Innocent Traitor

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir is about Lady Jane Grey and her 9 day stint as the Queen of England. Alison Weir usually writes non-fiction, but this story is historical fiction. I'm not sure if it's that I've read so many historical fiction stories that take place during this time period or what, but it just seemed to drag on and on. It was a very interesting story. I don't think I would have understood very much had I not read about this time period before. You have to have some idea of the events that lead up to her being put on the throne and what comes after to pull it altogether. If Weir wrote about all that, the book would be a thousand pages long. As it is, it is full of detail and goes on too long for my taste. With that said, I bet I'll read another book by Weir.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

I liked this one.   I think just about everyone has read it already.  It's about Vermeer's life from the point of view of his maid.  Tracy Chevalier is a great writer.  Even though not that much happens in the story, I was very happy to read about the everyday things.  I really loved all of the characters.  This was a nice, smooth read.  

The Last Empress

Don't read this one. Bleck. Oh so boring...

The Constant Princess

I think I hit my max with Phillipa Gregory books.  I love the time period that she writes about, but I can't handle her writing style anymore.  This is an interesting book about Queen Katherine.  I knew some about her life after her dumb second husband cheated on her, but I didn't know much about her life up to that point.  

Born Catalina, the Infanta of Spain, she was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales.  They married when they were 15 and he died less than a year later.  She stayed in England to try to secure a spot as the Princess of Wales and eventually the Queen of England.  She endured incredible hardships and was all but left for dead by both her parents and her father-in-law, King Henry.  She managed to become betrothed to Henry's second son, who was several years younger than she, and eventually become a strong and much loved Queen.  If only her husband could have been happy with just one woman!  

While I loved learning about the Princess Catalina, I did not like how often Gregory repeats herself.  I skipped sections because I could get her point and didn't need to read about it for pages!!  If you are only going to read one Gregory book, don't pick this one.  It isn't her best, but it is pretty good...

Who Murdered Chaucer? (Was he murdered at all?)

"Richard II was really a good king, and Henry IV was an evil rotten usurper" could just as well have been the title, but I suppose they needed something a little more catchy. I really enjoyed Terry Jones and Co.'s thorough examination of late 14th century politics, though like many current nonfiction titles, it suffers a bit from too much detail. It's a fascinating and fun read, with some juicy speculation thrown in.

Chaucer was the most famous and respected poet of his day; he was a prominent man in a pretty small world and his literary works (in English!) were very popular. And yet no one seems very sure of when he died; in 1400 he just disappeared from the records. Lesser poets had fancy tombs and exact death dates, but all Chaucer got was a Tudor-era memorial tablet with a somewhat speculative date. Now why was that? Could it be because Chaucer's opinions and habit of writing in English became inconvenient when Henry IV usurped the throne from Richard II? Could Thomas Arundel, the ruthlessly political Archbishop of Canterbury and the power behind Henry's throne, have had something to do with it? Did Chaucer "disappear" the same way Richard II did, and was he left to die in prison? We'll never know, but it's fun to speculate.

The entire first half of the book is dedicated to redeeming Richard II's good name; Jones examines his reign, Henry IV's takeover, and the subsequent propaganda and cover-up. His idea is that Henry, like any usurper, needed to rewrite history and put himself in the right, so he portrayed Richard as an oppressive tyrant and himself as a welcomed liberator. In fact, however, Henry was not nearly as nice as Richard had been, and his reign ushered in a new era of severe punishment for having the wrong opinions. It gets a bit complicated, but in particular, religion became much more controlled, thanks to Arundel's need to clamp down on unorthodoxy and criticism of the Church.

At any rate, once we do get to Chaucer in the second half of the book, Jones points to clues in his writings that explain just why Arundel would have wanted him out of the way. Such clues aren't hard to find--the famous Pardoner's Tale is a big one--but since most of us aren't familiar with the intricacies of 14th-century Church politics, they are easy to misunderstand. Luckily Jones makes the topic both clear and interesting. All this leads into the speculation on how and why Chaucer disappeared in 1400, whether he died then or later, and why anyone bothered to put up a memorial to him about 150 years later. It's all quite interesting and entertaining, though a bit long-winded. If you're interested in medieval history, it's a good read, but if not, it will be far too much information for you.


This was my first book in the Chunkster Challenge 2009. Here's my list so far of books I plan to read:

1. Who Murdered Chaucer? -- Terry Jones
2. North and South -- Elizabeth Gaskell
3. A Distant Mirror -- Barbara Tuchman (more 14th-century goodness!)
4. Evelina -- Fanny Burney
5. Liberal Fascism -- Jonah Goldberg
6. The Forgotten Man -- Amity Shlaes
7. A Dickens novel, but I can't decide between Our Mutual Friend, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Bleak House.

Princess Academy

Well, I feel all warm and happy inside as I have just finished this book.  It's fantastic!  I almost read it a couple of years ago with my daughter.  My daughter was not ready for me to read this book to her, so we stopped.  I picked it up again tonight and read it all the way through.  I just love it!  I have a couple of favorite lines:

"Miri wondered if worry could actually kill a person."

and

"Esa's smile seemed big enough to break loose."

Aren't those lines just perfectly descriptive and short at the same time.  I can't handle sentences that go on and on about the weather or beauty of something - get to it!!  These lines described the situation perfectly and succinctly.  Wonderful.  So, what are you waiting for?  Go to the library!  

The Other Boleyn Girl and The Virgin's Lover

Here is what I had to say back when I read these books by Phillipa Gregory:

I had to read this book because of my ignorance. I was at a book club and realized that I was the only one who couldn’t name the six wives of Henry VIII. I knew that one of his wives had been beheaded and that was about it. My friend recommended that I read this one to catch up on some history.
Historical fiction is probably my favorite genre, so I was very excited to get started. Some parts I flew through and others were a bit tedious. It covers the time from Henry VIII taking up with Mary Boleyn through to the death of Anne Boleyn, her sister. You get to know all of the people in this crazy circle they called the Court. It was just amazing to have all of the pieces put together in such a way that it all made sense. It is such an amazing and exciting story.
After I finished I was motivated to find out more about the family and what happened to them all. I spent some time on Wikipedia and now I’m ready for my next book club discussion on royalty!
I recommend reading this book and I’m looking forward to seeing the movie. This story may be the rare exception where the movie is better than the book. We shall see…

I read The Virgin’s Lover by Phillipa Gregory. I really liked it. It’s an historical fiction novel. I learned about Queen Elizabeth and her married “friend.” Boy they got in tons of trouble! It was fun to read and I would recommend it.