medieval england – Cannonball Read 17

I’m crying because I was just in a bloody battle. I hated every second of it and I would not recommend it to a friend.

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

October 18, 2024 by carmelpie Leave a Comment

“Studying for what?” “Um. Everything? My future,” Gabriel said. Arthur’s instinct was to laugh, but he managed to keep himself in check. “You’re studying for life? For your life? Is there a—is there a how-to guide for monarchs? Tips and tricks for subjugating the masses? Prevent a revolt in ten easy steps?” ― Lex Croucher, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love “If you wanted to come and find me, I’ve actually been pretty stationary. You know. Nearly dying.” ― Lex Croucher, Gwen & Art […]

Early Fall Leftovers

To Start A War: How the Bush Administration Took Us Into Iraq by Robert Draper

The Travelers by Chris Pavone

A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block

Dark Fire by CJ Sansom

The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation by Robert Rand

Stasi Child by David Young

The Cover Wife by Dan Fesperman

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich

Geiger by Gustaf Skördeman

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll

Slow Horses by Mick Herron

The Devil Knows You're Dead by Lawrence Block

October 14, 2024 by Jake Leave a Comment

I’ve read some interesting stuff lately and I wish I had made more time to document it but life gets in the way that life sometimes does. Not all bad, just life. To Start A War**** I had a long thing here about connecting this to the 2024 election but I don’t want to talk current electoral politics on here, at least the specifics of them. A good book if you want to know the intelligence (ha) perspective of how we wound up in a […]

“When love buds between great princes”

Queens of the Age of Chivalry by Alison Weir

December 20, 2023 by Pooja Leave a Comment

England’s Age of Chivalry was a surprisingly turbulent period marked by coups, civil unrest, and outright war on multiple fronts. We meet five queens in this book, including one of the most reviled and one of the most beloved in all of English history. This is the third book in Alison Weir’s England’s Medieval Queens, in which she profiles the queens of medieval England from the Conquest to (I believe) the end of the War of the Roses. In this book, we meet the queens […]

Second Chances Sometimes Are Worth It

The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

November 25, 2023 by CoffeeShopReader 4 Comments

I had flipped through The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England in a bookstore and decided it didn’t look great. I’m not a big fan of first-person narrating, and I saw a now mildly spoilery part about 2/3 of the way in that seemed dumb, so I put is back. Fast-forward about 6 months and I see the same nook at the library. On a whim, I decided to give it another chance. I’m actually kind of glad that I did. Our narrator wakes […]

Inter-Sibling relationships on the National Scale

Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone

May 21, 2022 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

Nancy Goldstone’s Four Queens is the sort of non-fiction I enjoy tucking in to. I travelled last week and wanted a book to read at the airport and on the plane to decompress and scratch the same mental itch as my marathoning Time Team has done (a show which helped me recognize names and places in this book!) and am I ever so glad that I had thought ahead to pack this book as well as Last Night at the Telegraph Club for book club […]

Medieval Mean Girls

Matrix by Lauren Groff

January 28, 2022 by CoffeeShopReader 2 Comments

I both do and do not understand how Matrix could possibly have made it onto “Best Books” lists for 2021. I hated the narrative style of first person present combined with free indirect discourse with a touch of narrative omniscience. I do not enjoy first person present narration in the first place and the ambiguity and unbalance between knowing what Marie thinks and feels, but also displaying knowledge of things Marie does not know (or at least not yet) just did not work for me. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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