Reading meme
Reading meme from 
likeadeuce
What are you reading now?
I'm trying to finish up Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: On the Perils of Marriage by Anka Muhlstein. I blame that silly "Reign" tv show; I keep tripping over Mary Queen of Scots in my bookshelves. It’s a double biography of the queens and cousins and how they approached marriage and romance in distinctly different ways. Where Mary allowed her passions to rule her in two of her marriages, Elizabeth was circumspect and cautious. Elizabeth I had seen what happened to her mother Anne Boleyn when she fell out of favor and she saw how her sister Mary Tudor fared with a foreign husband/king. Elizabeth also seemed more in tune with her subjects' and ministers' wishes than Mary. Mary may have had charm, but Elizabeth knew how to wield it.
What did you finish reading?
I just finished Cecilia Grant's A Lady Awakened, the first of her Blackshear family historical romances set in the Regency era. It’s an unusual romance. In order to keep her late husband's house away from an unscrupulous brother, a widow makes a bargain to bed a man for thirty days until she's with child. What follows is not always good sex; in fact, several early scenes are quite painfully awkward. Watching the two come together is an interesting exercise. It's definitely not the usual "He kisses her passionately and suddenly they're all over each other” brand of romance.
I also finished a rare interlibrary loan book, Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, a collection of essays on medieval chess. The essays covered the use of chess in symbolism and allegory, as well women’s roles. I was mostly interested in the latter, having finished Marilyn Yalom’s Birth of a Chess Queen. Yalom looked heavily at medieval queens to see how their rise in power mimicked what was happening on the chess board. Not really surprised to see the feminist & popular study discounted by the ultra-academic chess writer in "How did the Queen Go Mad?" - he thought it had as much relevance as trying to identify famous ladies in troubadour poetry. By the time I finished the other essays, I was quite burned out on chess allegories, although I noted down some other authors and texts to pursue someday.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'm halfway through the second Cecilia Grant already - A Gentleman Undone - so I may read that while I’m in Baltimore. This one deals with two very broken people finding each other, one a courtesan, the other a former soldier. What I love is the focus on gambling and odds and numbers. There is definitely more immediate chemistry between these two than the first pairing, but again we don’t see them interact physically for awhile. (I did already find the third one at the grocery store and was mildly spoiled for the fallout for this book. This is the only minus I see to these interlinked romance "series" where we occasionally see the post-book lives of these couples.)
Since I appear to be in a historical fiction mood (although not quite ready to tackle Philippa Gregory's White Queen), I unearthed CJ Sansom's Dissolution, his first Shardlake mystery set in Tudor England. Or I may try something else on my shelves.
likeadeuce
What are you reading now?
I'm trying to finish up Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: On the Perils of Marriage by Anka Muhlstein. I blame that silly "Reign" tv show; I keep tripping over Mary Queen of Scots in my bookshelves. It’s a double biography of the queens and cousins and how they approached marriage and romance in distinctly different ways. Where Mary allowed her passions to rule her in two of her marriages, Elizabeth was circumspect and cautious. Elizabeth I had seen what happened to her mother Anne Boleyn when she fell out of favor and she saw how her sister Mary Tudor fared with a foreign husband/king. Elizabeth also seemed more in tune with her subjects' and ministers' wishes than Mary. Mary may have had charm, but Elizabeth knew how to wield it.
What did you finish reading?
I just finished Cecilia Grant's A Lady Awakened, the first of her Blackshear family historical romances set in the Regency era. It’s an unusual romance. In order to keep her late husband's house away from an unscrupulous brother, a widow makes a bargain to bed a man for thirty days until she's with child. What follows is not always good sex; in fact, several early scenes are quite painfully awkward. Watching the two come together is an interesting exercise. It's definitely not the usual "He kisses her passionately and suddenly they're all over each other” brand of romance.
I also finished a rare interlibrary loan book, Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, a collection of essays on medieval chess. The essays covered the use of chess in symbolism and allegory, as well women’s roles. I was mostly interested in the latter, having finished Marilyn Yalom’s Birth of a Chess Queen. Yalom looked heavily at medieval queens to see how their rise in power mimicked what was happening on the chess board. Not really surprised to see the feminist & popular study discounted by the ultra-academic chess writer in "How did the Queen Go Mad?" - he thought it had as much relevance as trying to identify famous ladies in troubadour poetry. By the time I finished the other essays, I was quite burned out on chess allegories, although I noted down some other authors and texts to pursue someday.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'm halfway through the second Cecilia Grant already - A Gentleman Undone - so I may read that while I’m in Baltimore. This one deals with two very broken people finding each other, one a courtesan, the other a former soldier. What I love is the focus on gambling and odds and numbers. There is definitely more immediate chemistry between these two than the first pairing, but again we don’t see them interact physically for awhile. (I did already find the third one at the grocery store and was mildly spoiled for the fallout for this book. This is the only minus I see to these interlinked romance "series" where we occasionally see the post-book lives of these couples.)
Since I appear to be in a historical fiction mood (although not quite ready to tackle Philippa Gregory's White Queen), I unearthed CJ Sansom's Dissolution, his first Shardlake mystery set in Tudor England. Or I may try something else on my shelves.