Saturday, January 30, 2010

Show Me 5 Saturday



You will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

1. Book you read and/or reviewed:

A Time to Dance A time to Die
by John Waller
Non fiction - Dewey No 614.49

2.Words that describe the book: Dancing plague

3.Settings where it took place or characters you met:
1. The setting of the main event in the book is Strasbourg in July,1518 but it also gives some previous history.
2. Frau Troffea who for no explainable reason one day steps outside her door and begins to dance.
3. The citizens of Strasbourg.

4.Things you liked and/or disliked about it:

1. I liked that the author didn't try to make the book any more than it is. It's small in size.  only 266p long and 50 of those are source notes and an index.
2. I liked that the writing style was descriptive, informative and as easy to read as fiction
3. I  liked how the lives of the ordinary people , the terrible struggle they had to survive and the insights into their spiritual motivation , were vividly brought to life.
4. I especially liked the many old illustrations interpersed within the text - pen and ink drawings, engravings and woodcut images from the time - fascinating.

5. Rating - 3.5

Different and very interesting but not the sort of book I'd want to read too often.



3 comments:

  1. This book sounds ... kind of odd but kind of interesting. I guess if I was going to suffer a plague, I would want it to be dancing one ... rather than a flesh-eating one.

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  2. Wow, what a unique book! And I see you're reading Year of Wonders - I read that a few years ago and liked it. Have a good week!

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  3. I put this on my to be considered list when it first came out. I'm still curious. And I enjoyed your thoughts on it.

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