"Doomed Queens" by Kris Waldherr (nonfiction)

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 5:13 am

"Doomed Queens" by Kris Waldherr is a good starter book for anyone interested in famous female royals and one non-royal (Evita). The royal women range from well known (Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey, Mary, Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette, Alexandra Romanov), to the relatively unknown, at least for most people (Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel (yes that one); Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great; Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra; Empress Wang of China, Urraca of Castile), and many others. Each chapter is 2 to 3 pages long and the writing is humorous. There are also side bits for explaining the various methods of death some of the queens died of, information about the "life" of some of the queens after their deaths, and other bits of information people may find interesting. At the end of each chapter is a quiz as well as one at the end of the book to determine if you are a Doomed Queen yourself.

Waldherr is not only the author she illustrates the book as well, and they are very interesting artworks, each one shows one of the women with some representation of death. For instance, the illustration of Mary Stuart shows her in front of Elizabeth I and Elizabeth is touching her with a skeletal hand. The only problem with this one illustration is that in the background it shows an execution scene, which most people will assume is Mary, but it's actually based on "The Execution of Lady Jane Grey" by George Cruikshank for W.H. Ainsworth's "The Tower of London".

The book, from what I can ascertain, is accurate for the most part, but she did say Louis XVI was the son of Louis XV, but he was his grandson.

SM

Carine · Post by **Carine** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 6:52 am

Sounds very interesting SonjaMarie, thanks for you review ! I'm going to have a look for this book at Amazon.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Fri December 5th, 2008, 6:56 am

[quote=""Carine""]Sounds very interesting SonjaMarie, thanks for you review ! I'm going to have a look for this book at Amazon.[/quote]

Thanks! I'm not that great at reviewing books but I'm glad you found it informative!

SM

eclecticreader10 · Post by **eclecticreader10** » Sat December 6th, 2008, 1:48 am

I found it at Costco, of all places! It was around $8.

cw gortner · Post by **cw gortner** » Sat December 6th, 2008, 3:05 am

There's a very funny entry in the book on Juana la Loca. I loved it

Catherine Delors · Post by **Catherine Delors** » Sat December 13th, 2008, 10:56 pm

I will post an interview of the author on my blog sometime next week. I loved the visuals of this book and yes, the information is generally accurate.

Catherine Delors · Post by **Catherine Delors** » Mon December 22nd, 2008, 9:15 pm

Here's the link to Kris's interview:

http://blog.catherinedelors.com/2008/12 ... dherr.aspx

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon December 22nd, 2008, 10:18 pm

[quote=""eclecticreader10""]I found it at Costco, of all places! It was around $8.[/quote]

Did you buy it at Costco recently?

tsjmom · Post by **tsjmom** » Tue December 23rd, 2008, 10:28 pm

This is one my TBR list!

Dani · Post by **Dani** » Sat January 3rd, 2009, 10:49 pm

Can any One tell me If Princess Diana is in this book at all i wanted to make sure I before I purchased it