It's been kind of a struggle, though, to find good books with plot lines that keep me hooked while at the same time remaining relatively wholesome and appropriate. I realize this isn't everyone's style, but it really disappoints me to get caught up in a good story and then have that story interrupted by bedroom scenes that make reading the book uncomfortable to me from there on out. I recently started such a book - I was really getting into the story, the characters, and the setting, and then wham - out of left field, two of the main characters are suddenly (and I thought needlessly) depicted in a graphic scene that really turned me off to the entire book.
That being said, I have been able to find a few books lately that I have read and just adored. One has been Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, a sort of thriller mystery involving a reclusive old writer and the secrets of her past.This was the book that made me remember how fun it is to read a good book. I think I finished it in two or three days, and it was so much more fun than watching Law and Order: SVU reruns on Netflix (which I love to do when I have a spare half hour).
And that kicked off my current book-buying frenzy. I am almost addicted to it - whenever we pass by a bookstore, I feel a compulsion to pull over and look for good deals on books I've been wanting to read for who knows how long.
Another I read recently was Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund. I am a huge historical fiction fan, but typically turn away from fictional depictions of real peoples' lives, because I think if done sloppily, they can seem tacky and crass depictions of a real, living or once-living individual's life experiences. However, I had heard that the author of this book meticulously researched Marie Antoinette's life and interspersed the book with true events as well as fictionalized passages.Overall, I enjoyed the author's style of writing, and the story itself was very interesting. I grew pretty attached to the main characters, and Naslund presented some of them in a way that I had never considered. For instance, Louis XVI, who history mostly remembers as a fat, bumbling oaf of a monarch, was, according to Naslund, a kind-hearted, if not somewhat socially awkward and dim, family man who loved his wife and children dearly and cared very much for the happiness of his people. Marie Antoinette was also given a favorable characterization, but was not without her flaws - at times, she stooped to pettiness in snubbing King Louis XV's mistress out of spite and disdain. There were a few parts in the book that were borderline as far as sexuality; a major plot point is that for years after their marriage, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI didn't consummate the marriage or produce heirs, something that was an outright scandal at the time. However, I felt that the book strayed away from sensationalizing sexual matter, and I was more or less alright with what was included.
I also appreciated the fact that Naslund didn't explicitly sexualize the relationship between Marie Antoinette and Axel von Fersen, a Swedish count that she may or may not have had an affair with in real life. Naslund left it open to the reader's interpretation for the most part, and nothing between the two of them was ever really portrayed. I felt this was a tactful way with dealing with a relationship that may or may not have been what some have hyped it up to be.
