Yes Duchess, you should always choose carefully when taking a book on a high-powered business trip.

Righio, I’m having a rest from the Tudor world and I’m going to give Steve Barry’s The Amber Room a go. I really enjoyed his book The Romanov Prophecy, which presented a possible explanation of what happened to Alexei and Anastasia. Sadly, as I discovered when I went to do further learning the book was written before the discovery of the final 2 missing Romanov bodies. Reading the discovery of the two bodies made me a little sad. Still didn’t take away the fact it was a fine thriller. I tried to read his Templar Legacy book but it didn’t grip me, mainly because I think the Templars don;’t interest me or I just don’t understand their concept. So I gave up on that. Since The Amber Room is dealing with Russian History I’m hoping it will interest me more, plus I’m pretty clueless on the mystery of The Amber Room. So far I have read 28 pages and it is an easy read and has potential. What I like most about the author is that he doesn’t try to make his books appear to be true unlike other authors. He is quite happy to say he has taken history as inspiration for his piece of fiction.

I finished the Summons but well before I reached the end I had worked it out. Not a book I would recommend to anyone. I will try some of his other stuff though as suggested on here.
I have tried to get into book group read for this month but hard work or what? Invisible by Paul Auster, oh dear! still I will persevere.Yesterday I picked up an old book for 50p at the local hospice charity shop. Queen Elizabeth by JE Neale (Bedford History Series)
It is a lovely hard back with very tatty paper cover. There are some nice photos in it too so I will be having a look at it later today. I love that on the cover which is blue there is an imprinted gold stamp of Elizabeth’s private badge which of course is the crowned falcon etc of her mother.

I read John Grisham’s “The Associate,” which is okay, but not one of his best.

I tried and failed to finish “Macbeth: the true story” by Fiona Watson. I was so excited about a book about the real-life Macbeth. However, I felt the book was more of a general history of pre-mediveval England, and the role of Celtic Christianity. Macbeth did not really appear until chapter 6, and even then he was a vauge figure. I tossed the book aside after chapter 7. I could not longer take it!

I am now reading Anne Barnhill’s “At the Mercy of the Queen.” I’ve heard great things about it, and it has started off great. I look forward to the read.

I finished The Winter King. I really liked it. There wasn’t a whole lot of new info in it, but I did learn a bit more about Henry VII. For instance I didn’t realize how sick he was from 1503 (when Elizabeth died) until his death. From what I read, Henry VIII was chomping at the bit do get out from under his father’s shadow. Not that I didn’t know that, but it really comes out in this book. And I learned about Empson and Dudley. They were extortionists, but were they traitors? I’m not so sure.

Duchess, I read Anne Barnhill’s, “At The Mercy of the Queen.” I think you will really enjoy it.

Bill1978 said

Righio, I’m having a rest from the Tudor world and I’m going to give Steve Barry’s The Amber Room a go. I really enjoyed his book The Romanov Prophecy, which presented a possible explanation of what happened to Alexei and Anastasia. Sadly, as I discovered when I went to do further learning the book was written before the discovery of the final 2 missing Romanov bodies. Reading the discovery of the two bodies made me a little sad. Still didn’t take away the fact it was a fine thriller. I tried to read his Templar Legacy book but it didn’t grip me, mainly because I think the Templars don;’t interest me or I just don’t understand their concept. So I gave up on that. Since The Amber Room is dealing with Russian History I’m hoping it will interest me more, plus I’m pretty clueless on the mystery of The Amber Room. So far I have read 28 pages and it is an easy read and has potential. What I like most about the author is that he doesn’t try to make his books appear to be true unlike other authors. He is quite happy to say he has taken history as inspiration for his piece of fiction.

I read the Kindle sample for Massey’s Peter the Great as well as his Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, and I’m ready to read both. I’ve always been fascinated by Russian history — I don’t know it as well as I do English history (I’ve been an Anglophile since I was about 7 or 8), but these two are so fascinating to me that I can’t resist. From the samplers alone I found out that a very young Peter witnessed the massacre of both relatives and his mother’s allies (including an old man who was considered a beloved Russian) when a group of so-called “musketeers” or “bodyguards to the Czar” went on a rampage. I also have learned more about Catherine (and the Empress Elizabeth) in roughly 40 e-pages than I’ve ever known. (Unfortunately, some people want to dwell on Catherine loving men, men, men and of course Potemkin to the disregard of every other aspect of her life). So I’m tempted to tackle both those books too. Since you mentioned that about The Amber Room and Alexei and Anastasia, you might check Robert Massey’s book lists — I believe he’s written one on the final chapter of the Romanov mystery which likely carries the reader through the DNA analysis of all the remains. Seems like he wrote two books after his famous Nicholas and Alexandra, so check the dates and see which one is the most recent.

Sometimes I go off the Tudors and find myself drifting towards the Romanovs to get a dose of them. I still don’t find them as fascinating as Henry VIII or Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth, but sometimes I can’t resist.

I am almost ashamed to admit that I just finished reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. I just wanted to know what all the hubbub was about.

And now I kind of don’t know what to read. I’m sort of working on several, but I can’t get into any of them.

I am also ashamed to admit that I haven’t read Wolf Hall yet and I know I need to because I want to read Bring Up the Bodies, but it doesn’t make much sense to read the sequel first–now does it? But, alas, my Kindle budget is non-existent this month. I might have to actually visit the library (and finally get a Georgia library card…).

I finished Anne Barnhill’s book “At the Mercy of the Queen” awhile back, and loved it! It is a fantastic book that brought to life an interesting and empathetic Anne. Madge Shelton was a wonderful guide into the private world of the Tudor court, and into the presence of the great Anne Boleyn!

I’ve recently read Penny Starns’s “Odette: World War II’s Darling Spy.” It’s short, but good. The information is based upon Odette’s released SOE files.

Elly Griffiths recently released her latest Ruth Galloway novel “A Room Full of Bone.” Not as good as the first two novels in the series, but still an enjoyable read.

The best book I’ve read in awhile was Stacy Schiff’s “Cleopatra: A Life.” WOW! Schiff is to Cleopatra what Ives is to Anne Boleyn. She brought to life a much maligned Queen, who like Anne, suffers the posterity of myth. Schiff takes the source material and weaves a story of a powerful, intelligent, formibable woman, unafraid of Rome. Her story is both moving and inspiring. As I was reading, there were parts that could have been about Anne. There are certain aspects of their lives which mirror each other. I highly recommened this book. It is Cleoparta’s definitive biography.

There’s a few reviews on Goodreads Bill, I’ve put one up and so has Claire. Fantastic book, although it’s quite different that Weir’s book.

Well I’ve just re read The King’s secret matter, by Jean Plaidy, now and again it does the brain good to have a bit of a rest from the factual reading matter. Right now I’ve just started to read Secrets of the Tudor Court by Darsey Bonnette, I’ve only read the first few pages so I can’t really make any comment on it at the moment.
I have also read Mary and Elizabeth by Emily Purdy, It was ok. I guess there must have been some sort of affection between Mary and Elizabeth when they were younger after all they only really had each other for comfort, but I think they both knew that religion would always be a strumbling block to actually having a true sister to sister relationship. I suppose their relationship with each other could be classed as tolerable but not without issues.
Certainly I feel that Mary’s relationship in real life with Philip was a love hate relationship, Mary loved him passionately but he hated her with a vengence, and yes I’m inclined to think that he did clout her one from time to time.
After I’d finished it I did feel a lot of sympathy for Mary she thought that she was doing what was right for her country and her people, but she wasn’t prepared to be flexible in her religious views. Elizabeth allowed the Catholics to have their smells and bells as long as they excepted that she was head of the Church, and because of it she ruled quite peacefully except for the odd hiccup. Perhaps if Mary had done the same she wouldn’t have gone to her grave knowing the the whole country hated her and was glad she was dead. I think the people started to turn from her when she executed Lady Jane, the poor girl was just an innocent victim in a masterminded plot by her father in law. Mary could have sent her to a convent secretly where no one knew or cared who she was just as long as she followed the religious way of life. Not to sure what she could do with Guildford though, but I suppose she could have got Philip to enlist him in his army. Robert Dudley didn’t do too badly from doing that.

Anyway I’ll let you know how the latest book turns out…