Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

This week:  Arundel Castle

 
Son of York is the second in a series that explores the Wars of the Roses period through the lives of those around the men in power . The main character, Sir Charles Beaumont, was once in the service of George, Duke of Clarence. Banished by Edward IV for ten years for his part in a duel, Charles returns to England on an important personal errand – to check on the well-being of Clarence’s children following his death. While there, he finds himself agreeing to work for Richard of Gloucester and rescues a young girl (Meg) from her the ill intentions of her stepfather.


Most of the book takes place after Edward IV’s death as the various factions try to stay one step ahead of the other. Caught in the middle are not only the children of Edward IV but those of the Duke of Clarence. Charles and Meg find themselves embroiled in a plot to protect them, leading up to the point where Richard agrees to accept the throne for the good of the country

This was a quick read (less than 200 pages) and although you won't find a lot of historical detail here, the addition of the Clarence children is a  different angle as are Charles’s conflicting loyalties to a man usually depicted as one without any redeeming qualities at all (in this case, Clarence, not Richard).  Although it wouldn’t be necessary to read The Warwick Heiress first, there are some references to the earlier story that will make more sense if you do. Like The Warwick Heiress, this is a pretty high level look at the time period and with no sex to speak of (what little there is is implied), it would be a good choice for a pre-teen who is interested in the era.


*In case the FTC asks: Papberback Swap

Born into an ambitious noble family, young Jane Seymour is sent to Court as a Maid of Honor to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s aging queen. She is devoted to her mistress and watches with empathy as the calculating Anne Boleyn contrives to supplant her as queen. Anne’s single-minded intriguing threatens all who stand in her way; she does not hesitate to arrange the murder of a woman who knows a secret so dark that, if revealed, would make it impossible for the king to marry Anne.

Once Anne becomes queen, no one at court is safe, and Jane herself becomes the victim of Anne’s venomous rage when she suspects Jane has become the object of the king’s lust. Henry, fearing that Anne’s inability to give him a son is a sign of divine wrath, asks Jane to become his next queen. Deeply reluctant to embark on such a dangerous course, Jane must choose between her heart and her loyalty to the king.

Acclaimed biographer and bestselling novelist Carolly Erickson weaves another of her irresistible historical entertainments about the queen who finally gave Henry VIII his longed for heir, set against the excitement and danger of the Tudor Court.



An American Crisis:  George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years after Yorktown  by William Fowler.  Non-fiction. US and UK release September 27, 2011.

Most people believe the American Revolution ended in October, 1781, after the battle of Yorktown; in fact the war continued for two more traumatic years. During that time, the Revolution came closer to being lost than at any time in the previous half dozen. The British still held New York, Savannah, Wilmington, and Charleston; the Royal Navy controlled the seas; the states--despite having signed the Articles of Confederation earlier that year--retained their individual sovereignty and, largely bankrupt themselves, refused to send any money in the new nation's interest; members of Congress were in constant disagreement; and the Continental army was on the verge of mutiny.


William Fowler's An American Crisis chronicles these tumultuous and dramatic two years, from Yorktown until the British left New York in November 1783. At their heart was the remarkable speech Gen. George Washington gave to his troops evcamped north of New York in Newburgh, quelling a brewing rebellion that could have overturned the nascent government.



Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell.  UK release September 29, 2011 (will be released in the US in January 2012).

The master of historical fiction presents the iconic story of King Alfred and the making of a nation.


As the ninth century wanes, England appears about to be plunged into chaos once more. For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior, Uhtred, whose life seems to shadow the making of England, this presents him with difficult choices.

King Alfred is dying and his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son, Edward, to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred‘s loyalty – and his vows – were to Alfred, not to his son, and despite his long years of service to Alfred, he is still not committed to the Saxon cause. His own desire is to reclaim his long lost lands and castle to the north. But the challenge to him, as the king’s warrior, is that he knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred’s dream of a united and Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion.

This novel is a dramatic story of the power of tribal commitment and the terrible difficulties of divided loyalties.

This is the making of England magnificently brought to life by the master of historical fiction.



The Boleyns:  The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family by David Loades.  Non-fiction.  UK release September 28, 2011.
A magnificent tale of family rivalry and intrigue set against Henry VIII's court. The fall of Anne Boleyn and her brother George is the classic drama of the Tudor era. The Boleyns had long been an influential English family. Sir Edward Boleyn had been Lord Mayor of London. His grandson, Sir Thomas had inherited wealth and position, and through the sexual adventures of his daughters, Mary and Anne, ascended to the peak of influence at court. The three Boleyn children formed a faction of their own, making many enemies: and when those enemies secured Henry VIII's ear, they brought down the entire family in blood and disgrace. George, Lord Rochfort, left no children. Mary left a son by her husband, William Carey - Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon. Anne left a daughter, Elizabeth I - so like her in many ways and a sexual politician without rival.



The Queen and the Courtesan by Freda Lightfoot.  UK release September 29, 2011 (will be released in the US January 2012).

Henriette d'Entragues isn't satisfied with simply being the mistress of Henry IV of France, she wants a crown too. Despite his promises to marry her, the King is obliged by political necessity to ally himself with Marie de Medici, an Italian princess who will bring riches to the treasury. But Henriette isn't for giving up easily. She has a written promise of marriage which she intends to use to declare the royal marriage illegal. All she has to do to achieve her ambition is to give Henry a son, then whatever it takes through intrigue and conspiracy to set him on the throne.







The Borgias:  History's Most Notorious Dynasty by Mary Hollingsworth.  Non-fiction.  UK release September 29, 2011.

The Borgia family of Renaissance Italy has become a byword for pride, lust, cruelty, avarice, splendour and venomous intrigue. They have inspired abomination and fascination in almost equal measure, comparable to the Corleone clan depicted in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. Indeed, Puzo himself featured the Borgias in his last novel, The Family, and the Borgias have inspired many other works of fiction together with plays, films, and even an opera - Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. Of Spanish origin, the Borgias came to prominence in the Italy of the 15th century, at a time when the spiritual values of the medieval Church were being swept aside by the worldly secularism of the Renaissance. They also became notorious for licentiousness, venality and indeed all forms of immorality, while at the same time their patronage of the arts helped to bring about some of the greatest artistic masterpieces of the Renaissance. Notorious Borgias include: Cesare Borgia (1476-1507) - the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. Violent and passionate, he was greatly admired by Machiavelli. Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519) - the sister of Cesare, accused of incest and poisoning, and one of history's most famous femmes fatales. Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) (1431-1503) - father of Cesare and Lucrezia, he was notorious for his extravagance, nepotism and immorality.



Winter King by Thomas Penn.  Non-fiction.  UK release September 29, 2011 (will be released in the US March 2012)

'He were a dark prince, and infinitely suspicious, and his times full of secret conspiracies and troubles', Sir Francis BaconIt was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap - a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many he remained a usurper, a false king. But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess. On a cold November day this girl, the sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, arrived in London for a wedding upon which the fate of England would hinge...

In his remarkable debut, historian Thomas Penn recreates an England which is both familiar and very strange - a country that seems medieval yet modern, in which honour and chivalry mingle with espionage, realpolitik, high finance and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at its heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power.Rich with incident and drama, filled with wonderfully drawn characters, Winter King is an unforgettable history of pageantry, surveillance, the thirst for glory - and the fraught, unstable birth of Tudor England.


The Royals:  The Lives and Loves of the British Monarchs by Leslie Carroll.  US release September 2011, exclusively at Barnes and Noble.

From the author's blog: 

THE ROYALS has a unique feature, which makes me feel like "history hoyden Barbie" when I peruse it: interspersed throughout the book are big opaque envelopes. Inside them are facsimiles of historical memorabilia, including (among other items) letters from Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard, an invitation to Queen Victoria's Jubilee, Edward VIII's infamous abdication speech, and an invitation (in case yours went missing in the mail last spring) to the wedding of William Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton.


The book also includes historical sidebars about notable events during various reigns.



Desired:  The Untold Story of Sansom and Delilah by Ginger Garrett.  US and UK release October 1, 2011.

Meet the legendary Samson as you've never known him before … through the eyes of the three women who loved him.

Before Samson was an Old Testament legend, he was a prodigal son, an inexperienced suitor, a vengeful husband, and a lost soul driven by his own weakness. This is his story as told by three strong women who loved him—the nagging, manipulative mother who pushed him toward greatness, the hapless Philistine bride whose betrayal propelled him into notoriety, and the emotionally damaged seductress—the famous Delilah—who engineered his downfall and propelled him to his destiny. Desired celebrates the God of Israel's to work powerfully in the midst of hopes, fears, desires, and sorrows.





by Peter Bramley.  Non-fiction.  UK reissue October 1, 2011.
From 1450 to 1487 the whole political fabric of England was shaken by a series of military conflicts between the rival Plantagenet houses of York and Lancaster now known as the Wars of the Roses. Spanning the reigns of five kings – only two of whom died at home – these wars were packed with political and military drama. This struggle for the crown of England was dominated by such towering personalities as Queen Margaret of Anjou, wife of Lancastrian King Henry VI; the blue-blooded Beauforts and Henry Tudor; Yorkist Kings Edward IV and Richard III; and the Neville clan led by Warwick the Kingmaker.

This new updated edition of Peter Bramley’s beautifully illustrated book focuses on the rich legacy of physical remains associated with these wars, which have survived for over 500 years in the form of castles, battlefields, houses, church brasses and tombs. A veritable treasure trove of information, this unusual guidebook provides details of the events and people linked with each historical site, together with background on the wars’ causes, main events and the personalities involved.

The guide is arranged by region and covers the whole of England and Wales – for the wars were not a geographic contest between Yorkshire and Lancashire but involved peers, gentry and retainers from all over the country. There are plenty of sites to visit in the south – for example Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, site of the key battle in 1471 where Edward IV destroyed the Lancastrians, and Long Melford in Suffolk where the church contains fabulous stained glass of local participants in the wars.

A Companion & Guide to The Wars of the Roses will appeal to those who find that visiting a historical site brings life and colour to the period.



Silk Road by Colin Falconer.  UK release October 1, 2011.

1260 AD: Josseran Sarrazini is a man divided in his soul. A Christian Knight Templar haunted by a shameful past, he hopes to find redemption in a dangerous crusade: a journey from Palestine to Xanadu, to form a crucial allegiance against the Saracens at the legendary court of Kubilai Khan - the seat of the Mongol Empire. Instead he finds the solace he seeks in a warrior-princess from a heathen tribe. Beautiful and ferocious, Khutelun is a Tartar, a nomadic rider of the Mongolian steppe. Although their union is utterly impossible, she will find in Josseran what she cannot find in one of her own. Parched by desert winds, pursued by Saracen hordes, and now tormented by a passion he cannot control, Josseran must abandon Khutelun if he is to complete his journey and save his soul. Worse, he must travel with William, a Dominican friar of fearsome zeal who longs for matyrdom, but whose life Josseran is sworn to protect. And worse yet, he will arrive in Xanadu just as the greatest empire in human history plunges into civil war. Winding through the plains of Palestine and over the high mountains of the Hindu Kush, from the empty wastes of the Taklimakan desert to the golden palaces of China, Silk Road weaves a spellbinding story of sin, desire, conflict and human frailty onto the vast tapestry of the medieval orient.


Conquest by Julian Stockwin.  US release October 1, 2011 (previously released in the UK in June 2011)

Newly victorious at the Battle of Trafalgar, England now rules the seas and is free to colonize the furthest reaches of the world. Captain Thomas Kydd joins an expedition to take Dutch-held Cape Town, a strategic harbor that will give England a rich trade route to India. With enemies lurking on all sides, Kydd and his men must defend the fragile colony while braving Africa’s vast and hostile hinterland. When Renzi learns too much about the enemy’s plans, even Kydd may not be able to save him.









 

 

 

Salisbury Cathedral (from 2010)






The tomb of Katherine Grey (Jane Grey's sister) and her husband, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford


This is the top of the tomb.  Due to other items in the area, it was impossible to get the whole tomb in one shot.  It is quite large and very beautiful with lots of intricate designs and decorations all over it.

August 28, 1814. Dressed in black, James Madison mourns the nation's loss. Smoke rises from the ruin of the Capitol before him; a mile away stands the blackened shell of the White House. The British have laid waste to Washington City, and as Mr. Madison gazes at the terrible vista, he ponders the future-his country's defeat or victory-in a war he began over the unanimous objections of his political adversaries. As we approach its bicentennial, the War of 1812 remains the least understood of America's wars. To some it was a conflict that resolved nothing, but to others, it was our second war of independence, settling once and for all that America would never again submit to Britain. At its center was James Madison-our most meditative of presidents, yet the first one to declare war. And at his side was the extraordinary Dolley, who defined the role of first lady for all to follow, and who would prove perhaps her husband's most indispensable ally.

In this powerful new work, drawing on countless primary sources, acclaimed historian Hugh Howard presents a gripping account of the conflict as James and Dolley Madison experienced it. Mr. and Mrs. Madison's War rediscovers a conflict fought on land and sea-from the shores of the Potomac to the Great Lakes-that proved to be a critical turning point in American history.



The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower. US release March 1, 2012 (previously released in the UK in 2007).


January 1067. When Odo of Bayeux decides to commission a wall hanging to celebrate his role in the conquest of Britain by his brother, William, Duke of Normandy, he cannot anticipate how this will change his life even more than the invasion itself. As his life becomes entangled with

those of the women who embroider the hanging, he comes into conflict with his king and his God. Friends and family become enemies, enemies become lovers, nothing in life or in the hanging is what it seems.

A powerful tale of sex, lies and embroidery, The Needle in the Blood, challenges the stereotypes of Norman and Anglo Saxon, exploring the effects of occupation on both sides and all classes of society. It also examines how women can make lives for themselves in the margins of patriarchal

societies. Its characters are brought together through the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the best known, yet most enigmatic, of mediaeval artifacts.



The Winter King by Thomas Penn. Non-fiction. US release March 6, 2012 (will be released in the UK September 29, 2011).


It was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap - a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many he remained a usurper, a false king.

But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess. On a cold November day this girl, the sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, arrived in London for a wedding upon which the fate of England would hinge...

In his remarkable debut, historian Thomas Penn recreates an England which is both familiar and very strange - a country that seems medieval yet modern, in which honour and chivalry mingle with espionage, realpolitik, high finance and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at its heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power.

Rich with incident and drama, filled with wonderfully drawn characters, Winter King is an unforgettable history of pageantry, surveillance, the thirst for glory - and the fraught, unstable birth of Tudor England.

 
The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch. US and UK release May 8, 2012


1648: a small village in the Alps. In the thick of a blizzard, a town priest discovers he's been poisoned. As numbness creeps up his body, he summons the last of his strength, scratching a sign in the frost that will lead the town hangman, his daughter, the physician, and the priest’s feisty recently arrived sister on a scavenger hunt for the treasure of the Knights Templars. But the priest's murderer is already on their trail, and he’s not the only one after the legendary fortune: a dark monk is not far behind, and a band of thieves is roving the countryside, attacking solitary travelers and spreading panic. The race is on, and the stakes are high. Recalling The Name of the Rose and The Da Vinci Code, The Dark Monk takes readers on a whirlwind tour through the occult hiding places of Bavaria’s ancient monasteries.



Abdication by Juliet Nicolson. US release May 8, 2012.


From critically acclaimed historian Juliet Nicolson comes a glorious debut novel set in 1936 London about secrecy, tumultuous love, and a king and his subjects torn between public duty and private desire. The Second World War looms in a world that dreads another international conflict, and England is full of secrets, not least of which is the affair the newly proclaimed King is having with an American divorcÉe. But not every confidence involves royalty. The lovely young chauffeur May Thomas and the complex Oxford undergraduate Julian Richardson share an undeclared love, while the identity of May’s real father remains mysterious. Mrs. Cage, the housekeeper, desperately tries to keep her Nazi-sympathies hidden, and Evangeline Nettlefold’s ambivalent relationship with her school friend Wallis Simpson threatens to become explosive.

Secrecy, tensions between parent and child, the private tussles of life, and the dilemma of whether or not duty supersedes love, reverberate throughout Abdication, in matters of social conscience, politics, and romance.

A glorious story that brings to mind the film The King’s Speech, as well as the beloved English novels Brideshead Revisited and The Remains of the Day, Abdication is a breathtaking story inspired by a love affair that shook the world at a time when the world was on the brink of war.



Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon.  UK release January 19, 2012 (reposted with cover)

In this sweeping epic set in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, a rogue French knight named Vallon accepts a dangerous commission: he must travel to the ends of Europe in search of four rare gyrfalcons demanded as ransom for a Norman knight held captive by Seljuk Turks in Anatolia. Accompanied by a young English falconer and a Sicilian scholar, Vallon sets out on a quest that takes him from Iceland to Greenland to Russia and south to Byzantium. On the nine-month journey the company is joined by other adventurers. Together they brave raging seas, icy arctic wastes, treacherous rapids. They fight furious battles against Normans, Vikings and steppe nomads, pit their wits against warlords desperate to steal their precious cargo. And these are not the only perils they face, for among their company is a man who will stop at nothing to prevent them from fulfilling their quest. At more than 200,000 words, Hawk Quest is one of the most vast, utterly thrilling historical adventures ever written.



Thomas Wyatt by Susan Brigdan. Non-fiction. UK release May 17, 2012.


Thomas Wyatt (1503?–1542) was the first modern voice in English poetry. ‘Chieftain’ of a ‘new company of courtly makers’, he brought the Italian poetic Renaissance to England, but was also revered as prophet-poet of the Reformation. His poetry holds a mirror to the secret, capricious world of Henry VIII’s court, and alludes darkly to events which it might be death to describe. In the Tower, twice, Wyatt was betrayed and betrayer.

Aspiring to honesty, he was driven to secrets and lies as an agent of Henry’s crooked diplomacy, and forced to live with the moral and mortal consequences of his complex allegiances. This remarkable new biography is more – and less – than a Life, for Wyatt is so often elusive, in flight, like his Petrarchan lover, into the ‘heart’s forest’. Rather, it is an evocation of Wyatt among his friends, and enemies, at princely courts in England, Italy, France and Spain, or alone in contemplative retreat. Wyatt’s life provides a way of examining a deep questioning at the beginning of the Renaissance and Reformation in England. Above all, Susan Brigden’s kaleidoscopic work is attuned to Wyatt’s dissonant voice and broken lyre, the paradox within him of inwardness and the will to ‘make plain’ his heart, all of which make him exceptionally difficult to know – and fascinating to explore.


City of Fools by Michael Jecks. UK release June 7, 2012.

It’s 1327 and England is in turmoil. Edward II has been removed from the throne and his son installed in his place. Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, tasked with guarding Edward II, has failed and now rides to Exeter to inform the sheriff of the old king’s escape

In Exeter, the sheriff has problems of his own. Overnight, the body of a young maid has been discovered, lying bloodied and abandoned in a dirty alleyway. The city’s gates had been shut against the lawlessness outside, so the perpetrator must still lie within the sanctuary of the town.

When Baldwin de Furnshill arrives, he is tasked with uncovering the truth behind this gruesome murder. But, in a city where every man hides a secret, his task will be far from easy…



The Gilded Lily by Deborah Swift. UK release September 13, 2012.

A Winter of Snow and Ice 1661

Timid Sadie Appleby has always lived in her small village. One night she is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella, who has robbed her employer and is on the run. The girls flee their rural home of Westmorland to head for London, hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man's relatives are in hot pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse begins. Ella is soon obsessed with the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on flamboyant man-about-town, Jay Whitgift. But nothing is what it seems - not even Jay Whitgift. Can Sadie survive a fugitive's life in the big city? But even more pressing, can she survive life with her older sister Ella?

Set in London's atmospheric coffee houses, the rich mansions of Whitehall, and the pawnshops, slums and rookeries hidden from rich men's view, The Gilded Lily is about beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how sisterhood can be both a burden and a saving grace.

It has been a couple of years since Sharon Kay Penman released a book and her latest, which recounts the story of England’s Richard I and the Third Crusade, has to be the most highly anticipated historical fiction book of the year. I love Penman’s books – especially The Sunne in Splendour and Here Be Dragons (which remains my favorite book of all time) so I was thrilled to receive a review copy.

And now, I’m about to commit the ultimate in historical fiction blasphemy - I didn’t love it.

Any book about Richard and the crusade would be expected to be heavy on the battle scenes and that is certainly the case here. In fact, the vast majority of the books 600 pages are dedicated to a never-ending litany of battles with only the date and place to distinguish them. Throughout the story, Penman provides snippets of the women in Richard’s life – his sister Joanna and his wife Berengaria – and I thought those were some of the more enjoyable parts of the novel, providing a nice break from all of the fighting and killing. But be warned, you will never look at your Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey the same way…

One of the author’s strengths is the detail and attention paid to researching the historical record and incorporating it into her story. But while her previous books take the historical information and weave it into the story, here, it is the story. And for a novel, that is not necessarily a good thing. Just as I have been disappointed by some novels not having enough historical detail, here, I felt overwhelmed by it. The book covers a time period of slightly more than three years and though it suffers from some of the same plodding that I thought plagued Time and Chance (with the Thomas Beckett storyline), Lionheart never fully recovers and lacks any real energy.

In her “Author’s Note", Penman talks about the wealth of sources that she found related to the crusade, including one that was a field diary of sorts and its use in constructing the storyline is evident. But it seems that in her zeal to tell the whole story of Richard’s crusade, Penman literally told the whole story and included every little event and skirmish she found no matter how mundane.  It's almost like having found all of this information she was reluctant to let any of it go to waste and I was disappointed that someone of Penman's caliber fell victim to it. And while some of it was interesting, the sheer volume and repetitiveness of it drags down what should have been a fast paced and exciting story and at times it read more like a history book. I think there must be a real skill in being able to write a battle heavy story and manage to keep it fresh, exciting and moving along – Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles is an example of how this can be done well.

So, given all of that, you might be surprised at my rating but the reason for that is simple: in less capable hands, this would have been a real mess and I likely wouldn’t have finished it. When it comes to actual writing, few can match Penman – the imagery puts you in the middle of every scene and her dialogue is realistic, lively and witty. For most of the novel Richard didn’t really do anything for me - I didn't find him engaging at all and it was some of the secondary characters that actually captured my attention and had me wanting to know "what happens next".  But towards the end, as Richard battles his inner demons and tries to balance his emotional dedication to the crusade with logic and reality, the man that history has exalted to a legendary status evolved into something more human. Penman also has the extraordinary ability to capture the heart and soul of a relationship – whether it is between spouses, siblings, parents and children, or kings and nobles - and I would have liked to have seen more of that side of Richard rather than so much emphasis and detail on the actual fighting.

Here Be Dragons this is not.  Not even close.



In case the FTC asks: Review copy via Library Thing’s Early Review Program

Dark of the Moon by Tracy Barrett.  Young Adult.  US and UK release September 20, 2011.

Ariadne is destined to become a goddess of the moon. She leads a lonely life, filled with hours of rigorous training by stern priestesses. Her former friends no longer dare to look at her, much less speak to her. All that she has left are her mother and her beloved, misshapen brother Asterion, who must be held captive below the palace for his own safety.


So when a ship arrives one spring day, bearing a tribute of slaves from Athens, Ariadne sneaks out to meet it. These newcomers don’t know the ways of Krete; perhaps they won’t be afraid of a girl who will someday be a powerful goddess. And indeed she meets Theseus, the son of the king of Athens. Ariadne finds herself drawn to the newcomer, and soon they form a friendship—one that could perhaps become something more.

Yet Theseus is doomed to die as an offering to the Minotaur, that monster beneath the palace—unless he can kill the beast first. And that "monster" is Ariadne’s brother . . .



Columbus:  The Four Voyages by Laurence Bergreen. Non-fiction.  US and UK release September 20, 2011.
From the author of the Magellan biography, Over the Edge of the World, a mesmerizing new account of the great explorer.


Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China, and his unexpected landfall in the Americas, is a watershed event in world history. Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. These later voyages were even more adventurous, violent, and ambiguous, but they revealed Columbus's uncanny sense of the sea, his mingled brilliance and delusion, and his superb navigational skills. In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor. By their conclusion, however, Columbus was broken in body and spirit. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs- political, moral, and economic.

In rich detail Laurence Bergreen re-creates each of these adventures as well as the historical background of Columbus's celebrated, controversial career. Written from the participants' vivid perspectives, this breathtakingly dramatic account will be embraced by readers of Bergreen's previous biographies of Marco Polo and Magellan and by fans of Nathaniel Philbrick, Simon Winchester, and Tony Horwitz.




Mary I:  England's Catholic Queen by John Edwards.  Non-fiction.  US and UK release September 22, 2011.

The lifestory of Mary I—daughter of Henry VIII and his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon—is often distilled to a few dramatic episodes: her victory over the attempted coup by Lady Jane Grey, the imprisonment of her half-sister Elizabeth, the bloody burning of Protestants, her short marriage to Philip of Spain. This original and deeply researched biography paints a far more detailed portrait of Mary and offers a fresh understanding of her religious faith and policies as well as her historical significance in England and beyond.


John Edwards, a leading scholar of English and Spanish history, is the first to make full use of Continental archives in this context, especially Spanish ones, to demonstrate how Mary's culture, Catholic faith, and politics were thoroughly Spanish. Edwards begins with Mary's origins, follows her as she battles her increasingly erratic father, and focuses particular attention on her notorious religious policies, some of which went horribly wrong from her point of view. The book concludes with a consideration of Mary's five-year reign and the frustrations that plagued her final years. Childless, ill, deserted by her husband, Mary died in the full knowledge that her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth would undo her religious work and, without acknowledging her sister, would reap the benefits of Mary's achievements in government.

The romantic ruins of Kenilworth (from 2010)