Where I am up to Wednesday

I've recently finished...
Born to Rule, which I've reviewed, and The Declaration by Gemma Malley, which I've been wanting to read ever since it was published but only just got to this week because a kid at the library could not believe that The Declaration (which we have in the original pink hardcover) was part of the same series as The Resistance (in green and black) and The Legacy (purple and silver with a poppy).  And I've finished the first book of the series in a little over twenty-four hours.

I abandoned Laurie Graham's A Humble Companion.  Just couldn't get into it - the prose wasn't engaging, the narrative boring and plodding.  There's just not enough time.

I'm currently reading...
Pray for Me in Santiago.  Still going.  Not even at Leon yet, while my friend who actually walked from Leon to Santiago has completed her walk and is back home again.

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, by Amy Jill Levine.  This book is for book club - our meeting is next week.  It's yet another one of those problematic, annoying books that talk about a church I don't recognise at all.

Next I plan to read...
The Desmond Tutu I mentioned last time; God is not a Christian, and the second in Gemma Malley's Declaration series, The Resistance.  I also really want to get back into Kwaymullina's Ashala Wolf, a far darker dystopia than Malley's, at least for me.

Review: Born To Rule

Born To Rule by Julia P. Gelardi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I began reading this book in 2010, but had to return it to the library when I no longer worked close enough to that library to borrow it. Recently I was able to borrow it once again. And I've finally finished it.

The author has an annoying habit of referring far too frequently to horrible things that will happen in the future. It's probably supposed to keep you interested, but I *was* interested already, and it just irked me.

That aside, the story was definitely interesting. I knew nothing of either Maud, Marie or Sophie when I began reading: a great deal about Alix of Russia, and a little about Victoria Eugenia of Spain due to a biography of her mother, Beatrice, that I read some years ago. I had no idea that the first Queen of the restored monarchy of Norway was British (I rather wonder what my very American-Norwegian mother will think when I point that fact out.) It was a fascinating link to that Beatrice book I read a while ago, as well as to the Spanish Civil War book I'm in the middle of. It is absoluetly history of the elites, but it's interesting stuff. It's sometimes hard for us antipodeans to quite grasp how inter-related the European royals are, and this certainly proved *that*. I'm glad I finally re-borrowed and finished this book.



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Where I'm up to Wednesday

This time I will post on a Wednesday (because that's what scheduled posts are for!)


I've recently finished...
Tony Kevin's Walking the Camino: A Modern Pilgrimage to Santiago.  I really need to write up my review of this.

Magda Goebbels by Anja Klabunde, for which I've actually written and posted a review!  Yay me!

I'm currently reading...
Pray for Me in Santiago by Theresa Burkhardt-Felder.  Tony Kevin walked the Via de la Plata, while Burkhardt-Felder walked the more popular Camino Frances.  I currently have a friend walking the Camino Frances from Leon, and I'm looking forward to my reading catching up with her.

Born to Rule: Granddaughters of Victoria, Queens of Europe, by Julia P Gelardi.  I got a third of the way through this one a few years ago, but was back at the High Country Library a few weeks ago and borrowed this one out to try to finish it.

Next I plan to read...

Another HCLC loan, and one I definitely want to get to next, is God is not a Christian, a collection of essays by Desmond Tutu.

Also on the pile is another pilgrimage book - The Comfort of Water by Maya Ward - and a Laurie Graham historical, A Suitable Companion.