What are you reading? May 2012

[Susan]

I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince by Rosanne E. Lortz because I feel like reading a short book.

[SGM]

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


I've got this on order. I enjoyed Kristian's vivid and vigorous writing style when I read his Raven series and read a postive review of BL at the Historical Novel Society site. This is a radical shift in period for him.[/quote]

Maybe the Raven setting suited him. All I can say is he doesn't seem to have understood the social context and the episodes he creates are to, quote an old friend "Good and original -- the good bits aren't original and the original bits aren't good".

I bet that if Brilliana Harley knew how often her stand against the Royalists would appear in historical fiction, she would have given up the fight within an hour. I have seen it all so many times in Civil War fiction, some better than others.

His rendition of the battle might be good if you go for that sort of thing, I can't say as far as that is concerned because it's the causes and the consequences of war that I find interesting. The details of the actual fighting to do nothing for me apart from making me deploring the futility and the horror.

I can't swear I am correct in this but I know that the term "crypto-Catholic" is the term we use today but I am not at all sure it was the term they were using then. It just sounds like he is regurgitating his research and dropping in "buzz" phrases.

But, of course, I could be wrong.

And I am very disappointed. I was hoping for good things from this writer.

[SCW]

Just finished The Reckoning by Sharon Penman. (and I'm feeling rather teary as a result)
Has Lionheart come out yet in Australia? I wouldn't mind reading that next.

[fljustice]

Starting Hollywood Buzz by Margit Liesche; a HNS freebie from last summer. Not really my type of book, but I'm pushing my comfort zones.

[annis]

Posted by SCW

Has Lionheart come out yet in Australia? I wouldn't mind reading that next.

It's on the shelves of bookstores here in New Zealand, and we're usually the end of the line

[rebecca]

[quote=""SCW""]Just finished The Reckoning by Sharon Penman. (and I'm feeling rather teary as a result)
Has Lionheart come out yet in Australia? I wouldn't mind reading that next.[/quote]

I saw the paperback version in Big W stores a few weeks back. So it is here

Bec

[rebecca]

Oops forgot to add.

Mrs Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill N/F. I just feel like a break from H/F.

Bec

[Madeleine]

I'm now also reading "Dark Side" by Belinda Bauer, modern crime set on Exmoor.

[Brenna]

Finished Penn's The Winter King about Henry VII. There was a lot of flip flopping around in the beginning, but the author seemed to get that under control by the end of the book.

Now reading Sister Queens about Katherine of Aragon and Juana. So far, so good.

[emr]

[quote=""annis""]Hurray, scored Slash and Burn, the latest in Colin Cotterill's Dr Siri series, before anyone else at the library spotted it. I'm sure I've raved on about these before. Not quite HF, (though getting scarily close to the 50 year mark) Colin Cotterill's wonderfully out there, quirky set of mysteries are set in Communist Laos in the mid-1970s. The main character is an elderly doctor appointed State Coroner due to lack of anyone else remotely suitable. (They've all hopped it over the Mekhong to capitalist Thailand). Dr Siri is an ornery old cuss who doesn't suffer politburo fools gladly, but is sharp as a tack, compassionate and possessed of a hilarious, dry sense of humour. Oh, and he is visited in his dreams by his "patients", who provide him with cryptic clues about their deaths. Fabulous stuff.[/quote]

Big thanks for the recommendation annis. This is lots of fun Reading now book #2 Thirty-Three Teeth. ("Did I mention I have thirty-three teeth?" omg looool)