A Land Serene

Completed

1.) Mercedes Lackey, The Black Swan   {01/05}  
2.) Jean Sasson, Princess Sultana's Circle  {01/07} 
3.) Keith R.A. DeCandido, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q & A  {01/11} 
4.) Eloisa James, When the Duke Returns  {01/23} 
5.) Helen Halstead Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride  {01/28} 
6.) Ellis Avery, The Teahouse Fire  {02/08} 
7.) Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha *  {02/15}  
8.) Mineko Iwasaki, Geisha, A Life  {02/17} 
9.) Joan Haslip, The Lonely Empress: Elizabeth of Austria  {02/23} 
10.) Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition, trans. Jonathan Star** {02/24}
11.) Mercedes Lackey, Magic's Pawn * {03/12} 
12.) Confucius, The Analects, trans. D.C. Lau**  {03/16} 
13.) Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess  {04/08} 
14.) Andrew Sinclair, Death by Fame: A Life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria  {04/15} 
15.) Mercedes Lackey, The Fire Rose  {04/23} 
16.) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice *  {04/24} 
17.) Stephanie Mayer, Twilight  {04/24} 
18.) Cathy Maxwell, Temptation of a Proper Governess  {04/24} 
19.) Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, The Flame and the Flower  {0428} 
20.) A.C. Crispin, Star Trek: Time For Yesterday *  {04/30} 
21.) Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland *  {05/04} 
22.) Ann Nibbs, The Elusive Empress  {05/04} 
23.) Susan Adriani, Affinity and Affection  {05/06} 
24.) Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass *  {05/13} 
25.) Count Egon Corti, Elizabeth: Empress of Austria, trans. Catherine Alison Phillips  {05/15} 


Currently Reading

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Title: Temptation of a Proper Governess
Author: Cathy Maxwell
Publisher: Avon
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Society dictates that a governess should be modest, quiet, and keep to herself. She should never contradict her employer. And, above all, she must not attract the attention of any male in the household. But Michael Severson doesn't see Isabel Halloran as a governess -- he sees her as a woman, one whose lush curves cannot be hidden behind a dowdy gown ... and whose efforts at hiding her sparkling intelligence are betrayed by her wit. Years before, Michael had left Regency England, falsely accused of a crime. Now he is back, dedicated to seeking retribution -- but not to taking a bride. But when his scandalous actions compromise Isabel's reputation, he does the unthinkable and offers her his hand -- a marriage in name only. But although his bride's passions are untried, Isabel's sensuality clearly matches his own. And with each day, and night, that passes, Michael becomes determined that every kiss, every caress, will be made with one goal: to seduce his proper wife into tender submission. ~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: Mr. Darcy Presents His Bride
Author: Helen Halstead
Publisher: Ulysses Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: When Elizabeth Bennett marries the brooding, passionate Mr. Darcy, she is thrown into the exciting world of London society. She makes a powerful friend in the Marchioness of Englebury but the jealousy among her ladyship's circle threatens to destroy Elizabeth's happiness. Elizabeth is drawn into a powerful clique for whom intrigue is the stuff of life and rivalry the motive, and her success, it seems, can only come at the expense of good relations with her husband. This novel also continues the stories of other favorite Pride and Prejudice characters including Georgiana Darcy and Kitty Bennett, each of whom have amusing adventures of their own.  ~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q & A
Author: Keith R.A. DeCandido
Publisher: Pocket Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: On her first mission, the Enterprise was sent to Farpoint Station. A simple, straightforward investigation. Perfect for a crew that had never served together. Then there was Q. An omnipotent lifeform that seemed bent on placing obstacle after obstacle in the ship's -- and in particular in Picard's -- way. And it hadn't ended with that first mission. When he was least expected, Q would appear. Pushing, prodding, testing. At times needling captain and crew with seemingly silly, pointless, and maddening trifles. Then it would turn all too serious, and the survival of Picard's crew was in Q's hands. Why was it today that Picard was remembering the day he took command of the Enterprise-D? Now he commanded a new ship, the Enterprise-E. His crew was different. There was nothing about Gorsach that in the least resembled Farpoint. But Picard couldn't shake the feeling that something all too familiar was going on. All too awful. All too Q.   ~ Amazon.com
 
( Review )

Title: The Black Swan
Author: Mercedes Lackey
Publisher: DAW
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Baron Eric von Rothbart, a powerful sorcerer, hunts down women who have betrayed men and transforms them into swans who can only resume their true forms by moonlight. His lonely daughter Odile, who watches the flock and studies spells, longs vainly for his approval. One day von Rothbart tells Odette, the swan princess, that she can break the spell by winning and holding a man's faithful love for one month. He's even chosen a candidate, Prince Siegfried. Unfortunately, the prince is a womanizing hedonist. Should Odette succeed nevertheless, von Rothbart secretly plans a trap for them and the prince's ambitious mother, Queen Clothilde, who schemes to rule in her own right. But he must use Odile, who has befriended Odette and is no longer her father's puppet. ~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: The Teahouse Fire
Author: Ellis Avery
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 480
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: In 1865, nine-year-old Aurelia Caillard is taken from New York to Japan by her missionary uncle Charles while her ailing mother dies at home. Charles soon vanishes in a fire (not the one of the title), leaving Aurelia orphaned and alone in Kyoto. She is taken in by Yukako, the teenage daughter of the Shin family, master teachers of temae, or tea ceremony. Aurelia, narrating as an elderly woman, tells of living as Yukako's servant and younger sister, and how what begins as grateful puppy love for Yukako matures over years into a deeply painful unrequited obsession. Against a backdrop of a convulsively Westernizing Japan, Avery brings the conflicts of modernization into the teahouse, and into Aurelia and Yukako's beds, where jealousy over lovers threatens to tear them apart.
~ Publishers Weekly

( Review )

Title: Anna and the King of Siam
Author: Margaret Landon
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 1999
Format: Paperbacks
Pages: 416
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: This classic tale blends fact and fiction as it tells the story of Englishwoman Anna Leonowens, who becomes governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s.
~ Amazon.com

( Review )

Title: The Reluctant Empress, A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Author: Brigitte Hamann
Publisher: Alfred A, Knopf, 1982
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 410
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: A biography of Empress Elisabeth, based mainly on letters and diaries of herself and her contemporaries.

( Review )

Title: Memoirs of Cleopatra
Author: Margaret George
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998
Format: Paperback
Pages: 976
Times Read: 1
Rank:

Summary: Cleopatra has captivated generations, and this huge novel will ensure additional adulation. Beginning with a memory at age three of witnessing her mother's death and ending with her own suicide, Cleopatra tells her story. Both the telling and the tale are exceptional. George combines history and legend with her own imagination to produce a fascinating portrait. Strangely, some of the more implausible events, such as Cleopatra's being hidden in a rug and taken to Caesar, are fact, not fiction. The graceful use of the language and the intense action make for compelling reading.
~ Library Journal

( Review )