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Every Sunday Tanzanite highlights books that will be released during the upcoming week. She hopes you will find something you will enjoy!
Lucrezia: The Triumph of Love by John Graham. UK release September 6, 2010. Much has been written about the Borgias, and interest in their exploits hasn't waned in more than 500 years. Here, Lucrezia Borgia gives her own account of the events that shaped her life through scandal, tragedy and triumph. Lucrezia Borgia starts life as the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, who bribes his way to the papal throne in 1492 as Pope Alexander VI. To help swing the election in his favour, he agrees to wed 12-year-old Lucrezia into the ruling house Milan, but this alliance soon becomes superfluous to the Borgias, and Lucrezia's sinister brother Cesare drives away her husband by threatening him with death. Plans by her father and brother to marry her again, this time into the ruling house of the Kingdom of Naples, are put at risk by a liaison between Lucrezia and a chamberlain in her father's household. Cesare has her lover murdered, but her new marriage makes Lucrezia blissfully happy, and produces a legitimate son. Cesare, however, is still not content to let his sister be, and his alliance with France against Naples results in the murder of her second husband. Lucrezia leaves Rome heartbroken and mired in scandal, but eventually accepts a third marriage to the heir apparent to the Duchy of Ferrara. Away from the pressures of her father and brother, she begins to chart a new life in which she learns much about herself and the many forms that love may take: sensual, sacred, platonic, and familial. From this she matures as a person and eventually delivers heirs to the house of d'Este to emerge triumphant. 
The Countess and the King by Susan Holloway Scott. US and UK release September 7, 2010. Katherine Sedley lived by her own rules and loved who she pleased- until she became the infamous mistress of King James II... London, 1675: Born to wealth and privilege, Katherine is introduced to the decadent court of King Charles II, and quickly becomes a favorite from the palace to the bawdy playhouses. She gleefully snubs respectable marriage to become the Duke of York's mistress. But Katherine's life of carefree pleasure ends when Charles II dies, and her lover becomes King James II. Suddenly she is cast into a tangle of political intrigue, religious dissent, and ever-shifting alliances, where a wrong step can mean treason, exile, or death at the executioner's block. As the risks rise, Katherine is forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England.
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Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner. US release September 7, 2010; UK release Ocotber 1, 2010. Love is a choice you make every day. Content in her comfortable marriage of twenty-two years, Jane Lindsay had never expected to watch her husband pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad’s departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one recognizable word: Jane. Feeling an instant connection to the mysterious ring bearing her namesake, Jane begins a journey to learn more about the ring—and perhaps about herself.In the sixteenth-century, Lucy Day becomes the dressmaker to Lady Jane Grey, an innocent young woman whose fate seems to be controlled by a dangerous political and religious climate, one threatening to deny her true love and pursuit of her own interests. As the stories of both Janes dovetail through the journey of one ring, it becomes clear that each woman has far more infl uence over her life than she once imagined. It all comes down to the choices each makes despite the realities they face.
Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock. Non-fiction. US release September 7, 2010; released in the UK last year. She was the first woman to inherit the throne of England, a key player in one of Britain’s stormiest eras, and a leader whose unwavering faith and swift retribution earned her the nickname “Bloody Mary.” Now, in this impassioned and absorbing debut, historian Anna Whitelock offers a modern perspective on Mary Tudor and sets the record straight once and for all on one of history’s most compelling and maligned rulers. Though often overshadowed by her long-reigning sister, Elizabeth I, Mary lived a life full of defiance, despair, and triumph. Born the daughter of the notorious King Henry VIII and the Spanish Katherine of Aragon, young Mary was a princess in every sense of the word—schooled in regal customs, educated by the best scholars, coveted by European royalty, and betrothed before she had reached the age of three. Yet in a decade’s time, in the wake of King Henry’s break with the pope, she was declared a bastard, disinherited, and demoted from “princess” to “lady.” Ever her deeply devout mother’s daughter, Mary refused to accept her new status or to recognize Henry’s new wife, Anne Boleyn, as queen. The fallout with her father and his counselors nearly destroyed the teenage Mary, who faced imprisonment and even death. 
The Gentleman Poet by Kathryn Johnson. US release September 7, 2010. En route to the Americas in 1609, Elizabeth Persons, a young servant girl, sees her blinding headache as an ominous sign. Sure enough, a hurricane during the final leg of their journey tosses the ill-fated Sea Venture and its one hundred and fifty passengers and crew onto the dreaded shores of the Bermudas, the rumored home of evil spirits and dangerous natives. In the months that pass—time marked by grave hardship, mutiny, adventure, danger . . . and a blossoming love between Elizabeth and the wrecked ship's young cook—she despairs of their ever being rescued. But she finds hope and strength in a remarkable new friendship, forming a fast bond with the Sea Venture's historian, a poet traveling under the name of William Strachey. But Will is more than he seems. To many back home in England, he is known by a different name: Shakespeare. And he sees in their great shared travails the makings of a magical, truly transcendent work of theater. 
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay. US release September 7, 2010; UK release February 3, 2011. When Nina Revskaya, former star of the Bolshoi Ballet, decides to auction her remarkable jewelry, she hopes to draw a curtain on her past. Instead, she is overwhelmed by memories of glorious and heartbreaking events that changed her life's course half a century before. In Russia, she discovered the theater, fell in love with a famed poet, and became—with her closest friends—a victim of Stalinist aggression. A terrible discovery led to a deadly act of betrayal—and to Nina's escape to Boston. Now, an associate at the Boston auction house and a Russian professor are unraveling a mystery surrounding a love letter, a poem, and a necklace of unknown provenance, stirring up revelations that will have life-altering consequences for all. 
Henry V: Leadership, Strategy, Conflict by Marcus Cowper. Non-fiction. UK release September 10, 2010; US release September 21, 2010. Immortalized in the plays of Shakespeare, Henry V is the most famous and celebrated of all England's medieval monarchs. His succession of victories over the French, combined with his death at an early age, has created an aura of myth around the man and commander that has endured to this day. Accompanied by the detailed maps, photographs and artwork that readers expect from an Osprey book, this title thoroughly explores Henry's command experience, tracing his development from a young prince struggling against an insurrection to his eventual triumph in Northern France. Author Marcus Cowper examines Henry's key battles and sieges, how he systematically extended English control throughout northern France and how he was perceived by his contemporaries as a military leader. This in-depth analysis extends to Henry's private motivations and aspirations, including the impetus behind some of his controversial military decisions. Learn the truths that set the Bard's stage in this engaging new title from one of Osprey's newest series. 
Expect to see a slew of novels/works on The Borgias as they are taking the place of "The Tudors" on Showtime. For myself, very little is known about this family so "Lucrezia" is on my 'read' list.
The bio about Mary Tudor...wonder how it compares to Linda Porter's effort last year (The First Queen of England)? I found that book excellent.
"Lady in Waiting"...sounds like a good choice for the autumn!
Excellent list for me this week. Thanks!!
September 6, 2010 5:19 AM
Again you have done serious damage to my TBR mountain! I really enjoy your blog!
September 6, 2010 9:18 AM