Quoth the Raven....

Today's post is not about Edgar Allen Poe and his famous Raven, but rather about a conspiracy of ravens and the man who watches over them.  The man is Christopher Skaife, Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, and he has one of the most unique and, quite frankly, amazing jobs that exist.  He is the Ravenmaster of the Tower of London and his charges are the seven ravens who call the  Tower their home.

Legends say that if the ravens leave the Tower, the Tower will crumble and the throne of Britain with it, so the birds are permanent residents of the fortress.  Where this legend came of is unclear as Skaife tells readers in one chapter of his book, but they began their tenure at Tower in the late 1800's.  The Ravenmaster: My Life With the Ravens at the Tower of London is a mixture of Skaife's day as a Yeoman Warder with tours, a day in the life of caring for the Ravens, a history lesson, and a mini biography of the man himself, and it was a quick and very interesting read for me.  I would have read a book twice as long with no complaining.

Skaife's day starts by feeding, watering, caring for and releasing the Ravens, of which their are seven.  In the book, he introduces us to Munin, Merlina, Erin, Rocky, Jubilee II, Gripp II, and Harris, but not included in the book is Raven Poppy, who joined the Tower in May 2018 as a six week old bird.  It makes sense that the book does not include Poppy--it was published in October of this year and therefore would have been at the publishers before Poppy's introduction. 

As he goes about his day, Skaife tells of Merlina's tricksy nature, Munin's black widow nature and crazy adventures, how to care for the birds, how to become a Yeoman Warder (to start you need 22 years of good service in Her Majesty's military, so I'm out.  Drat), some of the typical questions Yeoman Warders' get asked (HINT:  DO NOT ask for the bathroom.  Ask for the toilet.  It's not rude and you'll save some embarrassment.  Speaking from real life experience, not just the book), and funny stories of day to day life. 

Finally, he calls the birds in to bed, one by one, pair by pair, until everyone is settled for the night.  Merlina stays high on the Tower walls, watching over it all.

I've had my own run ins with the Tower ravens, and I've added a couple of those pictures here.  It's Merlina, I think, hanging out with one of the others.  I'm not sure who.  But when I visited in December 2013, I had a fabulous time and I was asking a few questions of one of the Warders--I'm not sure who.  For all I know, it was the Ravenmaster himself. 

I've also included one of my all-time favorite pictures from my semester abroad in my favorite city in the world.

Wallis and Diana

Well, I took a bit of a break there, but I'm really glad to come back to you all with this book here!  You may or may not know, but I am a huge history freak.  I love English and British history (there's a difference), and I'm definitely a monarchist.  My undergraduate thesis, which I want to rewrite because I know that I can do better, was about the power of Queen Elizabeth's ladies in waiting and my master's thesis on American women who married into the British aristocracy and how that changed the makeup of England's upper class.  So I like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable about the subject.

However, I've never found Wallis Simpson or Diana, Princess of Wales to be incredibly sympathetic characters.  That's not to say I don't feel for either of them and their struggles, but, especially in Diana's case, I feel like there's a cult that's risen up around them where we can't say anything bad.  Gill Paul's book, Another Woman's Husband, made me more sympathetic and more interested in learning the full extent of their stories.

I was five years old when Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris.  I remember it,
actually, the news coverage constantly playing on the TV in my grandmother's kitchen, and maybe that is when I formed my opinions of Diana, because my Gran thought she was a spoiled child who couldn't buck up.  I understand more now.  But it is the fateful night of August 31, 1997 that is the opening event of the book.  Rachel and Alex are newly engaged.  Alex is a news reporter and Rachel owns a boutique store with authentic period pieces from the 1920s and 30s back home in England.  They are driving through Paris when their taxi pulls over.  There's been a car accident in the Alma Tunnel just in front of them.  Rachel is disgusted by the paparazzi taking pictures and videos of the event as Alex rushes forward to help how he can, even if it's just to translate.  This is how they learn that the car contained Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, with their driver and Diana's bodyguard.  Alex finds a bracelet at the scene with a heart locket, engraved on one side with a "J" and a "17" on the other.  As the weeks unfurl, Alex is determined to make a video documentary about the crash, the many conspiracy theories, and who he thinks is responsible.  Rachel is less enthusiastic because she was disgusted with the lack of humanity as a woman lay dying.  Reporters were taking photos rather than trying to help her.  She's dealing with a break in at her shop too, where a good amount of her difficult to replace stock was stolen.  As she's replacing her stock, she is confronted with the mystery of the bracelet, which it seems Diana found or was given at Villa Windsor, the Paris home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor--The former King, Edward VII and Wallis Simpson.  As Rachel goes about replacing her stock, planning her wedding, and trying to figure out the mystery of the bracelet, she finds more and more pieces of Wallis' life.

Rachel and Alex's story is not the only story in the book. Juxtaposed against them is Mary Kirk, who was once a good friend, if not the best friend, of Wallis from when she was still Bessiewallis Warfield (Wallis is pictured to the left and Mary to the right).  They met at a summer camp for girls,and went to the same finishing school, but Mary reveals a Wallis who, although she acted confident, was not.  Mary's Wallis constantly felt the need to marry someone with more money or more standing so that she could feel secure.  Wallis' first marriage was to Earl Spencer, a Navy Airman who was a drunk.  The book also implies that he was abusive, which would make the already-flighty Wallis nervous.  They divorced in 1927.  Mary was married during the period of Wallis' first marriage, to a man named Jacques Raffray, a French airman.  It was through Mary and Jacques that Wallis met her second husband, Ernest Simpson, a British shipping magnate.  Mary is jealous of their relationship, for she had come to find a bosom companion in Ernest.  Mary's first marriage proved to be as sad as Wallis' for Jacques was also a drinker, likely due to what he saw as a French airman in World War I.  They eventually separated, at which point Mary and Ernest began a relationship in London, ruining Mary's friendship with Wallis

Ernest was put under great pressure not to divorce Wallis during the abdication crisis, but he eventually did.  He gave her the grounds of adultery by taking Mary to a hotel publicly and staying the night with her.  Ernest and Mary married six months after his divorce was finalized, but only three weeks after hers was.  They went on to have one child, a little boy.  Mary never lived to see an October 4, 1941, letter written by Wallis. Rachel found the letter in an outfit that Wallis had worn, saying that she wanted to bury the hatchet and be friends again, but Mary had died two days before the letter was dated of breast cancer. 

Love is a very strong central theme in this books, but not only the love between couples.  Every romantic relationship in this book is strained or breaks at some point, but the bond between friends and family remains strong.  Although Mary and Wallis, for instance, fight and don't speak for the last part of Mary's life, it doesn't mean that they didn't love each other and perhaps, with more time and after the war, they may have reconciled, as people who have been friends and surrogate siblings to each other often do.  I also loved the attention to historical detail, and I learned a lot of small details through this book.  There are clothing designers, as an example, who keep detailed records of all of their clients wardrobe choices and measurements.  I know for someone as internationally important as Wallis Simpson, this may have been to preserve the history, but it seems more like something they did for all of their clients.

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm about to start a reread so that I can catch anything I might have missed.  It's opened my eyes a bit more to two figures--Wallis and Diana, even though we only know Diana through her death and the aftermath--that I had previously dismissed.  It's also a great story, full of drama that will keep you turning to the next page.

I also got caught up in the title, although I didn't realize it for the longest time!  It's actually Another Woman's Husband, which makes perfect sense with Mary's relationship with Ernest (And the fact that Ernest was married to another woman before Wallis, and divorced her to be with Wallis), but my brain was thinking in term's of Wallis, and the idea of her constantly being another man's wife!  Either way, I loved the title, and it fit so perfectly with the book.

#readabook #queenvicsbookshelf #wallissimpson #princessdi #monarchy #England #France #divorce #historicalfiction #anotherwomanshusband

Weddings Are Always Fun

 At the beginning of August, I had surgery.  Knowing I'd be stuck on my couch for a while, I went to my local Barnes and Noble's and found some new books to read.  I picked up Grant Ginder's The People We Hate at the Wedding because I LOVED the title.  I didn't even read the description, I just loved the title.  And as I read the book, I fell in love with the story as well.  It's a great story about family, and each member of the family has their own issues.

The mother of the family is Donna.  Many years ago, she was married to a rich Frenchman named Henrique.  Henrique found, stereotypically, a younger woman and moved on, divorcing Donna and leaving her with a daughter, Eloise.  Eloise lives in London and is getting married, but thanks to her rich father, had a privileged, private school upbringing.  Eloise's younger brother, Paul, in particular despises Eloise for being "better" than himself.  Paul also hates his mother, Donna, for erasing his father after the man died.  Little does he know.  Missing from the story is Alice, Donna's second daughter. 

The family has complicated relationships, to say the least.  I can definitely relate because my family relationships are complicated as well.  For instance, Alice.  Alice once lived in Mexico City working for a film firm, and living an amazing life.  Even when she got pregnant, her life seemed pretty good.  But then she miscarried, and it created a hole in her life.  She ended up moving home, and has filled that hole in a job she hates sleeping with her married boss.  Then Paul.  Paul is in a relationship with a man who, even from what we see from Paul's chapters, doesn't care.  When we get to Paul's boyfriend, Mark's chapters... I wanted to punch him myself.  Paul also hates his job, and that goes out with a bang.  Paul doesn't want to go to Eloise's wedding, and refuses until he leaves his job.  And Eloise.  I actually really like Eloise.  We don't meet her until about two thirds of the way through the book, once Alice, Donna, and Paul have made their way to London.  Eloise has her own pains from her life, but she truly wants a closer relationship with her siblings and her mother.

The way the lives of everyone in this book come together and are changed by a wedding are amazing.  They go into the wedding truly not liking or understanding each other, but by the time Eloise walks down the aisle, you can see the beginning of real healing starting.  Paul learns a secret that was kept from him, and sees his mother in a different light.  Donna's demons beaten when the truth comes out.  Alice regains some self worth and makes positive changes in her life, and Eloise gets to start rebuilding bridges. 

I'll admit that when I first started reading the book, I had trouble getting into it.  But I'm mostly blaming the fact that for almost three weeks I could lay my head back and fall asleep.  Once I really started reading, I was upset when I had to put the book down to do something like work.  But to feed my book addiction, I do need to work.  I can't wait to read this book again and find all the little pieces that I missed the first time around!

Grant Ginder lives, according to his Wikipedia page, in Laguna Beach, California, and I'm a little jealous.  He's published two other novels, This is How it Starts, and Driver's Education, both of whih are now on my To Be Read list.  (Is this where I admit that my To Be Read list is several thousand books long?)  I definitely suggest reading this one, if only to find out how Paul loses his job.  It's worth it for that scene alone.  I laughed so hard. 

#thepeoplewehateatthewedding #grantginder #family #weddings #thecoverwasblueithink

You Can Guard Me Any Day, Aiden.....

Okay I'm back!  I know that I keep saying I'm coming back and then I disappear again, but it's been a bit of a crazy month.  I had a surgery that I have had planned get scheduled much earlier than I planned, so the last few weeks have been an insane tizzy of getting ready for that.  However, I got this, and all is good.

I'm back, and so is my beloved Kathleen Brooks with the latest installment of the Forever Bluegrass series, Forever Guarded.  Now, the few books have left the family of Tammy and Pierce Davies in a strange spot.  Namely, fifty two year old Tammy is pregnant with her fifth child, who is, needless to say, a bit of a surprise.  That doesn't stop love!

Tammy and Pierce's eldest child is the nanotechnology genius, Dr. Piper Davies.  Now, Piper reminds me a lot of me.  She doesn't like to be the center of attention, and she doesn't like other people disrupting their lives for her.  So of all my Kathleen Brooks heroines, Piper is the one I identify with the most, which has made this book very close to my heart.  I have my favorite stories and story lines (Forever Hidden will be a forever favorite), but Piper is me.

Piper's newest creation is in the world viral nanotechnology.  She's created FAVOR, which is intended to stop the spread of viral pandemics.  Unfortunately, right at the moment, FAVOR needs a little tweaking as it is more likely to CAUSE a viral pandemic than save the world.  Ooooopsie.  This would be fine, Piper is more than brilliant enough to figure out how to solve the problem, but she's a little stressed out.  It would seem that someone has found out about the super secret FAVOR project and wants it in its cause-a-pandemic form.  This someone, later identified as Phobos, is stalking and threatening Piper. 

After a break in and attempted kidnapping/murder/I'm not sure but the bad guy DID get beaten up, Piper's cat is out of the bag.  All eyes turn to her, which causes a few panic attacks.  Including one that has badass Nash backing up and letting a newbie but a sweetie police officer deal with the tears.  Clearly the man has dealt with a crying woman before.  (Kathleen, can we see more of Officer Edsel?)  Nash escorts Piper back to Keeneston, by helicopter, and everyone ends up racing over.  And the Davies cousins flee as a very pregnant pixie, Tammy, comes racing to her daughter's side.  Piper recognizes that she needs protection, but refuses to put anyone she knows in danger (except for maybe her brother Dylan).  Tammy, of course, calls Dylan, WHO ANSWERS HIS MOTHER'S PHONE CALL IN THE MIDDLE OF A GUN BATTLE.  This one was shared in a tease from Kathleen, so I don't feel bad at all sharing it with y'all here.

Dylan became hot for me in that moment.  I don't know why, but I just don't swoon over him and Jackson the same way other members of the Cafe do.....  Anyway.

Eventually, Aiden Creed, a former SAS operative with a snazzy British accent that I LOVE and I haven't even heard in person yet, agrees to be her bodyguard and hops the pond.  Just before he gets there, however, Piper is attacked AGAIN, but Walker comes to the rescue.  Aiden is panty-melting, okay?  I love him already, and he is fascinated by Piper, even if he doesn't completely understand what she's talking about when she pulls out all the science.  It's wonderful.  Does he have a brother?  I'm single!  But Aiden is instantly attracted to Piper, and it really is wonderful.  He tries to keep it together, but eventually realizes that he can't protect Piper because he's emotionally compromised, so he's a smart boy and calls in someone new. At that point, Piper and Aiden have left Kentucky in an effort to keep Piper safe, and are in Rahmi, where we get an update from Prince Jamal!

I was super happy to see this update from Jamal and his wife, Nailah, because it showed to me that Jamal really learned a good lesson back in Forever Betrayed.  He dated his wife, and they fell in love.  It's truly wonderful.  Also, GO DIRAR FOR BEING AWESOME.  (You'll know what I'm talking about when you get there).

But Piper is kidnapped in Rahmi.  She manages to save herself and gets herself to another character we know and love, KING DRAVEN.  Oh, Draven.  He's the same Draven we know who acts like he is COVERED in sexcapades, but I know a secret!!  When Dylan sneaks into Draven's palace to rescue Piper, the most hilarious knife/his royal member dildo fight ensues.  I have never laughed so hard in my life.  Ends with a great line from Draven when he gestures to the dildo that is made from a mold of his royal member and says that they (Dylan and Aiden) know he's circumcised already.  I DIED. 

Anyway.  Phobos becomes a real jerk and TIES UP A WOMAN WHO IS NINE MONTHS PREGNANT WHAT THE HELL DUDE?!?!?!  He threatens Piper again, but this time, a plan is formed.  See, Piper has this wonderful little airborne virus that makes you expel waste through both ends in misery for forty eight hours before your internal organs start eating each other.  Its the perfect way to break in and save Tammy (and Pierce, but if he says Tammy is too old to have a baby one more time......).  There's a real moment here where I thought there was going to be parrot stew. 

It obviously ends happily.  I don't want to give it away, but it was a great ending.

So why did I love this book so much?  Well, A. as discussed, Piper is me, except insert obscure history for nanotech.  B.  I absolutely LOVED that we got to check in with some characters that we may not have seen in a while.  C.  We have TWO new babies, and THREE pregnancies announced, although we only know the parents in one case. 

I also loved this book because it was a bit different from the others.  Piper's father isn't a spy or a former Special Forces badass.  He's a scientist.  So Piper doesn't have the crazy training like the other Davies cousins.  She can't kill someone with a spoon.  But she does her best, and she wants to protect her family, just like everyone else.  She's a badass in her world, but not a physical one.  And feeling like she's let everyone down by not being perfect?  Oooof.  I know that feeling.

So what's up next for Keeneston?

Next we venture down to Shadow's Landing in South Carolina to spend some time with the Davies' Faulkner cousins.  I'm intereseted to learn more about them, starting with Gavin in Saving Shadows this October. 

After that we have Forever Notorious, a book that I know everyone has been waiting for.  It's the story of Abby Mueez, Ahmed's daughter.  I know what I'm hoping for in that book, but we have to wait until hopefully January, according to Kathleen. 

#broomspoonandskilletwanted #blossomcafe #keenestonismyhome #theroyalmember #placeyourbets #queenvicsbookshelf #bluegrass #kathleenbrooks

What is Your Deepest Sin?

I'm getting back into the swing of things!  Here's the first book of one of my favorite paranormal series.  I just did a re read too, in preparation for the start of a new series by the same author in just a few months!

Jeaniene Frost's heroine in the Night Prince series, which starts with Once Burned, is pretty awesome.  She's snarky, which I love, and she brings a legend to his knees.  Leila Dalton, known as Frankie to many, knows your deepest sin with a single touch of her hand, thanks to a childhood accident.  Beyond this power, she can link to an individual and track where they are in the present.  This makes her exceptionally special to some vampires who are searching for a foe of theirs.  This foe is particularly powerful as a vampire because he is old, vicious, and can set things on fire with a thought.  Oh, and he's Vlad the Impaler.

Leila links to Vlad and, not knowing who he is at the time, obtains his help in escaping the group hunting him, as they've kidnapped her.  When Vlad comes sweeping in, he and Leila start a strange connection that grows.  A ramification of Leila's accident was that she is fatally charged with electricity, but Vlad's fire starting abilities make him immune to Leila's power.  Vlad knows that the men who searched for him through Leila are not working alone, and he plans to use her power to hunt down the puppet master who is hunting him.  He whisks her from Florida to his home in Romania, and the search is on.

As it turns out, the man hunting Vlad is someone that he has long thought dead, and whose name I couldn't pronounce if I tried.  Mihaly Szilagyi was a contemporary of Vlad's, and boy is there some history between them.  As the hunt continues, Vlad and Leila are, predictably as they are the heroes of the book, drawn to each other.  Their relationship is not an easy one, of course.  Leila was, before Vlad, unable to really touch anyone, vampire included, because she could kill them, so she's pretty new to the relationship game.  Vlad, on the other hand, is a medieval warlord who has been burned by love in the past.  There is going to be a few issues, particularly when Leila wants to help hunt down the man threatening her and her only remaining family members.  Vlad is violently opposed to this and does his best to keep her protected behind stone walls.  He doesn't succeed.  I'll let you read the book to discover what happens when Leila gets loose!

One of the things that I really love about this book and this series is that it dispels some of the Dracula myths, and tells you some of the real history of the character.  Vlad the Impaler was the third of his name to rule Wallachia, province in Romania.  He had two wives and three children.  He did have a tendency to stick people on poles, but hey, it worked as a scare tactic!  Something that many people don't know however is that Vlad and his brother, Radu, were both prisoners of the Ottoman empire as children, where they likely suffered horrible abuse.  This was with their father's knowledge and consent, so it likely left a few scars that made him so vicious later in life. 

I love books that bring historical figures to life, and this series gets better with each book.

Nothing Says Love Like Getting Chased Through the Woods

Wow.  It's been a while since I've written, and I apologize.  I've had a rough couple of months, but I think I'm right back on track now.

I mean, I'm late on writing about the newest Keeneston book, so that says something right there!!  Back on the saddle, though!

Back on May 8th, Kathleen Brooks gifted us with Forever Hunted, book nine in the Forever Bluegrass series.  NINE, guys!  It's wonderful.  And book ten will be out on July 31st!!  I think that's the shortest time we've had between books.  I, for one, am SUPER excited, but first.

We've known for a few books now that Reagan Davies has been dating someone in secret. I can't say I blame her, her father is a jot overprotective.  He bugs her phone, scares her dates, etc., so she kept this relationship secret for SIXTEEN MONTHS which, considering Keeneston, is impressive.  However, at the end of book 8, Forever Devoted, we found out who Rea has been dating.

Carter Ashton.  Nice guy, horse racing farm owner, Carter Ashton.

Forever Hunted opens with a lovely opening salvo of Cy Davies diving over a table to get to the man kissing his baby girl.  It's wonderful.  I thought I wouldn't laugh so hard for the rest of the book, but I was wrong and I did, but I'll get there.

This book goes back and shows snippets of Rae and Carter's relationship over the last sixteen months, which I kind of have a love/hate relationship with.  I like that we got to see what happened, how the fell in love, how absofreakinglutely sweet Carter can be, but at the same time, I wanted to get on with the story after the town knows!  But anyway.  Cy is not happy, which causes a bit of a rift between Cy and the Ashtons, Will and Kenna.  However it is pregnant big sis Sienna who manages to make Cy see a bit of reason when she punches him in the nose.  See, Carter isn't really a "badass" the way some of the other sons-in-law are.  I mean, they consist of a badass security expert from Rahmi, a former Navy SEAL, and an FBI agent to name a few.  But Carter is amazing in his own way.

After the wedding, Rae and Carter are flying a horse, Miss Mambo, her owner, and the owner's boyfriend down to Florida when the owner's boyfriend, Mick, turns out to be a despicable person who wants to kill his girlfriend and her horse--and all witnesses--for some insurance money.  Not. Cool.  Needless to say, he doesn't succeed.  During a plane crash, several people end up dead, but importantly Miss Mambo, Carter and Rae, and Mick all get away.  They end up trekking through the Tennessee wilderness, Mick chasing Rae and Carter, trying to get away.

Back in Keeneston, everyone is in shock and instantly mobilizes to try and find them all, most importantly Rae and Carter.  This is what leads to more hilarity.  Ahmed is the big badass of the town.  Seriously.  I love him, but his very face causes people to panic when they are not Keenstonites.  He is paired up with the Viszla, Robyn, who loves Ahmed.  But Robyn has all of her ancestor Bob's quirk, including some amazing intelligence and the ability to freak Ahmed out.  Their relationship, and Ahmed's reaction when Robyn is in danger, leads to more laughter than the slo-mo image of Cy jumping a table.  Read it.  You will laugh. 

I love all of Kathleen's books (obviously) but this one falls into a bit of a different category to me.  It was sweeter, almost, and even with all the running through the woods, felt more romantic, almost like The Keeneston Roses.  It also has, to me, the best wedding of all of them, and it is perfect.

Plus, Ahmed's Spawn has given him an angel!

Go head to Keeneston and catch up with the town, then prepare for the next book Forever Guarded!  Something important to remember, which came up in the Cafe, is that while Carter's parents are awesome, they aren't in the "I work out and am former Special Forces" group that many of the Davies brothers are.  The heroine of Forever Guarded is Piper Davies, is the daughter of Pierce Davies, who is also not in the Special Forces group.  She's going to be a different breed then, for instance, Rea, who learned at her father's knee, or Layne, who can kill you with a spoon.

Oh, and there might be a rumor about something happening with Moonshine Hollow, TN, but we have no more information.


#keeneston #theblossomcafe #placeyourbets #broomspoonandskilletwanted #reaganandcarter #SatansSpawn #vizla #angelNemi

Artistry

Many years ago, I read Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha.  I remember being confused at first as to if it was a novel or a memoir, because it even comes with a forward by the author thanking the main character and such for telling her story.  I did eventually figure it out.  But then, the movie version of the book came out, and it's a beautiful piece.  Ziyi Zhang (right) plays the main character, Sayuri, and Michelle Yeoh plays her mentor, Mameha (left).  The imagery and filmography is stunning.

The book and move tell the story of Sayuri, a geisha in Kyoto.  Sayuri was born Chiyo, and sold the the geisha house when she was eight years old.  She makes an enemy of the head geisha, Hastumomo, simply, it seems, by being smart and pretty.  Sayuri has very distinctive blue-grey eyes.  After trying to run away, Chiyo is turned into a maid.  But she catches the eye of someone important, and when she is twelve, she reenters geisha training with the help of a popular and established geisha named Mameha.  The book follows through Chiyo--now Sayuri's--career as a geisha, where she battles personal desires with professional duty.  She is also still battling Hatsumomo's abuse.  During World War II, she is sent to live with a kimono maker, and survives the war.  When she returns, she helps old friends and patrons save their company.  And after that, she finds a happy life.

What I only learned recently is that Golden based his story on the life of Mineko Iwasaki, a popular geisha who had a life similar to Sayuri's.  When Golden wrote his book, he broke confidences by naming Mineko, who had broken the unspoken rules that you do not talk about life in the geisha district of Kyoto, known as Gion.  In response, she wrote her memoir with the help of Rande Brown and named it Geisha, A Life (for US readers.  In the UK it's titled Geisha of Gion).  In it, she tells what it was really like to be a geisha.

Mineko, for example, was the youngest of thirteen children.  Several of her sisters worked for the Iwasaki geisha house (okiya), and she was raised from the age of five to be the heir.  She didn't have troubles and toils like Chiyo.  She did have an older geisha that she called Old Meanie when she was a child, but became very close to as she got older.  She had real friendships with men, but the other geisha didn't like her because she was extremely popular and made a lot of money.  Mineko was a dancer, and her teachers pushed her to be even better.  She clears up a few of the mistakes that Golden makes--for instance, for geisha, the "mizuage" ceremony is not the ritual loss of virginity, but rather a coming of age ceremony.

Reading wise, Memoirs of a Geisha is a great read with a good plot.  But Geisha, a Life is a really interesting look into a world that is so different from what I, as a westerner, am used to.  It's  a little scatterbrained in it's telling, with time passing differently in different chapters, but it's really interesting, and more similar to a life that an American can recognize.  The world of the geisha is a tight sisterhood, but it comes with backstabbing and sibling rivalry that exists in any world.  I would recommend either of these books, depending on what you like to read.  Actually, I'd suggest reading them both, and I'd read them in the same order that I've discussed them in here.