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9:26 am
May 7, 2010
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I have given up on BUTB. Just as I did with WH. It is not just the tale being told it is the writer’s style I think which I can’t get on with.
I love LOTR and the Hobbit they just take you away into a whole different place.
Worcester sauce is lovely. I like it on chips (makes spotty chips) and it is great to put a few sploshes on tuna yum, yum. Also use it on steaks while cooking them, though it can spit something wicked but the sauce and some garlic and you have a steak to take you to tasty heaven!
Oh and the book I am reading at the moment… well I am not I just can’t find anything to entice me right now so I am sewing and writing instead though not at the same time!
Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves - Boudica addressing the tribes Circa AD60
9:46 am
October 28, 2011
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You keep writing Maggy!
I’m still reading Sister Queens, I’m not letting myself start a fiction book until I’ve finished it. I really didn’t know much about Juana so I’m finding the parts on her really interesting
11:04 am
December 5, 2009
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Hello Neil,
I share your view of Warnicke, so I balked slightly at the cost of it on Amazon. I may have to buy it though because I’m so curious about what she says. It will be a bit like paying someone to annoy you, but then I felt the same way about buying Weir’s ‘Mary Boleyn’. Sigh…
12:19 pm
October 28, 2011
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Warnicke’s books are done by small publishers, the discount is only 5-10% on her books rather than the usual 35-40% which is why they’re so expensive. I checked the US supplier earlier when I was trying to figure out where to get them cheaper, the Anne of Cleves hardcover has a $90 rrp. They’ve got a paperback out now thankfully. I think it will still be cheaper for me to buy them from Fishpond though.
Louise have you read her one on AOC? I actually don’t love her writing style, but I thought it would be worth getting, and the latest one looks interesting.
6:37 pm
December 5, 2009
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I have only read her Anne Boleyn book which is based on theory rather than logical research. The problem is that once you start questioning an historian’s research you tend to lose confidence in anything they say. I don’t know enough about Anne to question what I read about her. In that respect I put Warnicke and Weir in the same catagory because I’m always sceptical. It’s a shame really because I think Weir is a very talented writer who has opened the Tudor world to so many people with her easy flowing style of writing. I find it really sad that she doesn’t go the extra mile to make her books accurate as well as accessible. It’s a bit tragic when you consider her following and her influence.
9:47 pm
January 9, 2010
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I agree with you Louise about Weir, especially about her writing style, which for non-fiction books I think is brilliant. I always read her books even if I don’t always agree with her accuracy or conclusions. Her fiction on the other hand tends to grate slightly with with me, her novel on Elizabeth I didn’t like at all. Yet I’ve just started ‘Dangerous Inheritance’ – the sequel to her Lady Jane book. I figured as Katherine Grey, with the help of letters left by Katherine Plantegenet (Richard III’s illegitimate daughter) solves the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, it was total fantasy so I’m rather treating it as such!
Warnicke’s book on Anne Boleyn was the first stand alone bio I ever read of Anne. I read it when I was a teenager and even then I thought her theories were hogwash! I do have her book on AOC (haven’t read it yet) but that’s less about AOC than about the politics of marriage so I’m guessing there’s nothing too out-there regarding Miss Anne of Cleves herself. At least I hope! Thank-you Olga for explaining why her books are bizarrely so expensive – I got the paperback on Amazon last year with a gift card I was given for my birthday. I think it was about $25-30 but the hardback was over double that.
Loved ‘The Hobbit’ – and now I really can’t wait for the movie. Have also been re-watching LOTR over the past few nights to really psyche myself up 
1:11 am
October 28, 2011
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It’s the same thing with a lot of history books, Bella have you tried Fishpond? They’ve got free post worldwide and they’re a kiwi company, I find them cheaper than Amazon (although I won’t buy from Amazon for other reasons) Most of the more obscure history books I want are $30+ for paperbacks. Of course there’s stuff that’s not available on Amazon because a lot of small publishers have started to refuse to deal with them, but don’t get me started .
Is it December yet? I can’t wait either! This week we’re catching up on Batman though, Dark Knight Rises starts this week.
Louise I have to say I think Weir is improving. I’m sure I’ve seen her say she has made mistakes in her earlier books, although I can’t think of where. What they need to do is stop printing that horrendous Six Wives she did. I thought her book on Mary Boleyn was one of her more balanced works, she was very careful with it. I don’t think it really had the potential to be an awesome book considering the lack of material but I really do think she did a good job debunking the myths about her. I got Josephine Wilkinsons book on Mary too last week.
Although what is with historians? So many of them love mentioning what others said and why it is wrong, I actually find in really irritating. I may be alone there and I suppose it may be for a reason but it annoys me nonetheless.
I must admit I find Warnicke a little boring. Her book on Anne was a lot of work for me, those 30 page chapters were killing me. I think it took me at least a month to finish 
3:09 am
January 9, 2010
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^ I get a lot of books, amongst other things, on Fishpond – and they usually have the added bonus of not taking ages to get here! But I usually like going into our local independent bookstore, the staff are lovely and really go out of their way to track down books that they don’t have in stock. Sometimes it’s that human contact that makes all the difference
3:22 am
October 28, 2011
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You’re lucky, we don’t have that many bookshops left here 
Book Depository has killed it for them, and there’s a lot of imports we can’t get here due to the parallel import laws. But I do love my local Dymocks, and we just had a great speculative fiction bookshop open by a brave soul.
3:36 am
January 9, 2010
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We don’t have a lot of bookstores either, we used to have a Dymocks but they pulled out of NZ a couple of months ago. But that store is now an independent as well but isn’t doing too great (I know ‘cos I work in the shop next door). I hope they make it, it always tears me up a little inside to see a bookshop close
3:47 am
November 18, 2010
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if I want any non-popular books in English I have to travel to Montreal, an hours drive..That”s why I prefer Amazon.
I just bought a stack of books for $2. The Handmaids Tale, a couple of books on forensic history, some WWII books, Aristophanes plays. but my best buy was was The Riverside Chaucer. All of Chaucers works in the orginal English, Canterbury Tales, Book of The Dutchess, Parliment of Fowles, poems and some poems which may or nay not be Chaucer . it cost me a whole dollar. I would have paid at least $10 for it. I’m planning on spending some days in the shade reading…
It's always bunnies.
5:13 pm
May 7, 2010
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I picked up PD James ‘Death comes to Pemberley’ this morning so will start that tonight I think. I loved Pride and Prejudice (who doesn’t) and wondered what this would be like. It will be I suppose ‘light reading’ but that is what I need right now so I am sorted.
Let us show them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule over dogs and wolves - Boudica addressing the tribes Circa AD60
3:44 am
October 28, 2011
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This is so annoying. I have a bunch of books to read (which I am refusing to let myself start until I have finished Sister Queens) but I keep leaning towards Weir’s book next. I also just ordered C.W Gortner’s book, Tudor Secret I think?, from the library as well. But I’ve just read five historical fiction novels in a row (and I have Maggy’s to read too but that shouldn’t cause me any pain) and I’m afraid my head is going to explode if I read another two of them
4:00 am
January 9, 2010
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I’ve just started Weir’s ‘Dangerous Inheritance’
I’m only 100 pages or so in and the plot’s a bit outlandish but I’m actually rather enjoying it 
10:50 am
October 28, 2011
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Oh I liked her last book about Jane Grey actually, is this one a bit sillier? I’m sure I can cope with it, I just think it might be safer to have a week off LOL. I have an enormous fantasy book to read which looks quite gritty so I like to read something lighter after a book like that.
Next week I am going to see Garth Nix and get my books signed which I am excited about. He is a safe author to meet, he never says anything appalling on Facebook
3:06 pm
January 3, 2012
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I agree it is a terrible shame to see so many book shops closing down, it’s almost as if reading is going out of fashion. We aren’t too bad for books we have WH. Smith, and The Works for books, and then of course there’s the library.
A lot of people seem to have Kindles these days, I guess they are a good idea but somehow they don’t seem to appeal to me, to my mind there is nothing like the feel and smell of a book, plus if I drop it in the bath I can either drape it across the radiator for an hour or so or bung it in the tumble dryer. Can’t really do that with a Kindle.
However there are the odd gem to be found sometimes at a local charity shop or even at an jumble sale. I always go and have a fuddle in the charity shops when I go down town.
Semper Fidelis, quod sum quod
5:15 pm
June 5, 2010
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Maggyann said
I picked up PD James ‘Death comes to Pemberley’ this morning so will start that tonight I think. I loved Pride and Prejudice (who doesn’t) and wondered what this would be like. It will be I suppose ‘light reading’ but that is what I need right now so I am sorted.
I used to read PD James ages ago when she was doing Inspector Adam Dalgleish (sp?) — used to love those. I did download a sample of ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ but decided not to purchase the e-book…not yet anyway. I’d be curious to hear what you think of it when you’re done because I’ve heard all kinds of opinions, mainly those that say it doesn’t capture Jane Austen’s original work at all, or that something about it just didn’t click. I figured it might not be too bad, especially after reading reviews of the P&P sequel written by ‘The Thorn Birds’ author, Colleen McCullough. Can’t remember the title of it, but that one got ripped so much (and the analysis was so detailed in nearly every review), I’m glad I didn’t decide to try it out.
Henry: Mistress Anne, will you teach the king of England how they dance in the French court?
Anne: There is nothing that France can teach England, your majesty.
King Henry VIII: Well said. Well said.
– Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
5:30 pm
June 5, 2010
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It’s been a while since I posted what I’m currently reading. 
I’ve downloaded some samples from Amazon and Google Books and still couldn’t make up my mind. And then I rented ‘John Carter’ from Redbox; figured that since I was getting a discount on my rental, if it turned out as lousy as the critics claimed (it was a box office fiasco), hey, it was only 75 cents. So I rented it…and the first thing I said was “You can’t leave me hanging like this.” Followed by “What the heck was Disney’s problem?” (Didnt’ say heck LOL). And finally “I didn’t know Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote this!!”
Why did I said what I did? LOL 1) The movie was based on the first novel in what is a series of roughly 12 books…and the ending left us hanging. 2) Disney didn’t promote the movie correctly. Of course most of us were saying ‘Who the heck is John Carter?’ because for the majority, Burroughs is best known for TARZAN. A year before the movie came out — just as Paramount, Miramax and Universal did to promote ‘Master and Commander’…by introducing the unitiated to the works of Patrick O’Brien — Disney should have started a campaign to tell everyone who the John Carter character is, his development in the series and how the series is the granddaddy to ‘Star Wars’, ‘Star Trek’ and a few others. I watched the behind the scenes and the passion with which the creators approached the series, the fight to bring it to the screen, and I was like “So Disney spent all this money…and then left the movie out to dry. What the heck?” (Didnt’ say heck LOL) The movie really isn’t bad at all; in fact, it’s one of the few times I’d love a sequel.
So I said all of that to say this: I found a FREE download of ‘A Princess of Mars’ — the first novel and the one on which the movie was based — on I-Tunes. I’m sure Project Guttenberg and other sites have it too. I started it about a week ago; have read about 20% of it, and Burroughs has me really caught up in the adventures of former Confederate captain John Carter, who finds himself mysteriously transported from Earth to Mars. So far I can see what inspired the movie – and I can’t wait for him to meet the Princess of Mars (I think I’m at that chapter now).
Okay it’s not Tudor England, but I need a break from them for a bit. I’ll be curious to see whether or not ‘A Princess of Mars’ will encourage me to tackle book 2 and beyond.
Henry: Mistress Anne, will you teach the king of England how they dance in the French court?
Anne: There is nothing that France can teach England, your majesty.
King Henry VIII: Well said. Well said.
– Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
6:04 pm
October 28, 2011
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I actually bought myself a set of the John Carter books earlier this year Tina, I was going to read them before the movie but I didn’t get around to it. My partner and I both loved John Carter, I’m glad to find someone else who enjoyed it, I don’t really get why everyone was down on it.
Bookshops are closing because they can’t keep up with the online competition Boleyn, and there are many different factors to that I’m not going to bore you all with (because once I start my rant about Amazon I really can’t stop) It’s probably only going to get worse. I should be thankful we deal in second-hand and collector books, we are still hanging in by the skin of our teeth.
I love charity shops (opportunity shops, or oppies, we call them here) Best part of my job is actually hunting for books. Although I really do keep far too many of them. My partner pretends to get annoyed, but then he found me a book on Wolsey last week.
10:06 pm
November 18, 2010
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I read both the John Carter books and the ones set on Venus( can’t remember the character name!) when I was younger. i enjoyed them at the time.
I’ve just finished The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.It was okay. Though I doubt if I wil keep it though.
It's always bunnies.
