Persepolis; Death Comes to Pemberley; Sister Queens; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; The Night Strangers

"Persepolis" is Marjane Satropi's semi-autobiographical graphic novel about growing up in Iran during the 80s. When she was 14 her parents sent her out of the country to escape from the war, but Marjane returned four years later and went to college and became a revolutionary, fighting the restrictive government. A few years later she left Iran for good and moved to Paris in search of a freer life. She painted a vivid picture of what life must have been like for a young girl just discovering herself in a restrictive and increasingly frightening world.
"Death Comes to Pemberley" by P.D. James did a great job of capturing Jane Austen's sparking characters from "Pride and Prejudice". On the eve of a ball held in honor of Darcy's mother, Lydia shows up at Pemberley, screaming that Wickham is being murdered in the woodland. When Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, go to investigate, they find Wickham sobbing over the body of his dead friend, Denny, saying it was his fault he was dead. There is an inquest, and Wickham is bound over for trial, but arrogantly confident that he will be found not guilty of the crime despite there being no other viable suspect. The solution was very plausible and it was an enjoyable journey.
"Sister Queens" by Julia Fox examined the lives of Catherine of Aragon and her sister, Juana, known as Juana the Mad for her antics. Fox tries to make the argument that Juana was actually perfectly sane and that her father and eldest son made up her ailments to keep control of her vast property and wealth, and rule her lands in her stead. While I don't doubt that Ferdinand and Charles probably exaggerated her condition in order to take more control than they should have, I think Fox is stretching it a bit. She glosses over well documented instances of Juana's strange behavior and keeps harping on the times when she acts sane. If you've had any contact with crazy people like I have, you know they are perfectly capable of acting just as normal as anyone else if the mood strikes them, and I wouldn't doubt if that was the case with Juana. There was no real new information about Catherine of Aragon for me, but what was there was well written and interesting.
After P.D. James's Pemberley excursion I felt like rereading a bit of "Pride and Prejudice", but instead reread Seth Grahame-Smith's "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" because it is funnier.
And finally, Novelist recommended Chris Bohjalian's "The Night Strangers" as being like Jodi Picoult, so I wanted to read it. I didn't find it the least bit like Picoult, other than being set in New England, but I did enjoy it. It reminded me more of Joyce Carol Oates, or a very subtle version of Stephen King. Chip and Emily and their twin daughters, Hallie and Garnet, move to New Hampshire after Chip has a disastrous plane crash. While working through the guilt of surviving while 39 of his passengers and crew died, Chip starts seeing the ghosts of some of the dead passengers. One man, Ethan, is particularly angry that his little girl, Ashley, doesn't have any friends and she deserves them, trying to convince Chip to murder his daughters so they can be playmates for Ashley. Meanwhile, there is a strange cult of herbalists in town who need the blood of a traumatized pre-pubescent twin in order to make a tincture that will prolong their lives. They did it once before, accidentally killing the twin in the process, and they hope not to make the same mistake this time. It was very chilling, and tense, and I liked it up until the ending.