What are you reading? May 2011

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Thu May 5th, 2011, 2:03 am

I've finished "Gilded: How Newport Became America's Richest Resort" by Deborah Davis (282pgs, 2009). A quick enjoyable read, very gossipy, and fascinating.

SM

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu May 5th, 2011, 2:27 am

Working on The Constant Princess by PG for an upcoming group read at Goodreds. It is not going well

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Thu May 5th, 2011, 3:27 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]Working on The Constant Princess by PG for an upcoming group read at Goodreds. It is not going well

[/quote]

Yeah, I was disappointed when the GR folks chose that one. It thought it was only "meh" in terms of story and less than that in terms of writing.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu May 5th, 2011, 4:04 pm

[quote=""fljustice""]Yeah, I was disappointed when the GR folks chose that one. It thought it was only "meh" in terms of story and less than that in terms of writing.[/quote]

Although it should make for livelier discussions

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Thu May 5th, 2011, 8:40 pm

Started Ben Kane's Forgotten Legion a couple of days ago. So far, so good. Haven't had a lot of reading time lately while working on a WIP.

princess garnet · Post by **princess garnet** » Fri May 6th, 2011, 1:50 am

Madonna of the Seven Hills by Jean Plaidy
Quite a bit of family drama before Lucrezia's first marriage!

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Fri May 6th, 2011, 1:52 am

Fortune's Wheel by Rhoda Edwards. R3 and Anne Neville.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri May 6th, 2011, 2:34 am

I've finished "1000 Years of Annoying the French" by Stephen Clarke (520pgs, 2010)*. A very interesting book, amusing at times. But the author did disappoint me with his shoddy British History.
The 3 I noticed were:
Pg 28: Says that a man named Eustace II, Count of Boulogne was married to a woman named Godgifu who was the daughter of Edward the Confessor (!?), but actually he was married to Goda, the daughter of Æthelred the Unready and Edward's sister!

Pg 35: Says that Henry I's wife, Matilda, was the sister of Edgar the Atheling. She wasn't, her parents were Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret, Edgar was the son of Edward the Exile, son of King Edmund II Ironside.

Pg 36: Says Henry I told his daughter Matilda (Maud) that she couldn't become Queen of England because of her gender. Point of fact Henry WANTED Matilda to inherit the throne and made his courtiers and such to swear an oath to it a few times.

As far as I know those are the only mistakes in the book but then my grasp of French history isn't as strong, and the fact that I was reading a book on Henry I at the same time at one point helped me notice those three mistakes.

Not a BF book.

SM

javagirl · Post by **javagirl** » Fri May 6th, 2011, 3:42 am

I finished The Scarlet Seed, last in the Heaven Tree Trilogy and it was great. Now I've started my first Georgette Heyer - "Frederica". 55 pages in and it has really grabbed me yet.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Fri May 6th, 2011, 9:28 am

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]I've finished "1000 Years of Annoying the French" by Stephen Clarke (520pgs, 2010)*. A very interesting book, amusing at times. But the author did disappoint me with his shoddy British History.

SM[/quote]

When I find mistakes like that, I tend to put the book down because it makes me wonder what else they've got wrong. I had to ditch Frank McClynn's Lionheart and Lackland because of wrong names and statements coming out of left field. I don't know if it improved after the first 50 pages because I was unable to read on - I didn't trust the guy.