European Royalty discussion

Clearly if you are in this group you have most likely read some sort of european history! Outside of a royalty context, I'm really fascinated by the Black Death and all the plagues that occurred in Europe. I've read a couple of books on it (I can't think of the titles right now).

I have a non-fiction book about a ship going to Australia filled with women convicts or prostitutes or something like that - all I know is the boat got turned into a brothel on the way there from England. I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know if it's any good.

Jean Plaidy (surprise, surprise!) has a book about three generations of women that starts in England and ends up in Australia (I think the first generation woman gets in trouble in England and gets shipped off to Australia or something like that). I think it's one of her very first books. It's called Beyond the Blue Mountains, and it's not based on any real person(s) that I can recall.

The most recent books about European history I've read are The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, which was interesting, but the last chapter or so made me go WHAT? as it was mostly about suitcase nuclear bombs; Life in a Medieval City by Joseph and Frances Gies, which is older (1960s, I think), but takes a fascinating look at Troyes, now in France, in the year 1250; and The Confident Hope of a Miracle: The True Story of the Spanish Armada, which was very interesting, and pretty well written.

I, too, am pretty interested in the Black Death, and great epidemics in general.

I'm reading a great book about Medieval Civilization (I can't remember the author's name - it's one of the books I'm currently reading - if someone is interested they can look at my currently-reading shelf or ask and I'll find it). A lot of it is going over my head because I'm not really familiar with that time period, but it has a lot of great maps and diagrams, and the stuff I am able to retain is really interesting.

My favorite authors of medieval fiction are Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick. Chadwick's main characters are more secondary characters in history. She really has an excellent feel for the medeival period and really brings it to life - it's like time travel to another century. For those interesting in all things medieval she's got a very cool blog, http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadw...

Sarah, the Plaidy book sounds interesting I'll have to look that up. I'm close to reading my first Plaidy book ever, the new release (With hold the Crown is it?) is coming soon from the library.

I just checked my library catalog, they have Plaidy's Beyond the Blue Mountain. Now for the TBR pile to ease up.....

I recommend The Embarrassment of Riches and Rembrandt's Eyes both by Simon Schama for anyone interested in 17th century Amsterdam.

One of my favorite Black Plague books is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. So wonderful!

Hi Donald, I recently had the pleasure of reading the wonderful REMBRANDT'S EYES...what an investment in time but so worth it! A giant gorgeous book! Simon Schama has a wonderful wit, although his sense of humor wasn't as evident, I felt in these pages. The book is one that needs to be given time, it isn't a book that can be read through like a novel.

I agree, Elizabeth. So does The Embarrassment of Riches. But always worth it.

For me, Schama is at the top of the most readable and enlightning historians along with Barbara Tuchman and Virginia Cowles.

Well certainly now I MUST add THE EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES to my TBR MOUNTAIN! With great pleasure! THe pleasure and pain of these posts...always getting NEW wonderful books to pine for! So many books so little time! I am sure that ALL of us here give up hours of sleep to the joys of becoming lost in our temporary and often changing new worlds we visit through the pages! We are all addicts! Isn't it wonderful!?

Sarah, I am also fascinated by the Black Death and just read The Great Influenza over again as some thought it was really the Plague! I was also advised to read Survival of the Sickest on my yahoo iron list as some are immune to black plague. There was also a story on this at PBS which is quite fascinating.
When I lived in Suffolk an English friend took me to pick bluebells in spring near the site of a village where every single person died of black plague. The entire village was wiped out! It was hard to think on. I bet you will like both these books. Also very interested in the same.
Alice

Thanks for the recommendations Alice! And Elizabeth, I totally agree with you! These posts are great and terrible at the same time - I don't know how I'm ever going to read all of the great recommendations. I'm interested in so many things (as we all seem to be), and there definitely isn't enough time in the day.

Currently I'm reading The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914, by Philipp Blom.

So far it's interesting. It's not the first book on the period I'd give someone, principally because it's largely a meditation on the period. It's organized year by year.

I read the The Secret River by Kate Grenville. It was about the settlement of New South Wales in Australia in the early 1800s by criminals deported from England. Very interesting.

Thanks for the recommendation Donna! I added it to my (large, ever growing) to read list.

You guys should check out Nefertiti A Novel. It has to do with Egyptian royalty and involves the Black Death. It's one of my favorites.

Thanks for the recommendation Lauren! I added it to my to-read shelf.

Misfit wrote: "My favorite authors of medieval fiction are Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick. Chadwick's main characters are more secondary characters in history. She really has an excellent feel for the medeival per..."

I've been wanting to read some of Elizabeth Chadwick's novels for some time now, but I can't seem to find it in the U.S. Anybody know a website I could get it from new and at a reasonable price (I saw someone on Amazon selling it for $40! How ridiculous...)? Thanks... =)

Vanna, her books are priced over the top, aren't they and getting very hard to find in the US. I am so glad I bought them all up when I first discovered her a few years ago, so I only have to buy the latest.

1) The Book Depository from the UK has free shipping to the US. Depending on the exchange rate it's your best bet.

2) Don't just rely on the used Amazon sellers. Shop around, abebooks, thriftbooks and alibrus.

3) Do you know someone in Canada or who goes to Canada recently? Last time I was in BC Chapters (a book store) stocked her books and the rest can be special ordered. Amazon CA stocks them as well if the exchange rate is better than UK.

4) Don't forget to check your library and/or try for an inter library loan. I am constantly amazed how far away my ILL requests come from - literally across country.

5) The author has a new publisher and The Greatest Knight and Lords of the White Castle will be available in the US in fall of this year. Yay!

6)Bookcloseouts.com has The Winter Mantle, http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default....

One word of warning, there are two Elizabeth Chadwicks. One from the US who writes regency romances. If you see something like Bridefire it's the wrong author. Here's a list I did on Amazon of her books, http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Fictio.... The only ones that aren't on that is The Time of Singing as it's not available in the US yet.

Her earlier books are based on fictional characters and might have a romance feel to them, but really knows the medieval period and it shows in her writing. Happy bargain hunting and reading :)

Thanks so so so much! You just made my day =); I think I'm going to try the Book Depository. I can't wait to read now...another gazillion thanks =D

Vanna wrote: "Thanks so so so much! You just made my day =); I think I'm going to try the Book Depository. I can't wait to read now...another gazillion thanks =D"


:) Anytime, I love to share my love books.

Sara wrote: "Clearly if you are in this group you have most likely read some sort of european history! Outside of a royalty context, I'm really fascinated by the Black Death and all the plagues that occurred i..."

Sara, I have that book. It's [Book: The Floating Brothel]. I picked it up at a book sale for about 5p. I haven't read it yet but it certainly looks interesting. Have you read it yet?

Emily wrote: "One of my favorite Black Plague books is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. So wonderful!"

Emily, I love this book too although the I didn't like the ending much; what did you think to that? It didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book which I thought was fantastic.

I actually live about an hours drive from the village of Eyam (pron. Eeem) and I have been a few times. It's a really lovely village with all the old cottages. Some of them have plaques on the outside of the house saying "the so-and-so family lived here and died from the plague": that's really spooky because you know that these were real people.

Boof wrote: "Sara wrote: "Clearly if you are in this group you have most likely read some sort of european history! Outside of a royalty context, I'm really fascinated by the Black Death and all the plagues th..."

I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Sadly it keeps getting pushed aside! It does seem really interesting. I found mine pretty cheap at a used book store.

Boof wrote: "Emily wrote: "One of my favorite Black Plague books is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. So wonderful!"

Emily, I love this book too although the I didn't like t..."

Oh, I would love to see an English village with old cottages and plague plaques (even if the plaques are a little creepy, it would be fascinating to see)! I need to plan a trip to England sometime; I would love to see all the historical stuff there.

Sara wrote: "Boof wrote: "Emily wrote: "One of my favorite Black Plague books is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. So wonderful!"

Emily, I love this book too although the I ..."



I read that book too and appreciated it's description of what it might have been like to have lived thru a plague but she loses me in the end when the books seems to turn into a supermarket romance. It's one of those books where I feel like I'm the only one who didn't like it. (I did like the first half though!)

Boof wrote: "Emily wrote: "One of my favorite Black Plague books is Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. So wonderful!"

Emily, I love this book too although the I didn't like t..."

That would be really interesting to see! Will you take me there when I come visit!!?

Yes!!!! Tisha, I'll take you wherever you want to go; there's so many places I know you'd love! I'm excited again now. Make it May not next Sept please :o)

I will really really try! I wish I could come NOW! Haha.

I have The Great Fire of London In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666 on my mp3 this week. Unabridged, and for once I am not so happy that it qualifies for that status as it is a rambling
and hack written piece.

Wow, I cannot keep us with all the great books listed by this group. It is just fantastic. Sara, I read you message and t I had to mention the author Jean Giono's Horseman on the Roof. I had to mention him. His Horseman book concerns the plague. Fantastic writing. He is not so well known in the States. I have several plague books listed on my shelf health/illness, but I haven't read them all. I read lots of history and historical fiction. It is the royalty part that is totally new for me! I shelf the books not only by history and historical fiction but also by the country in which they take place. Oscar, my 7.5 week old puppy, is sleeping so I have two minutes. Puppies semm as time occupying as babies! In out, in out,..... but that is the only way to get them house trained.
PS I have the Floating Brothel on my to-reads too.
PPS So Bettie the writing sucks in the London Fire of 1666. The Times Supplement went on to say that the usage of quotes was exemplary! Reviews are always so flattering, although I usually but not always trust Kirkus.

Having just finished Katherine, by Anya Seton, I am now going to read City of Thieves by David Benioff. It is about some bizarre happenings during the siege of Leningrad.

Bettie wrote: "I have The Great Fire of London In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666 on my mp3 this week. Unabridged, and for once I am not so happy that it qualifies for that status as it is a rambling
..."

Haven't read that one, but he did go on a bit in The Confident Hope of a Miracle The True Story of the Spanish Armada.

I am currently reading My Father's Paradise A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq. I did not quite know where to put it b/c it takes place in Kurdish Iraq, Israel and then in the US. It is a very interesting memoir that centers around the topics of father-son relationships, life in Israel after the country's birth, history of the Kurdish people and linguistics. It offers fascinating information concerning the Aramaic language, which was the language of Jesus and the predominantly verbal language preserved in the isolated mountain village Zakho of Kurdistan. As you see, lots of varied topics are fused into this memoir.

I am reading A History of Modern Britain and it is leading me to re-look at other books and plays. The spin-offs so far:
Look Back in Anger
Whisky Galore

How "modern" is "modern"?

Susanna wrote: "How "modern" is "modern"?"

From fall out of WWII up to present day - incorporating theatre, music, clothes, fads and heap loadsa politics that impacted on the rest of the world.

Seeing as I am representing Australia here in the group (though I suspect I am only one of many as there are many Aussie members on goodreads), I thought I should step up and make a couple recommendations for historical fiction based on Australian history (and to be patriotic...also written by Australians).

The first book I would recommend is:
by Colleen McCullough
The Touch
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/06848...

The second books is:
by Di Morrissey
Tears Of The Moon

I think, if you wanted to read a fiction based on true events and founded on Australian history, then these two are a great place to start.

If anyone wants anymore recommendations, let me know.

Thanks for the recommendations Terri! Glad to have an Australian representative here! :)

I recently read Sara Dane by Catherine Gaskin. About a young women sent to Australia via prison ship. Not the greatest book ever but still a good solid read.

Misfit wrote: "I recently read Sara Dane by Catherine Gaskin. About a young women sent to Australia via prison ship. Not the greatest book ever but still a good solid read."

There seems to be quite a few books written about convicts being transported to the Australian colonies. Many of them not fiction, really, but based on actual journals.
The Floating Brothel that Sara W mentioned at the start of this thread is another example of the kind of books that are written about the journeys across.
I haven't read The Floating Brothel (or Sara Dane for that matter), but I did buy The Floating Brothel as a gift for someone a few years back and they enjoyed it; or maybe they just told me that because it was a gift :-).

I love seeing what others are reading. I am currently working on Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III for the group read and am about to start Challenge of Anne Boleyn, which I have on inter-library loan. I have never read anything about Australian history or politics other than the indigenous population (one of my favorite subjects in general), so I am eager to check out some of the titles mentioned.