Monday, January 02, 2006

2006 books 1 and 2

frances sherwood's the book of splendor
between dogsitting and not going to bed until 11am on new year's day, i've been a little sleep-deprived lately, to the point where i was totally unable to remember this book's name unless i was looking at its cover. its content proved more memorable--it takes place in prague in 1601, during the emperor's descent into madness and during the persecution of the jews that led rabbi judah loew to build his famous golem. central to the plot is a young orphan, rochel (whose name is part of my own hebrew name, and by the way, it's not pronounced like rachel, it's got that guttural CH sound and the O is an O like in "good"), recently married to a local widower. she and the golem fall in love (wha?) leading to dramatic consequences. or whatever. the end wrapped things up a little too neatly for my taste, and the historical accuracy is pretty questionable, but it was a nice enough story.

kai meyer's the water mirror
this YA novel (translated from the german) takes place in an early 20th century venice touched by magic. two young orphan girls are apprenticed to a master mirror-maker (who makes magic mirrors, and feuds with the magic weaver across the canal). meanwhile, the egyptians, led by a pharoah, have the city under siege, and there's a plot afoot against the mysterious flowing queen. this is the first book in a series and i'll definitely be checking out the second one (whenever it comes out).

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