The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir
This book impressed me mostly in how deep and thorough it was without ever veering into textbook territory. That’s a thin line to walk, and Alison Weir does it masterfully. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction about the Tudors (mostly Phillipa Gregory and Alison Weir), so it was nice to read the facts that make up the bones of those stories. Throughout the book, I bounced between thinking that Elizabeth was one of the most indecisive people ever and realizing that I can’t really begin to understand the weight of each decision she made.
Pinstripes and Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of ’64 Who Forged an Old Girl Network and Paved the Way for Future Generations by Judith Richards Hope
Well, the subtitle gives you a fair idea of the subject matter of this book. Women advancing in traditionally-male environments is a subject I feel is important enough to enable me to overlook some of the sweeping generalizations Hope made about her female classmates (they were so hardworking! they never complained!). This glossy image fades as Hope interviews her own children about their thoughts on having a mother who broke societal norms. This book is brave and honest. I’ve never had to give serious thought to my gender in relation to my career aspirations, so I’m forever in debt to the generations of women before me.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
This book was put on my holds list at the library as soon as I finished The Abominable in October. Got to love authors you can depend on! This book documents an arctic voyage to discover the Northwest Passage in the late 1840s. Two ships are trapped in pack ice above the Arctic Circle for two winters. I read this book during an unseasonable cold snap here in Chicago and I blame it for my inability to get warm.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I grabbed this book as soon as I saw it at the Newberry Library Book Fair in July – a story of France during WWII is a sure-bet for me. The stories of two young-adults – a blind girl from Paris living with her great-uncle in St. Malo and a German orphan trained in radio repair and sent to the front to root out partisan radio operations – intertwine in short, two-page bursts. I devoured this book. You don’t see many books set in St. Malo (or, I don’t, at least) and that was a definite bonus. I went to St. Malo with my sister in 2003 and we loved the area I perceived to be the ancient walled city. I had no idea that the vast majority of the city was burned to the ground in August of 1944.
The Devil’s Company by David Liss
I’ve read many things by Liss (in fact, I think I’ve now concluded the Benjamin Weaver series). Liss has come to be an author I depend on for fun, rich historical fiction. This particular book was set in London in 1722 and deals with the inner-workings of the East India Company. As with all Liss books – particularly those with Benjamin Weaver as the protagonist – there are layers upon layers of deceit and intrigue. These books make me audibly gasp as the story unfurls. Liss also does a great job layering in historical detail (this time, I got to learn about the window tax and scrofula).
Every year I set a personal reading goal in GoodReads. I met this year’s goal (60 books) with The Terror.
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