52 in 2011

[lumineaux]

50.  Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery by E. W. Ives

Although one wouldn’t expect it from the title, this book is actually a dense, meaty history book, replete with primary sources and meaningful analysis. The operating premise of the book is that Mary Tudor’s defeat of Jane Grey was not a foregone conclusion, despite how it may seem to modern eyes. Jane Grey was a legitimate candidate for the throne. Ives examines and refutes the classic stereotypes of Edward VI as a weak and manipulated boy king, and of Northumberland as the mastermind plotter. Ives also makes an effort to delve into what little is actually known
about Jane herself, who left surprisingly few artifacts and records for someone who was very nearly Queen of England.

This book is not a casual or quick read.  It's solid and dense.  Ives manages not to be excruciatingly dry, but take that comment as coming from someone who adores doing research.  I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Tudor politics.


Other than Lady Jane, I've been doing a lot of re-reads, mostly of things that fall into my category of reading comfort food.  I haven't been reviewing books I'm re-reading, but I don't think I've actually reviewed this one before now:

51:  Search the Seven Hills by Barbara Hambly

This is one of Hambly's first published books (possibly the first one ever).  It's a historical mystery set in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Trajan.  The hero, a young Roman noble disowned by his family for studying philosophy, is trying to find his sweetheart, whom he believes has been kidnapped by Christians.  The novel accurately paints Christianity as a splinter religion whose members are regarded as crazy by the mainstream.  The internal bickering of the Christian factions is particularly amusing for anyone like me who had to sit through an entire semester of Christian theology in college. 

This book features one of my favorite Hambly characters: Sixtus Julianus, former military governor of Antioch and a sort of Roman Sherlock Holmes.  I would love to invite Sixtus over to dinner.   He's why this book is comfort food for my over-stressed brain.
 

Comments

[mariedeblois.livejournal.com]

Mebbe I'm a Tudor nerd, but I suspected the first one was a straight-up history, as she is still rather a mystery.

[lumineaux.livejournal.com]

This is definitely a book for Tudor nerds. I'd offer to lend it, but it was one of my first experiments with the Kindle, so I do not actually have the book to lend.