Saturday Reads - 21/3/20

What I’ve just finished reading:
Nothing. I’ve been reading way too much Twitter this week and not escaping nearly enough into fiction.

What I’m reading now: Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir. I think I’m close to halfway through at this point. It’s good. I’m actually liking this Jane more than I was expecting to. I really like the explanation for Jane’s meekness that Weir has posited.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. Which the cat spilled tea all over on Thursday (it's a library book). I’d love to finish this one off this weekend.

The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, by Zen Cho. Cho is currently offering this one for free (check her Twitter feed if you’re interested.) It’s a historical novella set in the 1920s.

What’s catching my eye on the TBR:
In the current climate, Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo may end up being a form of escapism, bizarrely enough. Also, I started American Royals, but it’s kind of drifted to the wayside in the last few weeks.

Saturday reads (on Sunday, 15/3/20)

I completely forgot yesterday. Completely.

What I’ve just finished reading:
Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir. Okay, I really liked this. Weir’s fiction has definitely improved since her early attempts (The Lady Elizabeth was dire,) and I don’t just think that’s because I like Weir’s interpretation of Anne better than I liked her interpretation of Anne’s daughter. I mean, I liked The Other Boleyn Girl while disagreeing vehemently with its interpretation of history. … The Author’s Note at the end is also really good, mentioning the reasoning behind some of Weir’s choices, which I really appreciate.

What I’m reading now:
Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen by Alison Weir. I know. I blame Six and the fact that Anne of Cleves and Katherine Parr are my favourites and Six made me more sympathetic towards … well, all of them except Seymour, and I feel like once I’m through this book I’ll be “over the hump” so to speak… and who knows, maybe Weir will make Seymour less of a wimp? Anyway, I’m actually enjoying it so far. The thing with this series is that you can end up seeing the same thing from multiple points of view, and (for example) the panic over the sweating sickness is suddenly reading very differently than it did when I read it the first time long before Novel Coronavirus was a thing...

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. Because The Bridgertons is turning into a Netflix series, and a friend and colleague is part of a Bridgertons podcast, and because my wife asked about it. So far it’s delightful. I’m just.. Not reading it steadily. It’s not because I don’t like it - honestly I think it’s mostly because, well, the apocalypse.

What’s catching my eye on the TBR: I need to start Blonde Roots (by Bernardine Evaristo). I also just received The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite from the public library (I thought I’d suspended that hold, but apparently not.)

Saturday Reads - 7th March 2020

I am bowing to the inevitable. Clearly, I am hardly ever going to manage to post on a Wednesday, so from now on, this is Saturday Reads.

What I’ve just finished reading:
Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss. Such a quiet book! It suits the story, but I was still startled by it. Lovely in its way, although simultaneously difficult to get through the various attitudes of the time, and the experiences of pretty much all the characters other than the whites (except Raymond). I really enjoyed this. It has a different tone to the other Heiss novels I’ve read, although I haven’t read Tiddas yet and that may well be similar to this. Less snark (not surprisingly). A really good read and I’m so glad I finally got there.

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan. I loved Jane. And Emily. And Anjan. Even Oliver got there eventually. (His certainty that he couldn’t marry Jane frustrated me no end.) Milan’s heroines are clearly not your average Regency heroines. (They’re Victorian, for starters, I’m pretty sure.) But the thing I love about Stephanie Laurens’ heroines - their feistiness and their refusal to do anything they don’t want to do is doubled and tripled in Milan’s books. I’m so glad I started reading her, and I’m going to have to read the Worth saga once I’ve finished the Brothers Sinister. And maybe even her contemporaries…

Craft a Life you Love by Amy Tangerine. This was definitely a good choice for a self-development read. It’s bitsy, and my copy is already full of highlighting and scribbles and it will get more of that on later re-reads.

What I’m reading now: I need to put some effort into finishing Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession. It went way onto the backburner during February.

Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff is my latest Self-Development read. It was a recommendation via Brene Brown’s books, but I’m currently finding it VERY confronting.

What’s catching my eye on the TBR:

Publicity is ramping up for the latest Sulari Gentil (number 10), which makes me feel like I need to read the next in the series (number six). Only I don’t own it yet, dammit…

And The Duke and I by Julia Quinn has arrived from the public library. Hoping to dig into that one later today.