Finished yet another Tracy Chevalier book, The Virgin Blue. I started it yesterday as a poolside read (88 degrees!!), and I just finished it this morning. It was so engrossing I didn't even have time to put it on the sidebar!
Chevalier has a way of making historical fiction really good and accessible. In this book, the narration alternates from 14/15th century France in 3rd person and modern day France in 1st person. Isabelle, from old France, is inexplicably tied to Ella, who has just moved to France with her husband. The shifts in perspective are sometimes a little confusing, but it's a great technique that kept me turning the pages to figure out how the two are linked.
There's some references to the religious wars in Europe and I guess if I paid more attention to AP European History I would remember what a Hugeonot is, but despite that stuff it wasn't an academic book. It's pretty fast paced, has an element of mystery, and has the plain eloquence that I like about Chevalier.