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Thanks to my messed up time schedule, I’m awake early enough that I have some time to spend in the Salon. I spent yesterday traveling from the UK to the USA through France. It was a decent trip except for the hour we spent landing at the very end. I absolutely hate flying and I hate it even more when we’re not landing when I’ve been told we’ll land but flying around in circles in turbulent air dropping 100 feet at a time, especially when the pilot is communicating in French rather than also translating into English like he had been before. I need to learn more languages! Then my second suitcase took half an hour to turn up after I thought they’d finished with the baggage, which was very stressful. I always worry that they’ll have lost my things on a connecting flight but I escaped this time, albeit with a ripped suitcase. Never mind, I have my things and that’s all that matters.
I had four books on the flights with me, but I only managed to get through half of one, Moonheart by Charles de Lint. I’m not totally in love with it, but I like it quite a bit. I don’t normally bring books for review to read on my flights because I know I’ll be so stressed that I’ll have no chance of focusing. The rest of the reading I brought reflects this:
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Her Secret Fantasy by Gaelen Foley
So, with nearly 12 hours of traveling, why did I only read 300 pages? Easy, I was watching movies. I’m a little too poor to go to the cinema very frequently these days (although Keith’s unexpected bonus meant we went to see The Young Victoria last week!), so I always go for it when it comes to seeing movies like Slumdog Millionaire included in the price of my flight. I loved that one, by the way. I also watched Australia which was lovely but not exactly spectacular and just a little too long, so I can see the validity of its rating.
Today I’ll be reading Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn and very possibly Kitty Goes to Washington. The blog tour for the last two books, Kitty and the Dead Man’s Hand and Kitty Raises Hell will be stopping here on Wednesday. I’ve come home to 37 ARCs. I’m not behind on any of them yet but I need to get cracking. I also have 4 books to get through for my dissertation, need to study for my Latin and palaeography exams and at least think about my source analysis essay in the next two weeks. Oh, and I’m behind on reviews! I have some absolutely fabulous books waiting for me here though, like The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins and The Traitor’s Wife by Susan Higginbotham, so I’m not complaining!
Have a lovely week everyone!
 I’m editing an essay that is due in tomorrow! I’ve been trying to visit a few blogs, but have no real time to compose a Sunday Salon post myself. Thank goodness I have lots of reviews on the back burner. Next Sunday I’ll be in the air heading back to the US for a brief holiday, so I’m not sure I’ll be posting then either. So, have a good couple of weeks and I do hope to be back in the Salon soon!
I have no history on the brain for all of you today. In fact, I’ve, quite frankly, had enough of history right now. I’ve spent the past three days writing an essay on Henry V, which is now ready for editing by my supervisor, and researching for my dissertation proposal, tentatively titled Chivalry in the Reign of Edward IV, not to mention the reading I’m doing for class on Monday. I’m considering starting a weekly historical feature, and I do have to prepare some posts for Early Medieval Britain, but I just don’t have it in me to do either of those things this weekend. So I will be focusing my post on other things.
Aside from Edward IV: A Source Book today I plan on finishing two things; Watchmen by Alan Moore and Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase. I think Watchmen may have been a little too heavy for my mood, in all honesty, but it’s really interesting. It’s my first graphic novel and I didn’t really know what to expect from it. I like how I can almost use the pictures to make a movie in my head. It definitely makes up for lack of text, although I had to spend some time getting used to it first. I think a lot of the meaning has gone over my head due to my mental focus right now, but I can certainly pick up some. I’m looking forward to foisting it on my brilliant fiance and getting him to tell me what it means, and then we’ll go see the film.
As for Mr. Impossible, let’s just say I need that fluff pretty desperately. It’s not good enough to keep me up at night but it lets my brain go off on a nice vacation. It’s also set in Egypt, which makes it more interesting right now. My romances are exclusively historical and in large part set in England, which I prefer, but it’s nice to travel somewhere else when the rest of my life is about England. Mostly, I am really looking forward to Wednesday, because then I will be handing in both the proposal and the essay (for editing) and I won’t have to think about them for days, or at least until my supervisor tells me what he thinks of them. It’s also Keith’s birthday, so we will be celebrating!
This week, I have reviews coming up for Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn (I will finally be getting to her next two books after Wednesday) and The Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman. I really enjoyed both of them. I read The Witch’s Trinity the same day that I received it in the mail, in fact. I’d written 3/4 of my essay and decided to take a break. It was a good break! I’d also like to do a monthly wrap-up post for February, but that will probably be on Thursday.
Wishing everyone a lovely week and see you back here next Sunday!
 My reading this Sunday has been all academic. I’ve been reading articles about bastard feudalism and two books under the same theme. My presentation on this topic is finally ready to be presented and I can put them away. On my trip to the uni library, I also discovered that my request for Anne Neville by Michael Hicks had come in. I have to say, on a brief glimpse I’m absolutely dismayed by this work. Michael Hicks is my favorite historian and I’ve frequently been very pleased by his even-handed treatment of Richard III and the many magnates that surrounded him. I find he agrees with me on many respects, at least from what I remember of reading most of his publications in 2007-2008.
So, here he is writing a biography of Anne Neville. I have a number of problems with it and I’ve only just skimmed a bit of it. Firstly, biographies of women in the middle ages are difficult business. They’re inevitably about their husbands, fathers, and sons, because that’s who we know most about. This woman has a controversial father and husband, but Hicks has done biographies on them before, so we can assume he knows his stuff. At least, my past reading has suggested that this is so.
Here, though, I’m a bit perplexed by several things, mainly relating to a suggested divorce:
- He had her crowned with him. Who on earth would do this if planning divorce eventually? This woman is queen of England now! She might not have power, but that is a political statement. Notice Henry Tudor didn’t crown his wife, Elizabeth of York, for some time, possibly as a “just in case”.
- He suggests that Richard may have wanted to divorce or poison Anne, but on the same page we learn that they were still sleeping together (he later argues that Richard spurned her bed – what?? Make up your mind! Or was he finally listening to the doctors who ordered him to do so?) and that she was ill before this, possibly at their coronation. He obviously wanted an heir, but their son had just died and as the chroniclers say, they were both grieving and she was ill! There were rumors that he poisoned her at the time, but Hicks dismisses these (and rightfully so). No English king had set aside his wife in recent history and I think it’s horribly anachronistic to say Richard was thinking to do so. He must have realistically considered that she might die and he might marry again, but poison is pushing it. The chronicles say he was thinking of divorce, but again, he never did anything to make this happen. Perhaps she died too fast, or perhaps he didn’t think of it at all. Rumors were flying and some of them did make it into chronicles.
- Hicks then uses all of this to argue that Anne Neville was convinced when she died that her whole life had been an incestuous lie. If so, she probably chose it, because according to Hicks, everyone knew this was incest and they both knew their dispensation wasn’t quite good enough. Secondly, if this is as outrageous as he suggests, why on earth don’t we have the protests the suggested marriage to Elizabeth of York caused? Maybe this suggestion of incest would have made Anne unhappy, but it’s her own fault and she had to have known it the whole time.
- Maybe Richard did want to marry his niece, but he did not do so. Even if the letter cited showing Elizabeth’s enthusiasm did exist, there was no marriage and he denied the plan. You seriously can’t call a guy a “serial incestor” if he never actually committed incest. (I don’t think two brothers marrying two sisters is incestuous and even in a contemporary context, his first marriage was accepted). That is unnecessarily harsh language, especially for something that did not happen. Hicks also argues that opposition wouldn’t have stopped Richard, but obviously it did as no marriage took place.
- He then takes issue with her lack of a will. It was not unusual for high-born women to have wills, but Anne was perhaps a special circumstance. One, Hicks takes great care to explain that Anne had pretty much nothing. Richard could have retained all of her inheritance even under a divorce. So first we have to wonder what she’d be leaving to someone. Secondly, who would she leave things to? Her niece and nephew, perhaps, but her nephew was again under control of her husband and I’m not sure where her niece was, probably the same. She didn’t need to give them anything if she didn’t have anything and they were under her husband’s protection. It seems a bit pointless, particularly given how sick she was and her age. Most people gave things to their children and asked for alms to be given to the poor. I don’t think it’s exceptional that she doesn’t have a will if she had no need for one, and we can also note that it may have been lost. As Hicks himself states, we don’t even have the records for Anne that we do for some of her contemporary women, but he suspiciously leaves this idea out here.
I don’t know. He uses facts, but he twists them, and I hate when they do this. The whole biography feels very anachronistic. He refers to Anne as “past her sell-by date” when she was only 28 years old. He then refers to her as a housewife and assures us that she had a full life with lots of sex. I’m left wondering what happened to the historian who even-handedly assessed Richard’s ambition in light of his good lordship and attempted to reconcile the Ricardian Richard and the detractors’ Richard. He painted a compelling picture of necessity there and I think got the closest to a real fifteenth-century person I’ve ever seen. And now he calls Richard’s queen a housewife who “shacked up” with then-Duke Richard and argues that the fact that nearly all of her close relatives died during her lifetime probably didn’t affect her because that was normal at the time. Her father, son, sister, first husband, grandfather, and brothers-in-law all died in her lifetime and some violently. Are we to assume fifteenth-century people didn’t feel grief even when we have evidence that Anne grieved for her son? After he chides historians for forgetting that love matches occasionally existed earlier? I’m so perplexed by this biography. Am I crazy? This review on LT shares some of my confusion at least.
Okay, that’s my rant over. Apologies for hijacking my own blog! Someday soon I will give this book a proper read and review. For now, I think it’s time for some pleasure reading. I’ll be starting with The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende for the Book Club Girl radio show on Wednesday. I’m excited about it! Here is the link if you’re interested.
Sorry if this was a boring Sunday Salon for you, I’ll do my best to return to normal bookish programming soon. I’m sure I’m driving my subscribers away in droves. 
 I have not been feeling particularly well today and I had a distraction with me, so all I’ve managed so far is a slow walk around town and the purchase of a single book, The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower. We stayed in for Valentine’s Day yesterday and mostly just ate, which may be the source of my current blah-ness. Since my favorite distraction just left, I decided that since I am going to be reading for the rest of the evening, I might as well write about where I’m spending the next few hours!
So, I’m almost halfway through The King’s Rose by Alisa M. Libby. It’s an ARC and I picked it up thinking that since I’m now scheduling reviews in March, I should start reading the ARCs that have to be reviewed then and lessen the pressure when essay season starts up again (well, actually, I’ll be starting research this week, so the more I read now the better). I didn’t realize that this one doesn’t need to be posted until the 19th though, so it will be a good long while before the review actually shows up. I’m enjoying it though. It’s YA historical fiction about Catherine Howard, so while I like it, my insides are cringing anticipating the ending. I can’t imagine what it would be like reading a book about Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard (or Lady Jane Grey, for that matter) and not know the ending. I think I’d be absolutely devastated because it’s often very easy to become attached to them. At least this way I can mentally prepare myself as the novel moves on. I just realized that this may be a spoiler, so I hope everyone reading knows at least that bit of Tudor history. *crosses fingers* 
Just yesterday I finished Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn and let me tell you, I adored it from beginning to end. That’s a review I can’t wait to write and I’m busy being overjoyed and impatiently waiting for Silent in the Sanctuary to come in the mail so I can get to it. I already have an ARC of Silent on the Moor. I can’t wait for Lady Julia Grey to come visit my beloved Yorkshire and I’m very pleased with my new author discovery.
Next up will be The Brightest Moon of the Century by Christopher Meeks. I’ve been excited about this book since it arrived in the mail last month. I loved Meeks’ two short story collections and this is his first novel, so I suspect my eagerness is justified.
So, great stuff for me ahead this week! What’s next on your reading list?
For those of you who weren’t on Twitter yesterday and noticed that my blog brought up an error screen, we had an incident with our host and it seems that the site was hacked and reported for phishing. And it has happened before. So! We made a switch to a new host, and after about a day of uncertainty and having my blog completely unavailable intermittently, things have been resolved! I may have lost some comments if you made them yesterday, so please repost if you can. And of course I have to thank Keith for fixing everything and engineering and paying for the move. I’m a lucky girl. =)
So, here we are with the same URL and the same RSS feed, but I’ve taken this opportunity to make some changes around here. First of all, I have a shiny new install of wordpress, which you can’t see but trust me, the whole admin part of my site is completely different and I have a lot to play around with. I didn’t realize how old my last wordpress install was. I also took this opportunity to change my theme and upload some of my own images. A few things might be changing over the next few days. I have to add some blog awards and links to the sidebar mainly, but this is what I have time for now. If you’re linking to me and I’m not linking to you, please let me know. I’ll be trying to add my favorite google reader blogs, but I missed so many before and want to avoid that happening again.
While you’re here, refresh a few times. The header changes! How cool is that? I’m thrilled that I can use my own pictures for my header now.
In the midst of my frustration yesterday, I endeavored to avoid the computer and finished two books. The first was Drood by Dan Simmons, which will be touring here and elsewhere in the book blog world on February 27th. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s historical fiction featuring Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. Not much can go wrong there! Then I was annoyed with my inability to write the reviews I had planned on, so I read Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. Not as fantastic as the first three Bridgertons, but a good distraction. I haven’t had time to start American Rust yet, but that will be for a bit later today, after I get some work out of the way. I need to come up with some dissertation and essay ideas, which is a bit too much for my little exasperated brain, but I will give it my best shot.
Even though I’ve had my reviews posted as scheduled, I haven’t done any blogging at all this week. Worse, I haven’t even done any reading. I managed to complete Twilight on Tuesday (I’ll have a lot to say about that one), but I haven’t picked up a book since then. To be honest, I needed a break. I pressured myself to read constantly the first week and a half of the year in order to get a lot in before I got back to York. I think I burned out on it as a result and I haven’t even missed reading very much. I know, it’s horrible!
This morning, however, I finally felt like I wanted to pick up a book again. That’s lucky, because I stopped halfway through A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro on my flight last Saturday and I should probably pick it up again before I forget it all. Unfortunately, it’s very obvious that this is his first book and he so clearly hasn’t honed the craft that he excels in with The Remains of the Day. I’ve vowed to read all of his works, though, and this is the second-to-last.
Even more unfortunately, my term officially starts tomorrow and I have a load of art history reading to do, plus all the rest of my work for the week. That’s not to mention that I really need to start my PhD application if I want to have any hope of funding next year – I can’t afford it without funding – and I haven’t written a review in a week. There isn’t much reading time ahead for me!
Back to the grind I go, and I hope you all have a lovely week. I am now officially back and must go read the 700 posts waiting in my google reader! If you posted something fantastic in the past week, please let me know here and I’ll get there much sooner.
I’m working hard to achieve my reading goal of 200 books this year. Starting out by reading as much as possible while I don’t have any work to do! So I’m up to four books, but the problem is, none of them have been particularly good. For example, I just finished a book called Nox Dormienda by Kelli Stanley. It’s publicized as Roman noir, a new mystery genre, as she tried to use noir language in ancient Rome, thinking they went together fairly well. And they do, surprisingly enough; the book reminded me a lot of film noir. The trouble is that I didn’t like it at all. I know the problem lays with me here because I have little patience for mysteries, but it sounded so interesting. Now I have to write a review when I think someone else would like this book much more than I did.
Next up is either Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (which I must read before Friday, it’s a heavy hardcover that just isn’t coming on a plane with me) or Mr. Cavendish, I Presume? by Julia Quinn. Vastly different books, but I hope I manage to enjoy both of them. Tomorrow I’m going into NYC to visit a friend, with long bus rides there and back, so I hope I get plenty of reading in!
Finally, a non-book-related completely geeky note. Way back in 2001 or 2002, I used to watch a TV channel called TechTV. My brother and I just loved it and we were very unhappy when it was bought by a gaming channel designed for teenagers – no more gadgets or geekery. They gradually eliminated our favorite personalities and shows. Today I discovered that many of them are on twitter, so I went through and followed my favorites. Yay for getting my geek news back!
Have a good week and once again, Happy New Year!
I’m finding it a little hard to believe that 2008 has only a few days left in it. Where does the time go? 2007 feels like both yesterday and a million years ago.
Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot this week. I have reviews scheduled for the next two weeks, so regardless of where I am or what I’m doing, they’ll be posting. I will probably get even further ahead. I have 7 books, all ARCs, that I’d like to finish before I head back to the UK on January 9th, so I’ll be reading up a storm over here. The rest of my ARCs are spaced far apart enough in time that I should be able to get in a lot of my own reading in the next few months. My book goal for 2009 is not to buy and to read my many, many TBRs. So far, I have read 181 books this year. If I can do the same (or meet my goal of 200) in 2009 without buying (is that even possible?) I’ll more than halve my TBR pile and get it back into a manageable state. Here’s hoping!
Yesterday I finished off both American Buffalo by Steven Rinella and Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed the second one a lot more than the first. Reviews for them both will be coming in January. I also took a little trip back to the past last week by reading Into the Land of the Unicorns and the sequel Song of the Wanderer by Bruce Coville. I loved the first one when I was little – I think I was 8 when I got it – and I always wondered what happened next. Coville didn’t write Song of the Wanderer until I was 13 and needless to say, it flew over my radar until I got curious this year. Then I was lucky enough to find it in a used bookstore for 50 cents! I really enjoyed it but I’m a little dismayed to discover that it doesn’t finish the story, and neither does the 3rd volume published this year (9 years after Song!). By the time he writes number four, I might have children of my own! What a scary thought.
Today, I’m starting Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki. I think this book came out a while ago as I can’t actually remember reading any reviews on it, but I received a review copy while I was gone, so review it I will. I’m not sure what’s next up, but I hope I get to it today!
Thanks for stopping by and see you next week in 2009!
Despite the snow, I arrived at my parents’ home yesterday after a heavily delayed and exhausting day of traveling. Believe me, I’m glad to have waiting in the airport over with, though I’m going to be there again in three weeks.
I had some time to read on the flight, which was probably the journey’s only redeeming feature. I finished The Concubine of Shanghai, a review book that was taking me forever to read. The story had merit, but the writing or translation was not up to par and made it very difficult to read quickly. I spent nearly all week on it, so I’m glad to have it finished. My reading is slowing greatly in December; work on my essay and lots of time with my fiance are to blame, but those are both worthy causes. And beyond that, I’m currently reading book number 175, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which means I’ll be reaching my goal of books read for the year! I’ve set 2009’s goal to 200, although I’m not sure I’ll actually be capable of reading that many. Worth a shot though.
Speaking of The Glass Castle, I’m really enjoying it. It’s finally one of my own books, so my TBR pile is going down a little bit, and it’s a very oddly absorbing story. These kids had the weirdest and most unpredictable life, but it seems obvious that their parents loved them and they weren’t necessarily all that unhappy. I’ll leave the rest for the review, though.
Finally, an apology for being so out of it with my blog this last month. I’ve had a lot to do and haven’t been at the computer all that much. I want to devote more attention to it and everyone else’s blogs in 2009, though, after the holiday season is over. I’m not sure how often I will be here in the next couple of weeks, so I thought I’d say that now. My reviews will continue to post up until the New Year thanks to playing a bit of catch-up in my free time, but I may not be at this blog much. I can say I’ll be reading the 37 new ARCs I discovered when I got home though …
Time has been at a premium for me this month. What about you? Are you keeping up with your blogging and reviewing?
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