European Royalty discussion

**ITALIAN "ROYALTY"**

***BEFORE 1900, FICTION OR NON-FICTION***

Okay everyone, it's that time of the month - time to nominate! Anyone who would like to nominate ONE book may do so in this thread.

The theme this month is ITALIAN "ROYALTY" (before 1900, fiction or non-fiction). There's a lot of flexibility here! I put royalty in quotes so we can include the ancient romans and popes (since, hey, they did rule) and those rich Italian merchants the de Medicis (some of which became royal). The 1900 date is also flexible; I only added it to try and keep us away from modern day people (like Mussolini and Pope John Paul II, etc.). And as always, the book doesn't have to take place the entire time in Italy, so as long as you have an Italian "royal" involved, if they move to another country, you're ok.

Please try to check amazon or some other site to make sure the book is easily available - the last thing we want is to nominate some great book that no one can get! If you nominate more than ONE book, only the first book listed will make it into the voting thread (so save additional books for the next months!). Also, if the book doesn't fit the theme, I won't add it to this month's voting list, but I will carry it over to the next theme that it does fit under if you would like.

Feel free to nominate one book of your choice in this thread until June 30th, 9pm Eastern.

At around that time, I'll make a voting poll and list all the nominated books in it, and people can vote in the poll until the poll closes (around end of July 4th). Discussion can start on AUGUST 15th.

Happy Nominating!

Murder of a Medici Princess

As long as I have to read this for Amazon Vine I'll kill two birds with one stone. It's NF though.

I'd like to nominate Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo, the first book in the House of Niccolo series, which covers Venice, Florence, etc. mid-way and towards the end, and the wars between the Kings of Milan and Naples, and de Medicis.

Antony & Cleopatra by Collen McCllough Antony and Cleopatra A Novel

The Borgias and Their Enemies 1431-1519 by Christopher Hibbert

Seems to have mixed reviews both here and at Amazon, but CW Gortner liked it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Sara, I found your suggestion intriguing b/c Gortner liked it! I checked out Kirkus' review at B&N and unfortunately they said the following: "Hibbert is so preoccupied with the admittedly juicy ins and outs of the Borgias' political maneuvers that he neglects to offer much in the way of human interest. Knowledgable but not particularly compelling." Who knows! Everybody has different opinions!

Sara, I found your suggestion intriguing b/c Gortner liked it! I checked out Kirkus' review at B&N and unfortunately they said the following: "Hibbert is so preoccupied with the admittedly juicy ins and outs of the Borgias' political maneuvers that he neglects to offer much in the way of human interest. Knowledgable but not particularly compelling." Who knows! Everybody has different opinions!

I've been wanting to read the Hibbert book, but like you noted Chrissie, some reviews aren't that great. Gortner's review was the first one I read from some I knew (well, know here at goodreads), so when he seemed to enjoy I decided to go ahead and nominate it (I understand your confusion if you read my review of The Last Queen! I may have to re-read that book now that I know his vision of Juana). I nominated The Courtesan which we're reading now and not many people enjoy it (myself included), so I don't want to nominate another bummer! Ha ha, I just hope someone else's book wins!

Sara, that sounds familiar! Remember my Pioneer book!

I, Claudius From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered & Deified A.D. 54, by Robert Graves.

Sara, I did not dislike The Courtesan - it just had a slow start. I actually ended up liking books 3-5 much more. And, I am glad that I read it because now I am very interested in the Henri, Diane and Catherine and plan to read more about them!

Nominations closed! Time to vote!