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What Are You Reading? November 2011

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scubachick420
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Posts: 26
Joined: December 2008

Post by scubachick420 » Mon November 21st, 2011, 12:17 pm

Finished "Between Two Queens" by Kate Emerson and "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin - excellent, well written mystery about 2 friends - black/white in Mississippi.

Now reading : "Prince of Eden" by Marilyn Harris

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EC2
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Joined: August 2008
Location: Nottingham UK
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Post by EC2 » Mon November 21st, 2011, 5:44 pm

The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas - enjoying.
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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MLE (Emily Cotton)
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3566
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
Location: California Bay Area

Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Mon November 21st, 2011, 6:41 pm

I'm just starting Lady of the English; bogged down about half-way through Island of the Swans. I may yet be surprised, but it feels too darn predictable.

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Leyland
Bibliophile
Posts: 1042
Joined: August 2008
Location: Travelers Rest SC

Post by Leyland » Mon November 21st, 2011, 8:08 pm

Twenty or so pages into Mary Gentle's Ash and am very intrigued so far. Her descriptive writing style is very much to my liking.
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams ~ Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Ode

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sweetpotatoboy
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Joined: August 2008
Location: London, UK

Post by sweetpotatoboy » Mon November 21st, 2011, 8:22 pm

Just started Mémoires d'Hadrien by Marguerite Yourcenar

annis
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Post by annis » Tue November 22nd, 2011, 7:17 am

Posted by Leyland
Twenty or so pages into Mary Gentle's Ash and am very intrigued so far. Her descriptive writing style is very much to my liking.
Goodness me, I haven't thought about Mary Gentle for ages. I was a fan way back in the day, and I still have a copy of her White Crow series somewhere on my overflowing bookshelves. Gentle is very hard to categorize- her novels are an eclectic mix of alternate history, fantasy and sci-fi, and she loves her strong, soldierly heroines, who are probably a reflection of the strong feminist feeling which was prevalent in the seventies when she started writing.

Authors like Liz Williams have picked up her mantle to a degree, though Williams doesn't use the alternate historical aspect so much.

SCW
Avid Reader
Posts: 286
Joined: October 2010
Preferred HF: Lately World Two or the time immediately before and after this period
Location: Australia

Post by SCW » Tue November 22nd, 2011, 10:23 am

Thanks for the recommendations about novels concerning the Gunpowder Plot and priests in Elizabethan England. I've just ordered Evelyn Waugh's biography of Edmund Campion to read.

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TiciaRoma
Reader
Posts: 149
Joined: October 2011
Location: Alexandria, VA

Post by TiciaRoma » Tue November 22nd, 2011, 1:04 pm

Just started The Stolen Crown.

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Leyland
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Joined: August 2008
Location: Travelers Rest SC

Post by Leyland » Tue November 22nd, 2011, 1:23 pm

[quote=""annis""]
Authors like Liz Williams have picked up her mantle to a degree, though Williams doesn't use the alternate historical aspect so much.[/quote]

I haven't read much alternate history to date and hardly read sci-fi as much as I do fantasy, but I'm enjoying Mary Gentle's version of medieval Europe so far. Oh, I feel like I'm there in a very rough place! I like strong female characters like Ash as long as they aren't created to go over the top on a feminist soap box. Gentle is definitely a new reading experience for me. And thanks for heads up on Williams.
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams ~ Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Ode

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Vanessa
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Posts: 4378
Joined: August 2008
Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
Preferred HF: Any
Location: North Yorkshire, UK

Post by Vanessa » Tue November 22nd, 2011, 9:56 pm

I'm just about to start The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona MacLean, a thriller set in Scotland in 1620.
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads

Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind

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