Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Queens and Courtesans: Women of Power in Medieval England. This non-fiction book by the UK National Archives has a publication date of May 2009 (no more specific date is listed) on Amazon US and you can currently pre-order it.

Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor by Eamon Duffy. This non-fiction book will be released in the UK on May 31, 2009.

Henry I: King of England and Duke of Normandy by Judith Green. Non-fiction released in the UK on May 31, 2009

Many in the book blogging community are familiar with some of the antics that have gone on over at Amazon with reviews, comments and some authors getting all bent out of shape when everyone doesn't absolutely adore every word they have written. I heard about this blog today and thought it might be fun - author's who have received bad reviews can submit them to this site and have the review posted along with their answers to various questions regarding how they felt about they review and how it impacted them. Some of the reviews posted are rather harsh, some are down right funny.

For Americans, George III is probably best known as the English king that the American colonies rebelled against which led to the American Revolution. Born in 1738, he became king in 1761. His nearly 60 year reign was marked by a series of struggles, including a lengthy conflict with France. In the later half of his life his personal fight was against mental illness and in 1810 a regency was set up with his eldest son George (later George IV) acting as Prince Regent. This portrait was painted in 1762 by Allan Ramsay. I really like this portrait - the king looks very regal in his coronation robes.

Like most young ladies, Anne Peabody is married off by her father to an older businessman. She is disgusted by the thought, but realizes she has little choice. But her wedding day doesn’t turn out to be a complete nightmare – while outside after the ceremony and with bells tolling over the repeal of the Stamp Act, out of nowhere, a handsome young man sweeps her off the ground and plants a kiss on her mouth.

A few years later Anne finds herself a widow, her husband and young son victims of smallpox. Running her husband’s printing press in New York City to support herself, she takes whatever business some of the larger printing companies kindly funnel her way, regardless of the political content (which means she is often printing Tory material). But the financials needs of a young widow don’t matter much to members of the Sons of Liberty who destroy her shop amid allegations that she is a Tory sympathizer. To her surprise, one of the men is the same one who kissed her on her wedding day – Jack Hampton.

As the beginnings of a revolution take hold, Anne finds herself getting caught up in it and with Jack. What follows is a pretty typical romantic adventure with plenty of the stereotypical characters, misunderstandings and daring rescues. Not that that’s always a bad thing. I thought the story itself was entertaining enough and the book seemed well-researched and nicely written. But some of Anne’s actions didn’t seem to make a lot of sense and I never really felt the power of the attraction between Anne and Jack, nor what drew Anne into supporting the revolution. She occasionally reflects on a few of the ideas and concepts of independence and liberty but there didn’t seem to be the passion to back it up.

The Tory Widow is not so much a story about the American Revolution as it is about two people’s perception of and reaction to the events around them. For the most part, the historical events of 1776 are secondary to the day to day events in Anne and Jack’s life, although certainly, the political issues are often the catalyst for their actions. Overall I thought this was an entertaining read and a pleasant way to spend part of my 9 hour flight back from London. My understanding is that this is the first in a trilogy planned by Blevins and I will likely read the future releases.

Rating: Good

I haven't done Booking Through Thursday in a while, but I could not pass this one up!

Book Gluttony! Are your eyes bigger than your book belly? Do you have a habit of buying up books far quicker than you could possibly read them? Have you had to curb your book buying habits until you can catch up with yourself? Or are you a controlled buyer, only purchasing books when you have run out of things to read?

Seriously. I am a major glutton. Have I mentioned how long my TBR pile is lately? I own 250 books that I have not read yet. I've read an additional 150 books in last 3 years, most of which I still own. I go through spells of binge buying, especially on ebay, sometimes buying 3-4 at a time. I've also had some recent binges on Book Depository. Then there are the ARC's. But the major contributor to my problem is Paperback Swap. But they also seem to go in spells - I may get 3 or 4 books on my wishlist in a single week and then go weeks without any. There have been some weeks when I get one or two packages every day - my husband brings them to me, smiles and says it must be my birthday again! I'm like "yeah, so what book did you buy me?" He just laughs and shakes his head. I just tell him books are cheaper than shoes (my other big weakness).

We are moving in a few weeks to a townhouse that has built in bookcases along one wall. I can't wait to fill them up!!

We took a ton of pictures on our trip to London so I decided to do a separate blog where I will be posting them over the next few weeks. Who knows, I might even decide to post some of our other trips as well - we'll see how it goes! I hope you'll stop by.

In addition to the challenges that I’m participating in listed to the left, I’ve also been reading books for a historical fiction challenge at Paperback Swap. One of the categories for the challenge is to read a historical mystery. Since I don’t usually read mysteries, I had a little bit of trouble coming up with one, but eventually decided on Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin.

The third in her Mistress of the Art of Death series, Grave Goods finds Adelia (Henry II’s "mistress of the art of death") at Glastonbury to determine if two skeletons are those of Arthur and Guinevere. Why? Well, 20 years earlier, a young monk witnessed three masked men putting a coffin into a crack in the ground that had opened up during an earthquake. Overhearing references to the name “Arthur” leads him to believe that the legendary Arthur is now buried there. If Henry can establish that the skeleton is that of Arthur, he can hopefully put down the Welsh hope that Arthur will return some day and save them. Henry indicates that if Adelia can give him Arthur, she can name her price.

Adelia has been trained in human anatomy and seems to have her own version of a medieval CSI going on. She has helped Henry in the past and isn’t really looking forward to helping him again. With her young daughter and her Arab assistant (who provides a good cover for her profession) in tow, she arrives at Glastonbury which has burnt to the ground.

Adelia’s journey from point A to point B isn’t a straight line. Along the way she tries to figure out what happened to her friend Emma (who disappeared on her way to her mother-in-law’s house) and gets pulled into helping a group of rough, but somewhat charming, petty thieves prove that one of their comrades didn’t start the fire at the abbey.

Grave Goods is an enjoyable story with likeable characters, interesting story lines and a considerable amount of humor. Adelia is adept at solving mysteries, although the number of coincidences that take place certainly makes it easier. Most of the plot centers around the side stories of Emma and the thieves, making me wonder where the search for Arthur and Guinevere fit into all of it. The mystery of the skeletons is tied up nicely at the end, but the three plot lines really didn’t seem to have much to do with each other. The ending leaves open the possibility of another book and I liked this one well enough that I will probably read the next one. I may even go back and read the previous two at some point.

A saint’s job is never done: “You’d have thought with all those saints, at least one of ‘em would’ve put the damned fire out." Local at the tavern talking about the fire at Glastonbury

Men will be men: “Do you mean the tub or my manhood? In either case, the answer’s yes, it is.” Rowley’s reply when Adelia is taking a bath and he comes in, telling her to move over. She tells him it’s not big enough for the two of them.

Rating: Good