The Hangman’s Daughter- Oliver Pötzsh

The Hangman’s Daughter, a highly reviewed and marketed English translation from its native German, has been talked about quite a bit on Amazon and Goodreads. I expected it to be this blockbuster of a historical fiction thriller. I was greatly disappointed.

Set in Germany, The Hangman’s Daughter is about Jakob Kuisl, town hangman, charged with the torture and so called trial of a supposed witch, accused of killing several children in the village. Jakob, his daughter, and the town’s doctor become absorbed in the case, and discover that not everything is what it seems.

About ¾ of the way through the book, I was still waiting for it to get interesting. In the end, I skimmed through the last 50 or so pages, just to see who the culprit was. Where was the thrill? I can’t even describe how disappointing the book was. I’m not sure if it’s the translation or what, but instead of being edge of your seat suspenseful, it came off boring and overly detailed.

Initially on Goodreads I gave this a 3, thinking that I really hadn’t minded reading it, and it was ok. But a few weeks removed, when all I can think to talk about is the bad parts of it, I have to drop it to a 2. So disappointing.

Genghis: Lords of the Bow- Conn Iggulden

The second book in Conn Iggulden’s series about Genghis Kahn, Lords of the Bow details the war of the Mongol tribes against the Chin Empire. Picking up where the first book left off, Genghis marches on his enemies throughout the book and begins his total domination.

I loved the first book in this series. It really impressed and surprised me, and I couldn’t believe that I was enjoying a somewhat fictionalized book about a war leader so much.  In this one, Genghis has become someone to be feared rather than someone to root for, which is probably the biggest difference between this book and the first one.  It was still fascinating, but I wasn’t as engrossed as I was with the first one, when he was more of an underdog.  I feel like Iggulden wants me to get excited about the big battles, be invested in their outcome, and root for continuing dominance, but I would much rather read about the family and the politics. Those were by far the parts of the book I like the best. 

In the end, I still found myself rooting for Genghis and enjoying the story. Probably because of how despicable his enemies are as well. Among everyone, the least deplorable person turns out to be Genghis, even if he is brutal and generally terrifying.

3- didn’t like this one as much as the first, but still an enjoyable read. I’m definitely going to keep reading the series. 

11/22/63- Stephen King

As my first Stephen King novel ever, I wasn’t sure what to expect from 11/22/63. The fact that it had a reputation as being different from his other ones, I admit was part of the reason I was interested in reading it. I’m not really one for books like It and Carrie. However, if that’s a broad generalization on my part, and more of his books are like this one, perhaps I’ll be reading more of King in the future.

11/22/63 is kind of an oddball book. Not that that’s a bad thing, by any means. Jake, the main character, is a teacher confronted with an interesting choice: if you could go into the past (via an anomaly in time) to change anything, what would it be? Along with some help from a supporting character, obviously, Jake chooses to go after Lee Harvey Oswald and attempt to save JFK.  With 850 pages, multiple trips into the past, and timeline reboots, I’ll make the comment that it was just a bit too long. There are entire portions of the book that are changed and made irrelevant, and though I understand their importance in the overall storyline, I wish they had been a little briefer. That’s my only complaint though.

In the long run 11/22/63 was an interesting and very good book. I really enjoyed the time that Jake spent in the past, living his life until it was time to change history, and also the ripples that he inadvertently causes. It’s a cool concept. What if JFK had never been shot? How would life change? Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the dilemmas that Jake encounters are very thought provoking.

This is another solid 4- very good and worth reading again. If it wasn’t so long I probably wouldn’t mind owning it. And like I said, maybe I’ll have to look into more of Stephen King’s books. 

Genghis: Birth of an Empire- Conn Iggulden

Genghis is not a book that I would typically read. I’ll grab a historical fiction book every once in awhile, but for the most part, fictional books based around history are not usually my books of choice. History was hardly my favorite subject in school. But every once in awhile I come across one that completely makes me change my mind. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was one. The Help, if you can count that, is one of my favorite books of all time. Genghis is, to my surprise, a good one as well.

Before I started this book (and even now that I’ve finished it) I couldn’t even pretend to know anything about Ghengis Kahn, so I’m going to give you as much background on this book as I had: basically nothing. A quick Wikipedia search on the subject explains that he was an emperor, who came to power by uniting several wandering tribes in Asia.

So, given that amount of information, you’d think that since I know nothing about the subject matter, I wouldn’t like the book right? But my friend’s husband insisted it was a good one, and I’m not one to turn down a recommendation. And good job, Patrick. This was so much better than I expected. I want to read up and find out what really happened and what was embellished, it’s all so crazy that I can hardly believe any of it’s true. I’m sure I’ll read the rest of the series and probably Caesar as well. It’s very well written, very engaging, and unbelievably interesting.

I think the only thing I didn’t like was the flip flopping of perspectives within chapters or paragraphs. Occasionally that would throw me off and bring me out of the story, but that’s really about it. Well, you know, other than the obvious and fairly alarming violence that you’d expect in a book about the early life of a brutal emperor who came to power by uniting tribes that already had leaders. So there was that. But overall, such a good book.

4- I think I want to learn some more about Genghis Kahn and then re-read it to figure out what was real.