50 Books in 2006
Jan. 16th, 2006 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ella_mennoYeah, I thought I'd try this. Perhaps it'll encourage me to read something new, instead of re-reading the HP series for the bajillionth time.
50 Books in 2006
1. I, Elizabeth, by Rosalind Miles
A book I purchased on a whim. My intent was to buy another of Phillipa Gregory's books - I read The Other Boleyn Girl last year and liked it very much - but I was captivated by the image on this book's cover.
This, I felt, was pretty close to a mesmerizing read. Though it's a difficult style to pull off, I'm quite fond of the use of first person narrative, and it was done well in this book. The author did a lovely job of showing how Elizabeth subsumed her private will for the public good without making it seem like it was easily managed. Elizabeth seems very real, and the story reads like it may well have been an actual biography, rather than a fictionalization. I may go back through this book, now that I have more of the facts about this time in history.
2. The Queen's Fool, by Phillipa Gregory
Ah, Phillipa. I've read three of her books so far, and while I enjoy her style, I need to remember to pace myself a bit more when reading her stuff. Her protagonists are always 16th century women who are surprisingly independent for their time (sounds a bit Mary Sue-ish when I put it that way, doesn't it?), and it does tend to get repetitive when read back-to-back. This book is different from her others in that Hannah, our leading lady, is a commoner who ends up working in the courts of both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. Hannah was, to me, more likable than the heroines of Gregory's other two books: Mary, who is the Other Boleyn Girl, was a bit too naive and passive for my liking, and Gregory's Elizabeth is too much the cold, manipulative brat to be at all likable.
3. Suitors to the Queen: The Men in the Life of Elizabeth I of England, by Josephine Ross
After two novels that speculated on the virginity of England's "Virgin Queen," I had to get myself some non-fiction to see what these authors were basing that speculation on. Quite a bit, as it turns out; seems that gossip and scandal were not only present, but thriving in the courts of the 1500's. (Why this surprised me, I don't know.) A fact about Elizabeth that's universally agreed upon in everything I've encounterd is that she played the game of courtship like nobody else; she kept some of her suitors on a string for years in order to manipulate foreign and domestic policy and events. I think it's too easy, perhaps, as we sit here in the 21st century to forget how absolutely without precedent it was for a woman to rule, and rule without benefit of a man as King or King-consort. Elizabeth might have had her faults - lots of them, it seems - but she knew how to use what others perceived as her weaknesses to her advantage. She fascinates me, can you tell yet?
4. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey
Another non-fiction book. This one reads like a novel. In his introduction, the author says that he intended to write out Elizabeth's journey to becoming Queen without the end in mind; in other words, he meant to keep the suspense of the events as they played out for those who lived them. I think he does an admirable job of this. Some chapters were a bit dull (I'm sorry, but I can't get emotionally invested in the Princess Elizabeth's "many dwellings and properties," no matter how they're written about), but overall, it was both entertaining and informative.
5. The Virgin's Lover, by Phillipa Gregory
This is the book I mentioned in #1, the book I intended to buy. I'll admit right off the bat that the title suckered me into this one - yes, I'd read other things by the author and liked them, but dude - "The Virgin's Lover"? Please - that begs to be read!
This is the story of Elizabeth's affair with Sir Robert Dudley, a relationship mentioned in just about every source I found about this Queen, both in print and on line. Just the few facts historians are sure of have the makings of a fascinating story - Elizabeth and Robert were friends and playmates since childhood; for nearly two years, they were rarely out of one another's company; Robert's wife died under mysterious circumstances; Elizabeth and Robert openly spoke of getting married on at least one occasion; the Dudleys had betrayed the Tudors for two generations past; and there's more I'm not remembering right now, but do you see what I'm saying? With historical details like these, who needs fiction? Gregory does, however, take the details that survive and weaves them into a gripping story. There's betrayal, there's lust, there's a secret betrothal, there are assassinations, there are martyrs and heretics and traitors and executions and religious upheaval, and oh! It's such a story, such a tale. I myself don't normally care for historical fiction (not that you'd know that from this entry!), but I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for an engrossing read. It's like the Jackie Collins of the Tudor era!
50 Books in 2006
1. I, Elizabeth, by Rosalind Miles
A book I purchased on a whim. My intent was to buy another of Phillipa Gregory's books - I read The Other Boleyn Girl last year and liked it very much - but I was captivated by the image on this book's cover.
This, I felt, was pretty close to a mesmerizing read. Though it's a difficult style to pull off, I'm quite fond of the use of first person narrative, and it was done well in this book. The author did a lovely job of showing how Elizabeth subsumed her private will for the public good without making it seem like it was easily managed. Elizabeth seems very real, and the story reads like it may well have been an actual biography, rather than a fictionalization. I may go back through this book, now that I have more of the facts about this time in history.
2. The Queen's Fool, by Phillipa Gregory
Ah, Phillipa. I've read three of her books so far, and while I enjoy her style, I need to remember to pace myself a bit more when reading her stuff. Her protagonists are always 16th century women who are surprisingly independent for their time (sounds a bit Mary Sue-ish when I put it that way, doesn't it?), and it does tend to get repetitive when read back-to-back. This book is different from her others in that Hannah, our leading lady, is a commoner who ends up working in the courts of both Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. Hannah was, to me, more likable than the heroines of Gregory's other two books: Mary, who is the Other Boleyn Girl, was a bit too naive and passive for my liking, and Gregory's Elizabeth is too much the cold, manipulative brat to be at all likable.
3. Suitors to the Queen: The Men in the Life of Elizabeth I of England, by Josephine Ross
After two novels that speculated on the virginity of England's "Virgin Queen," I had to get myself some non-fiction to see what these authors were basing that speculation on. Quite a bit, as it turns out; seems that gossip and scandal were not only present, but thriving in the courts of the 1500's. (Why this surprised me, I don't know.) A fact about Elizabeth that's universally agreed upon in everything I've encounterd is that she played the game of courtship like nobody else; she kept some of her suitors on a string for years in order to manipulate foreign and domestic policy and events. I think it's too easy, perhaps, as we sit here in the 21st century to forget how absolutely without precedent it was for a woman to rule, and rule without benefit of a man as King or King-consort. Elizabeth might have had her faults - lots of them, it seems - but she knew how to use what others perceived as her weaknesses to her advantage. She fascinates me, can you tell yet?
4. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, by David Starkey
Another non-fiction book. This one reads like a novel. In his introduction, the author says that he intended to write out Elizabeth's journey to becoming Queen without the end in mind; in other words, he meant to keep the suspense of the events as they played out for those who lived them. I think he does an admirable job of this. Some chapters were a bit dull (I'm sorry, but I can't get emotionally invested in the Princess Elizabeth's "many dwellings and properties," no matter how they're written about), but overall, it was both entertaining and informative.
5. The Virgin's Lover, by Phillipa Gregory
This is the book I mentioned in #1, the book I intended to buy. I'll admit right off the bat that the title suckered me into this one - yes, I'd read other things by the author and liked them, but dude - "The Virgin's Lover"? Please - that begs to be read!
This is the story of Elizabeth's affair with Sir Robert Dudley, a relationship mentioned in just about every source I found about this Queen, both in print and on line. Just the few facts historians are sure of have the makings of a fascinating story - Elizabeth and Robert were friends and playmates since childhood; for nearly two years, they were rarely out of one another's company; Robert's wife died under mysterious circumstances; Elizabeth and Robert openly spoke of getting married on at least one occasion; the Dudleys had betrayed the Tudors for two generations past; and there's more I'm not remembering right now, but do you see what I'm saying? With historical details like these, who needs fiction? Gregory does, however, take the details that survive and weaves them into a gripping story. There's betrayal, there's lust, there's a secret betrothal, there are assassinations, there are martyrs and heretics and traitors and executions and religious upheaval, and oh! It's such a story, such a tale. I myself don't normally care for historical fiction (not that you'd know that from this entry!), but I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for an engrossing read. It's like the Jackie Collins of the Tudor era!
