Wicked. It’s okay, but I get the distinct feeling that I’d be getting a lot more out of it if I had actually read any of the Oz books. It seems more like it is a retelling of them from the Wicked Witch’s point of view than it is the movie.
That’s the first title I thought of when I heard Oprah picked a historical for her book club. Crimson has a lot of potential for discussion.
You may be right. I didn’t care for it at all. It may be because I listened to it on tape, which is much less enjoyable than reading for me, but I didn’t care about any of the characters and by the time it was over I was just glad it was over.
Rampaging angels, assassins and mad poisoners. In a city held over an abyss by chains, with the spirits of the dead peering up at them.
Can’t wait for the next one.
I found interpretation a real easy read. Hope you enjoy
Title: The Awful End of Prince William the Silent: The First Assassination of a Head of State with a Handgun
Author: Lisa Jardine
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2005
Genre: history
176 pages
In some ways this is less about the actual assassination of William the Silent than about the context of his death, including the means (the relatively new wheel-lock pistol), the political climate, and the religious conflicts of 16th-century Europe. The assassination itself occupies a very small portion of this volume.
Those who did not take a survey course on European or British history or the Rennaisance, or those who had trouble understanding the political machinations that preceded those fictionalized in Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, will find the first chapter useful; it provides a not-too-dry overview of the Protestant/Catholic conflicts, particularly in relation to the Low Countries. Chapter 2 treats the murder itself. After that, the order of the book is puzzling. It backtracks to discuss a previous attempt on William’s life, then a discourse on the history and characteristics of the wheel-lock pistol, then two chapters with non-linear chronologies on Elizabeth I, followed by primary sources in the appendices (most notably, the fatwa against William issued by Phillip II).
The chapters that actually narrate daily events are more interesting than the chapters that present a broader historical portrait; the latter suffer as all surveys do from being a blur of names and policies. That the text is not chronological adds some confusion and difficulty orienting oneself. The author’s comparisons of the events to contemporary political conflicts, while interesting, might better have been served up as a final chapter that emphasized both the historical import of the assassination and its contemporary relevance. Still and all, this was an enjoyable book, and I’ll watch for more from Lisa Jardine in the future.
Looks good. I’ll give this a try, but first I need something that comes with it’s own premeasured shot of insulin. I don’t do sweet normally either, but under the circumstances, I’m almost ready for Deborah Macomber followed up by A Friend is Someone Who Likes You and then maybe a Silhouette Romance*.
Intriguing. I put it on hold at the library.
*help me
Nightmares and Dreamscapes (re-read) by Stephen King.
The Devil’s Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver
Ew.
Have you read The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly? It’s sweet but with substance.
All right, all right. I’m reading Slammerkin and listening to Everything is Illuminated. Ya happy now? 
Ooooh, Slammerkin! Much Better.
I have finished the last Potter book and enjoyed it. It picked up the last 1/3 of the book. As much as I enjoyed the series, I am glad that it saw completion.
I put down Alpine for you. In a past review I said that I thought the author didn’t like men and perhaps she didn’t like women much. Now I’ll say that I think she also hates her audience. One improbable event after another just made this book too much to bother.
I’ve started Exit Strategy by Kelly Armstrong. My understanding is she normally writes supernatural/romance novels aimed towards women (women of the otherworld series) however this plot is cop-turned-hit-woman going after a serial killer. It has started out slow, but I’m only a few chapters in.
I usually have two or more books going at once, but other than that, I am reading tech books. In fact, they have been consuming my time more than my fiction lately.
Currently reading “In cold blood” / Truman Capote, and really enjoying it.
Just started A Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. It’s the first book in The Lymond Chronicles. The humor surprises me. I’m reminded of Erroll Flynn’s swashbuckling movies. Ordinarily I like my historicals to be serious, but I’ll stick with this. Dunnett comes highly recommended.
Woo-hoo! What just arrived in the mail? Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic, which I ordered based on how much I enjoyed Andy Duncan’s Beluthahatchie, as he has a story in Crossroads. Guess I should have done my homework, though: the Duncan story in **Crossroads ** is The Map to the Homes of the Stars, one of my favorites from . . . Beluthahatchie. So I’ve already read it.
But I’m still looking forward to the other stories in Crossroads.
Done with Don’t Try This at Home: Culinary Catastrophes from the World’s Greatest Chefs. I’m about to drag several books on an airplane so I probably won’t finish anything else until next week. I’ll slog through a little more of Unlikely Destinations tomorrow night.
Finished Noah’s Garden and started Amy Tan’s Saving Fish from Drowning.
Couldn’t sleep so I bombed through Water for Elephants, which I enjoyed.
Finished Cormac McCarthy’s *The Crossing * and today will start Mr. American, by George MacDonald Fraser.
Very, very good, in fact.
Now, I’m reading a light, frothy bit of gay young man coming-of-age/hippie-ana called Taking Woodstock, by Elliot Tiber.
His main claim to fame is that he was the visionary who got the permit for the festivities at Yasgur’s farm, but that can’t sustain a whole 215 pages. Good thing he also was at Stonewall, ran the absolute worst hotel in the Catskills, had drinks with Marlon Brando and was punched in the solar plexus by Robert Mapplethorpe. I’m really not the target reader for the S&M TMI, but otherwise, I’m pleasantly diverted.
Currently working on:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (which I actually like, contrary to popular opinion it seems)
Dead Lovers Are Faithful Lovers by Frances Newman (a virgin read–the back cover gives no information about the book itself and I fell asleep reading the introduction)
Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki and Rande Brown (the autobiography of a geiko in 1960s Kyoto–fascinating so far)