Mrs Keppel and her Daughter - Diana Souhami

I picked this up on our wanderings in Alaska this past summer.  It's the story of Alice Edmonstone Keppel and her daughter, Violet Keppel Trefusis.  Alice was the mistress of King Edward VII, the great grandfather of the current Queen Elizabeth.  In an interesting twist, Alice's other daughter, Sonia, is the grandmother of Camilla, the mistress (and now wife) of Queen Elizabeth's son, Charles. 

It was valuable to me as an example of the Victorian era and the mores of that society.  Anglophiles would enjoy.

Published:   Read: September 2018  Genre: Biography

Disobedience - Jane Hamilton

I've read "The Book of Ruth" and "Laura Ryder's Masterpiece" and tried to read "A Map of the World" by the same author. This one gave me the same feeling as her previous ones - almost worth reading, but in the end, unsatisfying.

This title is the story of a teenager who reads his mother's email and finds out she is having an affair.  Over the course of about a year, he angst over her infidelity.  Intertwined is the story of his father, a history teacher and his sister, a preteen obsessed with the civil war and its reenactments.  It's a story of family relationships and family tolerances, secrets and weaknesses.

For me, the son's character was inconsistent; at times sounding childish and at others mouthing adult observations for the author's convenience.  I just didn't care much for any of the characters.

Published: 2000  Read: March 2016  Genre: Fiction