What are you reading?

Leyland · Post by **Leyland** » Tue October 28th, 2008, 3:05 pm

[quote=""Ash""]Now reading Edgar Sawtelle, not HF, but a book many have recommended to me. The fact that the protaganist is unable to speak, and communicates in sign language, has certainly increased my interest.[/quote]
My mother just finished it and loved it. She has said several times she wished it hadn't ended and doesn't want to read anything at the moment because she knows she doesn't have a book in her TBR right now that can compare to how great a read Sawtelle was for her.

pat · Post by **pat** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 1:32 am

The Heretic Queen, by MM

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 7:11 am

I've finished "The Affair of the Poisons" by Frances Mossiker (written 1969), a very readable account of the Poisons Affair that haunted the court of Louis XIV in the late 1600s. There is another book about the Affair written by Anne Somerset in 2004 that I wish to read someday to compare and contrast how different or the same two books on the same subject written 35 years apart are.

SM

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 3:06 pm

Just this minute started Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin. Extremely like a copy of the Canterbury Tales prologue at the moment. Just at the intro to Henry II and his exchequer at Dover. Did they play billiards then with green baize boards? I suspect I am going to be struggling with the historical veracity of detail on this one - but then I know the period. If it was written in a different century, I'd probably not keep being yanked out of the story. Once it gets going I might become absorbed enough not to notice. We shall see.

Spitfire · Post by **Spitfire** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 3:49 pm

Started my first Pennman novel, Here Be Dragons...only read one chapter so far...but what an incredible start!

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 3:54 pm

[quote=""Spitfire""]Started my first Pennman novel, Here Be Dragons...only read one chapter so far...but what an incredible start![/quote]

You're in for a treat Spitfire. IMO it's her best one!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 4:56 pm

Just finished The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields.

amyb · Post by **amyb** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 4:59 pm

Just started a book sent to me by Sourcebooks for review: The Lady flees her Lord by Michele Ann Young. Cheesy cover, but seems good so far!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 4:59 pm

[quote=""EC2""]Just this minute started Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin. Extremely like a copy of the Canterbury Tales prologue at the moment. Just at the intro to Henry II and his exchequer at Dover. Did they play billiards then with green baize boards? I suspect I am going to be struggling with the historical veracity of detail on this one - but then I know the period. If it was written in a different century, I'd probably not keep being yanked out of the story. Once it gets going I might become absorbed enough not to notice. We shall see.[/quote]

Wikipedia says billiards was invented in the 15th century. Maybe the author knows different.

annis · Post by **annis** » Wed October 29th, 2008, 6:45 pm

Carla's right. Although there was an outdoor form of the game known as ground billiards played in Europe in the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries (still too early by a century or so for MOTATD), the first recorded instances of an indoor version date from the fifteenth century (the green cover is supposed to represent the grass of the outdoor version).

Diana Norman has spent a lot of time in the twelfth century (her earliest novels "Fitzempress' Law" and "King of the Last Days" are set in that period) so it's a bit surprising that she'd get it wrong.