Historical Fiction Eleanor the Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine By Norah Lofts Touchstone, $15.00, 311 pages Rereading Norah Lofts’ Eleanor The Queen, originally released in 1955, is like reconnecting with a long-lost childhood friend. A reconnection to be anticipated and, finally, greatly enjoyed. The same elements that attracted a 10-year-old reader over 50 years ago are still there – well-drawn characters, crackling dialogue that rings with verisimilitude, a beautiful, intelligent and heroic heroine, and a rip-roaring story: and all based on historical fact. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a young girl when left orphaned by her father’s death; the sole legitimate heir to lands so great that whichever king won her hand in marriage would become the wealthiest king in Christendom. Given no choice, she soon marries the future king of France. After 15 years of marriage, during which she failed to produce a male heir, Eleanor was divorced from the king. Within weeks, she was remarried to the future king of England, Henry Plantagenet. She bore him five sons, and three daughters. Two of her sons became kings of England in their own right, including Richard the Lion-Hearted. The dynasty founded by Henry and Eleanor ruled England for hundreds of years.
Five stars if for no other reason than pure nostalgia; but well worth reading for any history buff, romance fan, historical fiction fan, or “tween.” Just plain good storytelling here! Reviewed by Claudette Smith
Roar! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle: A Business Fable By Kevin Daum, Daniel A. Turner, Contributor Wiley, $22.95, 210 pages With all of the ways to get the word out about a new product, it can be difficult to actually get the word out. ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle presents an interesting oldfashioned way to cut through the jungle of marketing and make sure that your product or service gets the attention it deserves. It’s a 5000-year-old secret that uses biblical advice; the book breaks down customers into four types and shows how to deal with each one and to use them to get you more customers. The advice will enable a businessperson to look at their marketing,
make some minor tweaks to it, and then use it to help their salespeople sell the business without using a script. The book takes the form of a story about a series of lunches between two friends, which helps break down the lessons into easy-to-learn steps, making it a very easyto-read book. It’s an easy one-night read, as well as entertaining. It also shows how the advice can be used for a single-person business, a nice feature considering the number of home businesses today. All in all, a great read! Reviewed by Jamais Jochim
The Long Song: A Novel By Andrea Levy Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.00, 313 pages Historical fiction compels less through plot, which can be culled from any history text, than through atmosphere, the ability to immerse the reader in a particular world. It is this aspect at which Andrea Levy succeeds so well in The Long Song, which concerns the final, tumultuous years of slavery on Jamaica in the early 19th century. “Now, all knew that lavish words were as scarce to Kitty as beef in her dutchy pot, but upon hearing that her daughter, whom she had missed for so many years, had just fallen out from the long grasses – her hair picky-picky and nasty with thistle, skin clawed raw, dress slashed to a scrap and covered with mud and bush, eyes wild as a hounded beast, bearing up a lame man with a head cracked to crooked, who trembled within her grasp while she raved upon all who came too close, that the massa was dead – Kitty stood with-
out breath or blink for so long that Miss Rose believed she had turned to stone.”
these two women against the turbulent backdrop of Chinese culture and politics.
Specifically, it is the story of July, daughter of a black slave and a white overseer, who as a child is claimed by Catherine, the simpering sister of the plantation’s owner. Viewing July as something between a pet and a servant, Catherine renames her ‘Marguerite’ (which amusingly fails to stick), and soon relies on her for everything including companionship, a dependence which the clever July uses for her own ends. The British slave owners, steadily sweating through their finery in the Jamaican heat, are relegated to the background of the story, their imperiousness collapsing into fear as their control slips. The slaves, on the other hand, are fully-fleshed individuals whose growing conviction that they deserve freedom is complicated by the institutionalized racism which has them judging worthiness from skin color. Most vibrantly characterized is July, and her sad, funny, and moving story is richly-drawn. Reviewed by Ariel Berg
“The wind whispers like our old conversations through trembling leaves. The air is pure and the sun warm. Once again, I see you running toward me with sunshine in your face. You look like a jumping cloud in your indigo floral Chinese dress, your golden hair bouncing.”
Pearl of China By Anchee Min Bloomsbury Press, $24.00, 278 pages In the waning years of the 19th century, two young girls from a small Chinese village forge an unlikely friendship. Willow is the only child of a poor Chinese widower. Pearl, destined for literary fame as Nobel Prize winner Pearl Buck, is the golden-haired daughter of American missionaries. Pearl of China traces the lifelong relationship of
Business & Investing
Real-Time Marketing for Business Growth: How to Use Social Media, Measure Marketing, and Create a Culture of Execution By Monique Reece FT Press, $39.99, 372 pages Real-time Marketing for Business Growth is an absolutely wonderful hands-on guide to master the marketing process of your
business. Monique Reece will take you through a proven step-by-step process to create an executable marketing plan, to accurately predict sales, to integrate your marketing practices with social media, and to refine your brand for a competitive advantage. This is not just a book that talks about marketing techniques; this is a guide that allows you to use it as a workbook and create a real-time marketing strategy for the growth of your business.
As a teenager in Shanghai, author Anchee Min participated in a campaign to prevent Pearl Buck from visiting her beloved China during Richard M. Nixon’s historic visit in 1972. Buck was denounced as an “American cultural imperialist.” Years later, in America, Min broke down in tears after reading Buck’s 1932 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Good Earth. Through the composite character of Willow, Min introduces a new generation of readers to the influences that shaped Buck and allowed her to write so adeptly from a Chinese peasant’s perspective. While Pearl of China lacks overall cohesion, the story is compelling and worth reading. Hopefully it will whet the appetite of readers unfamiliar with Pearl Buck to explore the fine body of work by this great writing talent of yesteryear. Reviewed by Diana Irvine
management experience working with Fortune 500 companies. Real-time Marketing for Business Growth is an amazing tool filled with her knowledge and experience in the field. Anyone who wishes to better understand marketing and how to make it work for their business would make a wise investment in their future by choosing this book. Reviewed by Doreen Erhardt
“A mission statement answers: Why do we exist?” Monique Reece is the founder and CEO of MarketSmarter. She has more than twenty years of marketing and executive
t hou s a nd s of re v ie w s at w w w. s a n f r a nc i s cob o ok re v ie w.com
July 10
9