January's Book

As you probably guessed by my rave review for The Thirteenth Tale, that is our book for January.

"Settle down to enjoy a rousing good ghost story with Diane Setterfield's debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. Setterfield has rejuvenated the genre with this closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths. She never cheats by pulling a rabbit out of a hat; this atmospheric story hangs together perfectly.

There are two heroines here: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has been confounding her biographers and fans for years by giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Because of a biography that Margaret has written about brothers, Vida chooses Margaret to tell her story, all of it, for the first time. At their initial meeting, the conversation begins:

"You have given nineteen different versions of your life story to journalists in the last two years alone."

She [Vida] shrugged. "It's my profession. I'm a storyteller."

"I am a biographer, I work with facts."

The game is afoot and Margaret must spend some time sorting out whether or not Vida is actually ready to tell the whole truth. There is more here of Margaret discovering than of Vida cooperating wholeheartedly, but that is part of Vida's plan. The transformative power of truth informs the lives of both women by story's end, and The Thirteenth Tale is finally and convincingly told."

--Valerie Ryan

The Thirteenth Tale

I consider myself lucky if I am able to find 1 book a year that I absolutely love. This year, I have been fortunate enough to find 4 books that I rated an A. The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Water for Elephants and now The Thirteenth Tale.

You know how when you read a book and you get to a specific part and you think, "Man, if they had just left that part out if would have been so much better!" I did not once think that throughout the whole book. I pride myself on watching so many TV shows and scary movies that I can almost always predict the twists and turns before they happen. I did not see this book coming at all, I thought I had it all figured out and then KABLOWEY! it threw me for a loop.

Synopsis

Vida Winter is the most famous living author, with hundreds of books published and an amazingly huge fan base. A woman, Margaret, who has only written a couple biographies and about "ordinary" people receives a letter from Vida inviting her to write Vida's biography. This would seem normal, only that Vida has never told the truth about her life and in the last 2 years alone has given over 20 different accounts of her story. This is the chance for Margaret to realize some things about herself and for Vida to get some things off her chest.

There were so many things that I loved about this book. The writing didn't trip me up at all, I didn't have to go back and re-read sentences because the working was all jumbled. I finished it in 2 days; I just couldn't put it down and like I said, it kept me guessing.

For anyone looking for a good read, with a little bit of everything, I definitely recommend this book!