Reviewing -The Glassmaker

 

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chavalier

I love reading historical fiction and Tracy Chavalier is one of my favorite authors.  This book takes place in Venice and the areas around it and since I've been to Venice it made this book extra special for me.  As they were describing various places in Venice I could picture just where they were talking about.  The author makes the characters come alive in this book which makes it a very compelling book to read.

Story Summary

The author takes an interesting take on the timelessness of Venice in this book.  In the first paragraph of each chapter she takes on a timeline of Venice through the years starting in 1486 and ending in present day.  In the rest of each chapter we follow Orsola Rosso, a woman who has grown up in a glassmaking family in Murano, just a gondolier ride away from Venice.

In Orsola's time woman were meant to be helpers in the business, but never actual glassmakers.  In order to help her family in a time of need Orsola learns to make glass beads in secret.

Venice in 1486 is a very wealthy and an opulent center for trade. As time flows through the years Venice suffers through plagues and wars and eventually turns in to more of a tourist destination than a trade center.

In this book we follow the Rosso family through good times and bad.  We see life through the eyes of Orsola and view her pains and triumphs as she deals with deaths, births, and changes in the glassmaking business.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Book on Amazon

The Glassmaker is available on Amazon in Hardback, Paperback, Audiobook or eBook.  The Glassmaker

 Reviews of Andriana Trigiani Books

If you enjoy historical fiction you may enjoy this book. Here is a book I reviewed by Adriana Trigiani.

The Good Left Undone

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Inferno Book Review

A page turner. A real thriller. I absolutely could not put it down. Obviously, I was not alone in my appreciation for this book as it was number one on the New York Times bestseller list for eleven weeks.

Dan Brown's Inferno is the fourth book in the Da Vinci Code series following The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Angels and Demons.  In the latest volume, character Robert Langdon awakens in hospital suffering from amnesia. He remembers nothing of the previous days but memory or not, the book erupts into chaos fairly quickly. Langdon is in possession of a special code and discovers hidden parts of Florence and ancient secrets as well as a scientific situation that may improve or devastate life on earth.

Inferno is set mostly in Florence with some time spent in Venice and Istanbul. The jacket says that it "is a sumptuously entertaining read - a novel that will captivate readers with the beauty of classical Italian art, history and literature while also posing provocative questions about the role of cutting edge science in our future." I agree.

If you are up for an exciting adventure, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. If you are going to Florence, Italy, there is simply no choice. You HAVE to read this book. Inferno was but one of the Italy-themed books we read before we had the opportunity to travel to Italy in October and I am glad that we did read it. If you cannot travel to Italy in person, you can do some armchair travelling with the book, which brilliantly explores Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, the Boboli Gardens and the Duomo.

Personally, I would love to own the special edition book shown above, which is illustrated and includes more than 200 color images. It is the version that I would choose if I were gifting this book to a mystery reader, a Da Vinci Code fan or to someone travelling to Italy.  Here's a video peek at what to expect in the special edition version of the book:

Just watching the video makes me want to read the book again and, of course, go back to Italy! If you are interested, you can find all of the versions of Inferno on Amazon here.

On a final note, the movie version of Inferno was fine.  It was interesting to visit Italy again through the eyes of the movie camera but be warned that it paled in comparison to the book. I also found myself wondering how much one would enjoy the movie if they did not have the knowledge of the story that reading the book gave. This is definitely a situation where the book far surpassed the movie.

Please stay tuned for more Italy-themed book reviews.

Happy Reading!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda

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Buy Dan Brown's Inferno on Amazon.

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