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What Are You Reading? August 2013

For discussions of historical fiction. Threads that do not relate to historical fiction should be started in the Chat forum or elsewhere on the forum, depending on the topic.
JenniferLovesRoxi
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Joined: May 2013

Post by JenniferLovesRoxi » Wed August 7th, 2013, 11:00 pm

I started reading The Bloodletter's Daughter by Linda Lafferty and I am quite pleasantly surprised.

I have read a lot of HF set in England this year (as usual) and I wanted to read something set in an area I had never read anything about.

Just yesterday I was doing some TagMashes on LibraryThing looking for HF set in Germany through about the 1600s and came up with very little of interest.

So I browsed my Calibre library this morning and for some reason this book caught my eye out of the 1403 books I have in there.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I started reading this book and it is set in Germany, Bohemia and other areas of the Holy Roman Empire. PLUS, I started a thread on here a month or so ago looking for books that portrayed mental illness in the Middle Ages and this book is about an insane illegitimate son of the Holy Roman Emperor and a murder he apparently committed that threatened to bring down the entire Holy Roman Empire.

Needless to say, I am thrilled to have found this book and at only 10% of the way in, I am loving it.
Last edited by JenniferLovesRoxi on Thu August 8th, 2013, 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Nefret
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Joined: February 2009
Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
Location: Temple of Isis

Post by Nefret » Thu August 8th, 2013, 3:52 am

Lady Macbeth by Susan F. King (watching Brave again put me in a mood for Scotland)
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

annis
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Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Fri August 9th, 2013, 5:59 pm

Started reading Victoria Lamb's His Dark Lady, before discovering that it is the second in a trilogy and I really need to read Book 1 (The Queen's Secret) first, so have put it aside.

Wish the library cataloguers were better at identifying and numbering series titles - it's a constant bugbear of mine :(

Now reading The History of Ancient Britain by the lovely Neil Oliver (a NF accompaniment to the BBC Two TV series of the same name), and Peter Brett's Demon Cycle series (fantasy).

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sweetpotatoboy
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Joined: August 2008
Location: London, UK

Post by sweetpotatoboy » Fri August 9th, 2013, 6:18 pm

Have started "Habits of the House" by Fay Weldon, the first in a trilogy clearly inspired by Dowton Abbey...
So far I can see it will be somewhat entertaining but not too impressive...

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EC2
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Location: Nottingham UK
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Post by EC2 » Sat August 10th, 2013, 11:16 am

Finished The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Mary Renault does it a lot better IMO. Patroclus and Achilles didn't feel like young men from the culture of Ancient Greece to me.

Now reading Crusader Knight by Ronald Welch - darned good it is too!
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Nefret
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Posts: 2994
Joined: February 2009
Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
Location: Temple of Isis

Post by Nefret » Sat August 10th, 2013, 1:15 pm

Song of Achilles is one of my library books.


I'm reading Queen Hereafter by Susan Fraser King
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}

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EC2
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Location: Nottingham UK
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Post by EC2 » Sat August 10th, 2013, 4:31 pm

[quote=""Nefret""]Song of Achilles is one of my library books.


[/quote]

I'd borrowed it from the library too. I'll be interested to know what you think.
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

annis
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 4585
Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Sat August 10th, 2013, 6:05 pm

Posted by EC2
Finished The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Mary Renault does it a lot better IMO. Patroclus and Achilles didn't feel like young men from the culture of Ancient Greece to me.
My main problem with this novel, too. If anyone wants to add their thoughts, I reviewed it on this forum here:
http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... php?t=5095
Now reading Crusader Knight by Ronald Welch - darned good it is too!
Has this been reissued? Welch's YA books are rare these days and extremely expensive to buy, but would certainly merit a reissue imo. THey follow members of the same family with a history of military service through the ages.

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EC2
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Post by EC2 » Sat August 10th, 2013, 7:10 pm

[quote=""annis""]Posted by EC2


My main problem with this novel, too. If anyone wants to add their thoughts, I reviewed it on this forum here:
http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... php?t=5095



Has this been reissued? Welch's YA books are rare these days and extremely expensive to buy, but would certainly merit a reissue imo. THey follow members of the same family with a history of military service through the ages.[/quote]

I've answered my thoughts on The Song of Achilles on your review Annis

Yes, the Welch book has been reissued. I obtained it via Amazon Vine's Last Harvest section in YA bit. It's great. I'm loving it. I've come across a few historical anomalies or places where the accepted history has changed, but nothing to turn me off the novel. Someone said on goodreads that it wasn't well researched but I beg to differ. I keep findings bits from all sorts of chronicles in the story and I keep thinking 'Aha, I know where he got that from!' Heading for a 5 star at the moment. :-)
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

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Berengaria
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Joined: July 2010
Location: northern Vancouver Island, BC Canada

Post by Berengaria » Sat August 10th, 2013, 7:30 pm

Just finished Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian. It takes place in the middle 40's and 1955 around Florence, Italy. I enjoyed the double narrative and learning about WW II in Italy. I did not put the book down! :)
Image My 4 girls!


“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.” ~Lady Montagu

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