They encourage us to not only read a non-fiction book this month but also to look at non-fiction books in general.
I was thinking about a lot of subjects for this, the first one that sprang to my mind was history. My old history is either turning in his grave or laughing his head of, if he's still alive. I hated history lessons in school. But I have come to love it once I left school and learned about real history, not just learning dates by heart. Of coures, there are many topics there that I've read a lot about. World War II, Holocaust, history of Germany and Austria, history of the United Kingdom, Ireland, France. But in the end, I chose the part that I think is most exciting, a very busy time, a scandalous time,
No matter how many books they will write about this time or television series or movies make about it, I'll be there.
Starting with Henry VII who united the Houses of Lancaster and York after the war of the Roses, then Henry VIII and his six wives, his children Edward VI, (Bloody) Mary I and Good Queen Bess (the Virgin Queen). They all represent a part of the House of Tudor who ruled from 1485-1603, only 150 years but what a reign it was!
Weir, Alison "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" - 1991
Fry, Plantagenet Somerset "Kings & Queens. A Royal History of England & Scotland" - 1998
Arnold, Catharine "Globe: Life in Shakespeare's London" - 2014
Bryson, Bill "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage" - 2007
Deary, Terry "Top Ten Shakespeare Stories" - 1998
I have also read a lot of novels about the Tudors, a lot of them are almost as informative as the non-fiction editions. You can find them here.
This was instigated by our Classics Club reading challenge. I found them through Words and Peace. Thank you.
Serious list! You do sound like a real expert on the topic.
ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks. I said on one of the other pages that we are not supposed to be experts who studied a subject at university for decades, just need to know where we can look up stuff about the topic we chose. On the other hand, I also read somewhere taht if you have read a lot about a certain subject for many years, you probably know as much as any student with a degree.
DeleteIn any case, I always enjoy reading about the Tudors whether it's fact or fiction. I have Hilary Mantel's next book (The Mirror and the Light) on my TBR list and can't wait to start it.
Thanks for your visit. I also enjoyed your post about Japan.
I am not an expert on that time but I am drawn to it. This year my nonfiction November was devoted to women who have done amazing work to make America more equal when it comes to rights, especially for women: Alice Paul, who got us the right to vote for all women in all states (I will post my review of that one today) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I read two books by and or about her and have seen the documentary and the movie. So maybe a bit of an expert on her.
ReplyDeleteI should think you are an expert on may topics, I am sure the one you just mentioned is a very strong one there. I had thought about that or slavery or Holocaust, all of them subjects I have read a lot about but then in the end settled on this one. We all have our favourites, close to our hearts.
DeleteI'm looking forward to your reviews. Thanks for your visit.
Tudor times are indeed interesting. In 'Eleanor, The Secret Queen' by John Ashdown-Hill (review here: https://thecontentreader.blogspot.com/2019/07/eleanor-secret-queen-by-john-ashdown.html ) Ashdown-Hill looks at what would have happened if Eleanor would have been crowned Queen."Why then has Eleanor been so completely neglected? She is, in her own way, a key figure of English history, a veritable 'Cleopatra's nose'. If her marriage to Edward IV had been acknowledged in her lifetime, if she had actually been enthroned and crowned as England's queen-consort, all subsequent history must have been different. The house of York might still have been reigning today, in a separate kingdom, never united to Scotland. The despotic, paranoid Tudors would have remained unheard of outside their native Wales. Enormous consequences would flow from all this. The English Reformation, which sprang from Henry VIII's dynastic and financial crises, and was neither generally desired nor supported by the English populace, have preserved to the present day their unrivalled cultural heritage. No Tudors would mean no Stuarts; no Civil War; no Oliver Cromwell. The story goes on and on. It all turns on Eleanor." History never lets you down, always interesting.
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