A brief history of Montmaray

Title: A Brief History of Montmaray
Series: The Montmaray Journals*

Author: Michelle Cooper

Genre: Young Adult, historical fiction

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, Publication Date: October 13, 2009

Hardcover: 304 pages
Original Language: English (Australian)

Audiobook or physical book: Overdrive Audiobook

*The next book of the Series is currently called The FitzOsbornes in Exile and will be published in Australia in August 2010.

Official Description: 

Sophie FitzOsborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray, along with her tomboy younger sister Henry, her beautiful, intellectual cousin Veronica, and Veronica's father, the completely mad King John.

When Sophie receives a leather-bound journal for her sixteenth birthday, she decides to write about her day-to-day life on the island. But it is 1936 and the world is in turmoil. Does the arrival of two strangers threaten everything that Sophie holds dear?

From Sophie's charming and lively observations to a nailbiting, unputdownable ending, this is a book to be treasured.

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My review
This book as the greatly detailed diary of Royal Princess Sophie FitzOsborne (ever notice that the diaries of fictional characters are often so detailed that each entry would take a great deal of time to write). She is one of the princesses of the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray. The Kingdom is described as between Spain and England in the Bay of Biscay.

Montmaray was once a prosperous land, making profits from the trade between Spain and England. But a combination of the Great War (World War I where most of the young men of Montmaray were lost in a single day) and the stock market crash have left the royal family impoverished and the island depopulated.

The only inhabitants remaining on the island are Sophie, her tomboyish sister Henry, her cousin Victoria, her old and ill uncle John who is King of the kingdom, their housekeeper Rebecca and their Portuguese Water Dog Carlos. Sophie's brother Toby, heir to the Throne, studies in England with his servant Simon at his side. The remaining villagers move to England during the novel.

The children spend most of their time on the island to their own devices until one day German SS soldiers show up looking for the Holy Grail. After an incident occurs that leaves the German officers promising revenge, the very existence of the Children on the island is threatened.

As we follow the journey of Sophie going from a Naive young girl with a crush on the housekeeper's son to a young woman with responsibilities, the history of the island as well as the secrets of its inhabitants are shared.

While I found it to be an entertaining book with plenty of interesting snippets of history to place Montmaray into a plausible historical location. The characters were lively and well described. And you could really imagine their "castle" in such disrepair that it was crumbling around them.

However the start of the book was long and slow and the end seemed a little rushed.

I've read reviews that describe the book as similar to I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (author of 101 Dalmatians). Not having read that particular book, I can't compare. Brief History is set in 1936-1937 so it must not be a more modern retelling of a similar story.

Overall opinion: I enjoyed the book but found it to be a little slow at times. A pleasant historical fiction for young adults.

Location: Fictional island of Montmaray
Dog Breed Mentioned: Portuguese Water Dog
Historical events mentioned: Russian Revolution, World War I, Spanish bombings

Lost States

Title: Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made it

Author: Michael J. Trinklein (His blog - Lost States)

Genre: Non-Fiction, Coffee Table Book, History

Publisher: Quirk Books, Publication Date: March 3, 2010

Hardcover:  160 pages
Original Language: English (American)

Audiobook or physical book: Hardcover (purchased)

Official Description:

Everyone knows the fifty winners but what about the hundreds of other statehood proposals that never worked out? Lost States is a tribute to such great unrealized states as West Florida, South California, Half-Breed Tracts, Rough and Ready, and others. History buffs will be entertained and enlightened by these bizarre-but-true stories:

Frontier legend Daniel Boone once proposed a state of Transylvania on the borders of Indiana and Illinois. (His plan was resurrected a few years later with the new name of Kentucky.)
Residents of bucolic South Jersey wanted to secede from their "filthy" north Jersey neighbors and form their own union.
The Gold Rush territory of Nataqua could have made a fine state but since no women were willing to live there, they had to settle for being part of California.

Accompanying the stories are beautiful full-color original maps detailing how these states' boundaries might have looked, along with images of real-life artifacts and ephemera. Lost States is a quirky reference book for history buffs, geography geeks, and anyone who enjoys lush, fascinating cartography. 

 My review/summary:
Last Memorial Day weekend, I found myself in a position to dine alone in Freeport Maine because my husband couldn't join me for my ultramarathon debut. Having never dined alone I decided to pop into the local bookstore to find a book to read. I found an interesting young adult novel to read but was intrigued when I saw Lost States on the recommended books shelf.

I had just watched the history special How the States Got their Shapes (which is actually a book too, How the States Got Their Shapes) and had been especially intrigued by the proposed State of Franklin (which is now part of Tennessee). It was a matter of finding the right book at the right time for my interests. It has become on of my favorite coffee table books.

It is a pleasant book in appearance each pair of pages features a different territory. One page being a description of the "state" with historical information as appropriate, along with small maps or pictures to add to the story. The opposite page is usually either a historical map or a map created by the author depicting the area of the region.

This is not only a history book. Or a book that can easily be read in short segments. It is humorous book as well. I found myself chuckling out loud a few times when I was reading about descriptions of people and places.

Another interesting feature, the book jacket opens up to be a much larger map of the map featured on the cover of the book. For those who want to see some of the states in better juxtaposition with the current states.


I found the historical aspects of the book to be very interesting. For example, the parts of the book that mention alternative methods of dividing California make a great deal more sense to me.

Final Verdict: If you like history, and you aren't a snob about reading only boring history Tombs, get this book. The book is full of great tidbits of information. It's one of my favorites now.

Some locations mentioned in book:

• Franklin, USA
• Absaroka, USA
• Deseret, USA
• West Florida, USA
• Forgottonia, USA

This World We Live In

Title: This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3)
Series: The Last Survivors #3

Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer (author's blog)

Genre: Young Adult, Post-Apocalyptic

Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books, Publication Date: April 1, 2010

Hardcover: 256 pages
Original Language: English (American)

Audiobook or physical book: Overdrive Audiobook (6:53:04)

Official Description:

It's been a year since a meteor collided with the moon, catastrophically altering the earth's climate. For Miranda Evans, life as she knew it no longer exists. Her friends and neighbors are dead, the landscape is frozen, and food is increasingly scarce.

The struggle to survive intensifies when Miranda's father and stepmother arrive with a baby and three strangers in tow. One of the newcomers is Alex Morales, and as Miranda's complicated feelings for him turn to love, his plans for his future thwart their relationship. Then a devastating tornado hits the town of Howell, and Miranda makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

I recently read  Life As We Knew It, the first book in the series and started reading the second book, The Dead and the Gone. But the Dead and the Gone is a parallel timeline to Life As We Knew It, and I was looking forward to learning more about how the characters are doing a year after a asteroid hit the moon turning the planet into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. So I didn't finish the second book before starting the third book.

In This World We Live In friends and neighbours have died, food is getting scarcer, and the sky is still clouded over from the volcano ash. We return to the first person diary of Miranda's life. Her experience in the suburbs leaves her dreaming of a place where "normal" still exists. Although their experience has actually been a great deal easier than some. In this book, Miranda's household swells to 10 people as her father and stepmother arrive with 4 others including Alex Morales from The Dead and the Gone.

This book goes into greater detail about how the survivors are managing. Eating slim rations and supplementing supplies by breaking into abandoned homes. It talks about how relationships have changed. Miranda develops feelings for Alex most likely because he is "the last boy alive", the only boy she has met that isn't related to her.

There are rumors of secret safe towns that require special passes to enter. Characters must make decisions to stay put or try to travel towards a possibility of a safer place. When disaster strikes again, the residents must make life and death decisions.

I love this book for it's gripping portrayal of a perspective of how people might live if the World changed so drastically. Especially through the eyes of a teenager.

My only wish would be more focus on the mechanics of how survival actually happens. The family gets occasional spurts of electricity, but I'm not sure what kind of power plants are still generating power, or who is maintaining the lines. Also, how is the town getting food deliveries to distribute rations with?

Overall: Worth the read, but I think I would have benefited from reading both the previous books in the series first.

Locations: Howell, Pennsylvania

Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes of an Accidental Country Girl

Have you heard of Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman?

Have you had internet access the last few years?

In terms of bloggers, Ree seems to be the do no wrong, all powerful mega blogger that everyone seems to adore. She gets tens of thousands of comments on posts, hosts fabulous giveaways and earns reported millions of dollars from her franchise.

One of the things she is known for is how she posts recipes. Not the creativity, most of her recipes are quite common. But she posts a zillion beautiful pictures of her food as she explains how to cook everything from steak to chocolate cake.

A disclaimer: I've recently started becoming disallusioned with her blog. There are so many blogs out there that have better photographers, recipes, are better written. I don't understand why everyone flocks to her blog. Is it the mixer giveaways?

Either way, I purchased her book The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl when it was on sale on Amazon and I needed to add something to the order to get free shipping.

First impression: It's a visually beautiful book. Lots of colourful pictures. Cute little side stories.

Recipes: Well I'm pretty sure I could find most of them on the internet. And the amount of pictures makes it hard to perform steps that are not pictured. I kid you not. I became so reliant on the pictures that I had a hard time understanding what to do when I didn't have them.

The first recipe I made was a complete disaster. Not only was it full of butter. But it didn't even taste good. Maybe I screwed something up?

I do love the pictures. It's the main reason I buy recipe books. I like looking at pictures of inspirations.

Why read this book:

• You love all things Pioneer Woman and you post comments on anything she has ever written.
• You like VERY visual cookbooks.