an easy and interesting reading for the general public."

However, it is frequently difficult to determine what is not historical fact and what is fiction. Given his statement that the book contains fictional elements, this would normally not appear to be a problem, however, in this instance, it sometimes results in confusing the reader. This is not helped by the fact that Professor Mshelia frequently addresses the reader with sentences beginning with "readers" or "my dear readers," leading one to feel they are being lectured on the subject, rather than reading a somewhat fictional recounting of the events of the Nigerian Civil War.

That's not to say that Araba doesn't make for an interesting read. Prior to reading this book, I was completely unaware of the events recounted in the book. And as someone who enjoys history, I'm somewhat ashamed to say that, although I'm certainly not alone among Westerners in that regard.

So Professor Mshelia is due praise for attempting to bring these events to light, although I wish they had decided to avoid adding any fictional elements in an attempt to make the book more accessible and readable.

The book might have been further helped with tighter editing and the elimination of the occasional typo. Among such problems is this statement in Preface.doc One: "[T] his book Araba limits its scope to one single but important event in the life of the nation (that occurred in the 1960s)."

The problem with that line? The event he is referring to occurred in 1966, not in the 1960s, when the January 22nd of that year, an attempted coup d ' ?tat led to the situation of a number of prominent northern political leaders, including the then-Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria,.

Those assignations were the catalyst for the civil war, and the thousands of deaths that resulted, as the civil war turned into an attempt at secession and to carve out a separate "Republic of Biafra" from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Araba is packed with detail, as well as informative commentary, again confusing the issue of whether this is a work of fiction or fact. Regardless, it is a worthwhile read, particularly for the history buffs, who, like me, you probably need to know more about these important events in the history of Nigeria.

Reviewed by: Gary r. Sorkin

Gary r. Sorkin is the Senior Editor for Pacific Book Review. Please visit the Pacific Book Review at: http://www.pacificbookreview.com/