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What Are You Reading? July 2012

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.
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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) » Fri July 6th, 2012, 8:36 pm

I have been lured away from Through a Glass Darkly (nothing wrong with it, just didn't strike my mood at the moment) into reading Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset. It won a Pulitzer, after all, and I've never read it. A nice, sweet read with the aroma of a different literary time as well as different national traditions.

And also picked up a used copy of Dissolution and find myself sucked in. This is my first Sansom.

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EC2
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Posts: 3661
Joined: August 2008
Location: Nottingham UK
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Post by EC2 » Fri July 6th, 2012, 10:39 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]I'm pretty much to the point of staying far, far away from books labeled literary and praised for their gorgeous writing. I never can find a story, just lots of pretty words...

[/quote]

I do really enjoy literary on occasion, but need to be in the mood, and I guess my preference is for literary lite rather than the full on tough stuff. I think if I'd known more Shakespeare I might have stayed on board, but I lost my staying power.
I have the new Barbara Erskine courtesy of Amazon Vine, the new Barbara Erskine, and also the new JoJo Moyes, so I have plenty to go at once I've finished my down and dirty read of Cox!
MLE, I love Sansom's novels. I really enjoyed Dissolution, but I actually think he ups his game from there, so more to look forward to.
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
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Joined: August 2008

Post by annis » Sat July 7th, 2012, 2:50 am

Continuing with my re-read of Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy. What a joy to find an old favourite which is even better than I remembered, rather than the more usual disappointment! Lee has the observant, visionary eye of an artist and his lyrical prose is both sharp and unsentimental yet wonderfully evocative. Have just finished Book 2, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, in which 19-year-old Lee ("still soft at the edges") leaves his rural Cotswolds home, walks to London and on a whim decides to go to Spain. With not much more than a change of clothes and his violin, he walks the country from coast to coast, busking to support himself. As a vivid picture of Spain in the 1930s just before the Spanish Civil War, this memoir would be hard to beat.
Last edited by annis on Sun July 8th, 2012, 5:56 pm, edited 11 times in total.

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Vanessa
Bibliomaniac
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 » Sat July 7th, 2012, 9:01 am

Cuckoo by Julia Crouch
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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Susan
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Joined: August 2008
Location: New Jersey, USA

Post by Susan » Sat July 7th, 2012, 8:49 pm

A YA book...the second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. A lot of my students love this series and I am a sucker for Greek mythology plus I got it free as an ebook from my library.
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

User avatar
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) » Sat July 7th, 2012, 9:59 pm

[quote=""Susan""]A YA book...the second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan. A lot of my students love this series and I am a sucker for Greek mythology plus I got it free as an ebook from my library.[/quote]
I have a young friend who is pestering me to read the first of this series. I'd better get on with it -- I owe him for being a test reader for a YA story of mine, and he earned it with some very useful criticism.

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rockygirl
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Location: Upstate New York

Post by rockygirl » Sat July 7th, 2012, 10:36 pm

Rick Riordan is terrific. After you're done with the Percy Jackson series, try one of his other series. He's finished a trilogy about the Egyptian goods and working his way through a series on the Roman gods (which has connections to Percy).

Like you, my students got me turned on to these books. I can't wait until my niece and nephew are old enough to read them.
Currently reading Cocaine Blues.

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rockygirl
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Location: Upstate New York

Post by rockygirl » Sat July 7th, 2012, 10:38 pm

Taking time off from An Enduring Love to read Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, which came in the mail yesterday.
Currently reading Cocaine Blues.

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Susan
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Post by Susan » Sun July 8th, 2012, 12:27 am

[quote=""rockygirl""]Rick Riordan is terrific. After you're done with the Percy Jackson series, try one of his other series. He's finished a trilogy about the Egyptian goods and working his way through a series on the Roman gods (which has connections to Percy).

Like you, my students got me turned on to these books. I can't wait until my niece and nephew are old enough to read them.[/quote]

Thanks for the heads up on his other series. I'm going to keep reserving one of his books on elibrary New Jersey. I know if these book had been around when my kids were actually kids that they would have read them.
~Susan~
~Unofficial Royalty~
Royal news updated daily, information and discussion about royalty past and present
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/

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rockygirl
Avid Reader
Posts: 349
Joined: August 2010
Location: Upstate New York

Post by rockygirl » Mon July 9th, 2012, 5:53 am

Tried reading Daughter of York for about an hour today. It's been on my TBR pile forever. It didn't grab me--it's going to the Literacy Volunteers tomorrow.
Currently reading Cocaine Blues.

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