Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
What you must never forget about this one is that you’re still in Wolf Hall. That’s trite, I know! But I can’t think of what else to say because as I reoriented my perspective on reading this, its power really hit me. I read Wolf Hall five years ago, at a different period in my life and thought it was just ok. Appreciated what it was doing but I didn’t have the focus to engage with it like I should have. Time and age tend to confer […]
Great Scandals of the Victorians by Debbie Blake
Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse
Great Scandals of the Victorians: Disreputable Stories from the Royal Court to the Stage – 3.5 stars For all that Victorians had a reputation for being straitlaced, they had their fair share of scandals – and some of them ended up having major effects on contemporary society, sometimes even driving forth social changes which still affect us today. I love a good gossip session about people I’ve never met, which is why history is one of my favorite subjects. In this book, we learn about […]
Royal Inbreeding and Other Maladies by Juliana Cummings
Royalty was supposed to rule by divine right and meant to preserve their bloodline, but in their zeal to do so lay the seeds of the madness and maladies that plagued many royal houses. It’s always fun to read about mad royals. Removed by time and societal changes, they don’t feel real enough to be sorry for, and so you can fully indulge in ogling at the bizarre stories without shame. And with unlimited money and power at their disposal, there’s a lot of bizarre […]
Queer Heroes: Meet 53 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! by Arabelle Sicardi
Over 50 famous and maybe not as famous people of the GLBTQ+ community are in the pages of the book Queer Heroes: Meet 53 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! While I did not count, I would guess at least half or more of the people mentioned are not mainstream (but known in certain circles) or might be the first time the reader (and most) have heard of/about them. Of course there were several more well known (Freddie Mercury, Ellen DeGeneres, David Bowie (who never […]
The Battle of Hastings: The Fall of the Anglo-Saxons and the Rise of the Normans by Jim Bradbury
Time to Murder and Create by Lawrence Block
Charlesgate Confidential by Scott von Doviak
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
A lot of folks said this month was slow but I thought it flew by… The Battle of Hastings: The Fall of the Anglo-Saxons and the Rise of the Normans *** Bit too stuffy and academic but gave me a great outline as to the importance of the Battle and its outcomes. Time to Murder and Create **** This is the second time I’ve come out of a Matthew Scudder re-read with a better impression than the first time I read it. How it bodes for the […]
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones
Yes, my find-Game-of-Thrones-in-history fetish is well known. You don’t need me to rehash it. But one thing I’m not clear on: what is the fascination people have with the Tudors? Is it because of Henry VIII? Elizabeth I? The tv shows? Because I find the Plantagenets far more fascinating. This is the story of how the English empire began to extend its greasy tentacles. Packed with enough court intrigue to suffocate a horse. And Dan Jones is an excellent chronicler of it all. Yes, there […]
