After finishing Howl's Moving Castle, I started itching for something else to read. I browsed through the beginning of Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen last night, but the book about dragons that I really wanted to read was Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. I must give Yolen credit for putting a fantasy trope (dragons) against a science fiction setting and having the dragons' role in the story be based on blood sports like cock fighting. It's certainly an original idea.
Armed with a list of twenty books, I figured that I'd be able to bring home a few books I wanted. In the end, I had mixed results. While I did find some of the books I was looking for, some of them were either checked out or at other library branches. Five holds later, I'll be expecting Eat, Pray, Love, Julie & Julia, The Devil's Queen, My Lady of Cleves, and one that wasn't on my original list, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, by the middle of next week.
I did, however, bring home three books, including one that wasn't on my list. After finding Dealing with Dragons and The Nanny Diaries (the latter after some searching and the help of a librarian because we both were convinced that book imps had hidden the book from us), I decided on a historical fiction book called The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.
For those unfamiliar with Gregory's work, she is the author of the Tudor series of which The Boleyn Inheritance is the third. I chose this particular volume because (a) my original choices (The Devil's Queen and My Lady of Cleves) wouldn't arrive until next week, (b) I had read Gregory's more famous book (now a film) The Other Boleyn Girl, and (c) I'm interested in reading portrayals of both Anne of Cleves and Katheryn Howard. Anne of Cleves is often overlooked because her marriage was brief and her personality dwarfed by more charismatic (and at times, notorious) figures like Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She hadn't been Henry's mistress, she did not bear him children, and she didn't cause a scandal to merit her beheading. Katheryn Howard is somewhat a tragic figure considering her age and her ill-fated mistakes, but at the same time, her marriage with Henry was the product of his midlife crisis--she made him feel young again. With that said, from both a historical and narrative perspective, all six of Henry VIII's queens are incredibly interesting and remarkable as individuals and as women of the Tudor era.
I have until the beginning of June to finish the three books I checked out today, and next week I'll have five additional books to keep myself occupied. I think I might have to stock up on tea to accompany my reading routine. (^_~)
Armed with a list of twenty books, I figured that I'd be able to bring home a few books I wanted. In the end, I had mixed results. While I did find some of the books I was looking for, some of them were either checked out or at other library branches. Five holds later, I'll be expecting Eat, Pray, Love, Julie & Julia, The Devil's Queen, My Lady of Cleves, and one that wasn't on my original list, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, by the middle of next week.
I did, however, bring home three books, including one that wasn't on my list. After finding Dealing with Dragons and The Nanny Diaries (the latter after some searching and the help of a librarian because we both were convinced that book imps had hidden the book from us), I decided on a historical fiction book called The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.
For those unfamiliar with Gregory's work, she is the author of the Tudor series of which The Boleyn Inheritance is the third. I chose this particular volume because (a) my original choices (The Devil's Queen and My Lady of Cleves) wouldn't arrive until next week, (b) I had read Gregory's more famous book (now a film) The Other Boleyn Girl, and (c) I'm interested in reading portrayals of both Anne of Cleves and Katheryn Howard. Anne of Cleves is often overlooked because her marriage was brief and her personality dwarfed by more charismatic (and at times, notorious) figures like Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. She hadn't been Henry's mistress, she did not bear him children, and she didn't cause a scandal to merit her beheading. Katheryn Howard is somewhat a tragic figure considering her age and her ill-fated mistakes, but at the same time, her marriage with Henry was the product of his midlife crisis--she made him feel young again. With that said, from both a historical and narrative perspective, all six of Henry VIII's queens are incredibly interesting and remarkable as individuals and as women of the Tudor era.
I have until the beginning of June to finish the three books I checked out today, and next week I'll have five additional books to keep myself occupied. I think I might have to stock up on tea to accompany my reading routine. (^_~)
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