Jill at Breaking the Spine hosts Waiting on Wednesday. Stop by and check out the great books your fellow readers can’t wait to get their hands on. What book are you waiting for?Title: Alice I Have Been
Author: Melanie Benjamin
Pub. Date: - Jan. 12, 2010; Delacorte Press
Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.
But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?
Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.
That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war.
For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.
A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.
Isn't the cover gorgeous? What's your pick this week ?
This book is interesting. I will put this in my "radar" and the release date of Jan 2010 would be perfect, because then my book ban would've been lifted!
ReplyDeleteThe cover really is gorgeous! I'm also looking forward to this.
ReplyDeleteInteresting twist on the original. Can't wait to hear more.
ReplyDeleteThe cover is gorgeous and the book sounds good too!
ReplyDeleteLove the cover - I wonder how the author handles her (slightly weird) relationship with Lewis Carroll.
ReplyDeleteWow! I now have to add this to my list! It's going right up now. I am fascinated by all things "Alice," even though it's been a bit overdone. But this is definitely a new twist!
ReplyDeleteMy Waiting for Wednesday is over at:
http://laurel-rainsnowsaccidentallife.blogspot.com/
This sounds so good, not to mention that is a gorgeous cover. I hadn't heard of it before; thanks for bringing it to my attention.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cover — didn't know Alice in Wonderland was inspired by a "real" Alice. As Disney movies go, it was never one of my favourites but this book sounds far more interesting!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this cover!!!! The story sounds very interesting and I am anxious to hear more about it!
ReplyDeleteThis is on my amazon wishlist...it sounds amazing!
ReplyDeleteGreat twist on a great story! I'll be watching for this one. That is a beautiful cover.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds truly wonderful. Thanks for your review!
ReplyDeleteOh! This looks terrific. I am absolutely in love with Alice in Wonderland. Or I was when I was a kid, and do you ever get over your passion for your best loved books from childhood?
ReplyDeleteI think it sounds really good!
ReplyDeleteThat is one gorgeous cover. Thanks for the heads up on this book, I will have to add it to my never ending book pile ;)
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great book. I have already put it on my wish list and am waiting too.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an official post for this but I am waiting on Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME. There is a lot of hype over it since they are comparing it to The Stand (the best book of his ever). It comes out on 11/10 and I will probably read it through Thanksgiving weekend.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading this one. Sounds fantastic! I like the cover too.
ReplyDeleteSounds very very interesting indeed!
ReplyDeleteI am coveting this book as well!
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