liked a lot on first read, but no impulse to go back and reread.

When I read this book in high school (college?) I felt that it was amazing- that it completely changed the way I thought about history, womanhood, and the Bible. To tell such a rich story from such a small part of the Bible really made me realize they could have been real people, and the stories in the Bible sound so strange because they're completely taken out of context.
I'm older and more cynical now, so I didn't find the story as powerful as when I was an adolescent. Perhaps I was expecting it and therefore on guard against it. I still found it a really great, insightful, interesting novel.

What a wonderful book this is. I kept putting off reading it as I didn't think I would like it but wish now that I had read it a long time ago. Do read this book - it is intense and great story-telling.

Blurb:
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons in the Book of Genesis.
Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood - the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers - Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah - the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that are to sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate, immediate connection.
Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich story-telling and a valuable achievement of modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and even illness. Like the conversations and mysteries held within this feminine tent, this piece of fiction offers an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers, wives and daughters.

Although everyone else seemed to like this book, I found the writing geared more toward a very young audience even though the subject matter was not.

The is a beautifully written book. It cheapens the book to view it as women's fiction, or as religious fiction for that matter. The world created by Diamant is epic and vast and so fully realized that you can get lost in it.

SAID IT BETTER THAN I (paraphrased from a synopsis on ReadingGroupGuides.com):
THE RED TENT tells "the other side" of the Biblical story of Dinah, daughter of the patriarch Jacob and his wife, Leah. In Chapter 34 of the Book of Genesis, Dinah’s tale is a short, horrific detour in the familiar narrative of Jacob and Joseph. Anita Diamant imaginatively tells the story from the fresh perspective of its women. In the Biblical tale Dinah is given no voice; but here she is the sole narrator.

This is one of the rare books that I've read more than once. This was a beautiful retelling of a bible story and filling in what may have happened. The author did an amazing job!

Again, lyrical women's fiction, full of blood and sense and heady prose that will make you swoon. The characters though, brought alive from their Biblical hsitory. The relationship between the four wives of Jacob (who bore the twelve sons- you know the story, Lloyd Webber did the musical) who also happen to be sisters shows the closeness and nessecity of family and friendship between women at that and all times. The story then tells of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter, and her plight in Egypt.

I'm not going to be a massive spoiler, but by the end of the book I was weeping and if I ever feel in the need of a good cry this is the book I turn to (when I find my own copy of it!)

A tale in biblical times from the perspective of a minor biblical character as well as a woman. It is a fascinating take on well known stories and characters from the perspective of a woman. Love the way the story can really makes biblical era come alive for me. Def would recommend reading.

This book tells the story of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter in the bible. It gives her story beginning to end, and the story of her mothers. I liked the characters in this book, I also was drawn this book because it explains a biblical story from the point of view of the women in the story, which makes the familiar (to me at least) seem different or in a new light.

I can't stop thinking about this book. I know this book says it's a fable and perhaps that excuses the complete lack of believability. I'm not sure. Even a 9 year old would probably recognize Auschwitz outside his window. Even a 9 year old would probably get that there was something wrong with the black smoke billowing outside his window. A 9 year old in Germany would definitely know what a Jew was. The end of this book is absolutely indefensible. I know the author is trying to make a point. I guess he can be forgiven for that. But not in a book for kids.

The book leads you through the struggle of loosing a family business to the changing world. Thought provoking and occasionaly tear jerking.
You can take the man out of the country but you cant take the country out of the man, a heartwarming tale of a you man who escapes to london but comes back to help his family adapt and remembers love affairs in haystacks and piggs digging up the neigbours lawn.

I didn't find the story line gripping but a good read all the same.

"And he a Tudor!" cried Cesare, his rage refusing to be controlled. "Can the Tudors feel so certain of their own legitmacy?"
pg 51

hehe Cesare Borgia (the POPE's son!)

Juliet Marillier writes historical fantasy. Her novels are set during historical time periods, but she bases her stories around myths. Daughter of the Forest is set on both sides of the Irish Sea, with Sorcha being the heroine of the story (no wonder I just had to read this one, right?). Sorcha is given a seemingly impossible task by the Fair Folk (faeries) to save her six brothers from a curse that has been placed upon them by an evil enchantress.

At first I found the story a little slow; there was a lot of explanatory text and dialogue, yet I couldnt make sense where the story was heading. However, around 200 pages in (keeping in mind this novel is over 500 pages in length) it all started to fall into place and I gradually became more and more engrossed in the story.

I became attached to the characters, so much so that whenever something bad happened I wasnt sure if I would be able to continue reading for fear of another bad thing happening. I didnt want bad things to keep happening, I wanted Sorcha to save her brothers in a timely, ordely, pain-free manner; nothing horrible was allowed to happen to anyone or anything! Of course, it probably wouldnt have been nearly as enticing and exciting without the bad stuff, though. In fact, a week after having finished reading it, I still find myself gazing off into space, thinking about Sorcha, her plight, her brothers, her story...

Daughter of the Forest is the first novel of four in the Sevenwaters Series. The other three novels are Son of the Shadows, Child of the Prophecy, and Heir to Sevenwaters.

The title War and Peace has become synonymous with "long and boring" but after delving into the book many years after abandoning it in junior high school, I beg to differ. War and Peace is an epic. It is historical fiction surrounding an era in military history, laced with elements of the romance novel. The book is long (the version I read was over 1300 pages, 15 books and 2 epilogues containing more than 300 individual chapters!) and took me quite a while to read. But, with the exception of the second epilogue, (where Tolstoy spends much time explaining that history is irrational and not just an interpretation of events but an investigation into what causes them: God), it was never boring. And it was fairly easy to read despite the multitude of characters speaking multiple languages and calling a single person by a wide variety of different names.The Napoleonic invasions of Europe and Napoleon's attempt to expand his empire over Russia are the backdrop of the novel. The story primarily follows the lives of five families of Russian aristocracy and gives us a glimpse into the lives of princes and generals, servants and tsars, peasants and emperors, even real life leaders like Napoleon and Alexander. The story is not told from the perspective of any single character, rather we are like a fly on the wall; present on the battlefield, in Russian society at parties and balls, and behind closed doors with emperors and military commanders. We are privy to the characters' most intimate thoughts as love is come and gone, fortunes are made or lost and lives are in spiritual despair or renewal. The characters come to life under Tolstoy's very descriptive prose. What's not to like about the large, socially awkward, generous, spiritually seeking Pierre Bezukhov? Which of the Kuragin family do we love to hate more? The sly father Vasili, his lying, sneaky son Anatole or his beautiful, cheating daughter Helene? Which of the noble Rostov family do we identify with the most? Ilya, the friendly, carefree father, his charming and vivacious daughter Natasha, the impulsive, soldier son Nicholas? And what can we make of the Bolkonsky family; Prince Nicholas, a demanding recluse, his intelligent, analytical son Andrew and his plain, lonely and religious daughter Mary? I came to really know and understand the characters and found myself cheering for their victories and questioning them as they blundered through life. It is a long novel, the book is quite heavy and it is not a quick read. But I challenge anyone to stick with it and discover the depth and richness of the characters as well as the reinactment of this time in Russian history. It was a very enjoyable read!

Wonderful story of a young boy in England who befriends an elephant owned by the Lord he work for in 1776. I loved this book.