Random Reads: A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper

 
Yes, I know what you're thinking. "Kaye, you need another book on that pile next to your desk like you need a third arm!"

Well, a third arm might be handy...

Alright, alright. Truth be told, I've been wanting to participate in Random Reads for a while, but usually by the time I remember, it's the middle of the month - or the end of it. So what's the big deal about this particular meme? Well, basically, you randomly select a book that you've been meaning to use. So in my case, I take my hefty GoodReads list - 1,275 titles on the to-read list, people, and this is taking into account that I check out on average five library books per week, regardless of what's left on the pile at home - and use Random.org to select a page.

I ended up having to do this three times, because two of the pages were basically pre-releases that I can't get my hands on (*sobs*) and the third was a bunch of classics I'd prefer to tackle during the summer, so...in the end, I ended up on page 35. From there, I used Random.org again to narrow it down to lucky number 578.

A Brief History of Montmaray (The Montmaray Journals, #1)
Michelle Cooper
October 13, 2009

“There’s a fine line between gossip and history, when one is talking about kings.”

Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

I actually won this through Random Buzzers last year - it got lost in the mail somewhere along the way and there were no other copies left. Ah, well, no use crying over spilt milk. In any case, I haven't read any good historical fiction in a while and this seems promising.

The thought of the journal format is making me a little twitchy, though.