Saturday, December 18, 2010

What I'm Reading #13: The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

I really ought to read novels more often. I read voraciously as a kid, but these days the amount of reading I have to do for school can be prohibitive, not to mention that even when I do get a break from all that, I'd rather cram a whole season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a 48-hour period. (Fact: I just did that.)

However, graduate school has not yet completely crushed my love of books, and I am very excited about doing some reading for fun over break. I started The Historian earlier this semester, was forced to set it aside and then took it back up and finished it during finals.

This novel is excellent. I have been avoiding the inundation of vampire fiction that has choked the bookshelves as of late, so when my dad told me he had read and enjoyed a vampire novel, I moved quickly from shock to intrigue. As it turns out, The Historian is, in a way, about vampires, but it takes a completely different approach than Twilight or--this one I saw in Barnes & Noble yesterday--Wuthering Bites (God help us).

This is a historical novel par excellence, intricately woven across centuries and the borders of the U.S. and Europe. Kostova leads the reader through library rare book rooms, monastery crypts and Orthodox churches layered with Ottoman and Eastern European influences. The multi-generational story skips around without losing the reader, taking you on a thrilling ride of mystery and macabre. An intelligent take on the current vampire craze that ties in with stories of Vlad the Impaler and gypsy vampire folklore, this is a novel as believable as it is terrifying and fascinating.

1 comments:

Unknown said...
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Saturday, December 18, 2010

What I'm Reading #13: The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

I really ought to read novels more often. I read voraciously as a kid, but these days the amount of reading I have to do for school can be prohibitive, not to mention that even when I do get a break from all that, I'd rather cram a whole season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer into a 48-hour period. (Fact: I just did that.)

However, graduate school has not yet completely crushed my love of books, and I am very excited about doing some reading for fun over break. I started The Historian earlier this semester, was forced to set it aside and then took it back up and finished it during finals.

This novel is excellent. I have been avoiding the inundation of vampire fiction that has choked the bookshelves as of late, so when my dad told me he had read and enjoyed a vampire novel, I moved quickly from shock to intrigue. As it turns out, The Historian is, in a way, about vampires, but it takes a completely different approach than Twilight or--this one I saw in Barnes & Noble yesterday--Wuthering Bites (God help us).

This is a historical novel par excellence, intricately woven across centuries and the borders of the U.S. and Europe. Kostova leads the reader through library rare book rooms, monastery crypts and Orthodox churches layered with Ottoman and Eastern European influences. The multi-generational story skips around without losing the reader, taking you on a thrilling ride of mystery and macabre. An intelligent take on the current vampire craze that ties in with stories of Vlad the Impaler and gypsy vampire folklore, this is a novel as believable as it is terrifying and fascinating.

1 comments:

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 

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