Journal Entry 1 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, April 22, 2007

If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also. 

Journal Entry 2 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Friday, February 08, 2008

reserved for livrecache 

Journal Entry 3 by gypsyrose02 from Byford, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, March 02, 2008

ive had this book in my possession twice now and i still cant get into it. im not going to waste any more time on it while there are so many more books to read. on its way to livrecache. 

Journal Entry 4 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Tuesday, March 11, 2008

This popped into my letter box today. Thank you! I must admit it's been in my possession before too, and I got nowhere with it, but so many people have raved about it that I welcome this opportunity to give it another try.

Thanks so much. 

Journal Entry 5 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Monday, February 16, 2009

This book still hasn't grabbed me, so I'm passing it on as part of my 400th book registration bonanza.

I hope you enjoy it! If not, no matter, keep it moving . . . that's the fun part seeing where your books go! 

Journal Entry 6 by Tinina67 from Seissan, Midi-Pyrénées France on Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Arrived today by mail. Thank you so much! I am looking forward to reading it, I heard a lot about it in the forums. 

Journal Entry 7 by Tinina67 from Seissan, Midi-Pyrénées France on Saturday, May 30, 2009

This was a hard read - I started and stopped reading over and over. It sounded more promising and so I am a bit disappointed. Not my kind of book. 

Journal Entry 8 by Tinina67 at Postal, RABCK Raffle winner -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Released 2 yrs ago (7/8/2009 UTC) at Postal, RABCK Raffle winner -- Controlled Releases

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy this book! 

Journal Entry 9 by CrazyDutchwoman from Heemstede, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Yes! I just arrived back from a week in England and found this book. It is big. Thanks to your rabck I can now finally read this book. I am very curious..
It will take a whole though cause I always buy a lot of books when in England. this time about 25, a lot of them wish list books, + I also ordered books in The Netherlands which also arrived. another 5 or so.I feel like I am in Book Heaven!!! Thanks Tinina 

Journal Entry 10 by CrazyDutchwoman from Heemstede, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Monday, October 12, 2009

Hi there. Well it did not take so long after all cause I was so cruious about this book I could not wait and picked it up last week. Finished it last night and these are my thoughts:


Wow. it took me 7 days to read. Not that I mind. this is not a book you want to read quickly , you want to enjoy it and take it all in. Which is what I did. I think the only criticism is that I started to get a little bit bored at about page 500 till 600 but then it got back to its brilliancy and I was even sad I finished it.
Everybody has written so many great reviews. Only thing I can add it reminds me of reading when I was a child/teenager, a special feeling. and don't ask me why. :)

So glad I was able to read this. thanks for sharing.