Edward Patterson

The turbulent 12th century. Bandit armies, barbarian armies. Misgovernment, corruption, starvation. I found this to be an often hard-hitting portrait of those times, full of moral complexity.

Our young main enters the civil service and moves up to the court. He has an arranged marriage and a cut-sleeve affair. Cut-sleeve is old Chinese for gay. These relationships were told of very much within their setting.

One thing that wasn’t within the setting I thought a shame: that’s a connection to show more the author’s contemporary, supernatural novels. Because my interests are historical, this was an intrusion.

Exquisitely researched, finely told. show less

This is a case of it's not you it's me.
I tried to read something outside of my comfort zone (i.e. Romance, mystery, and graphic novels) and picked this because it had queer characters. But I've been reading for months and am only creeping forward in increments of one of two percent.
I've no doubt the author knows his subject and he writes well but I'm not engaged with either the characters or the subject matter.
I'm afraid it's time to give up because there are too many books that I *want* to show more read. show less

A good basic book about Pugs. I still had to supplement it with other pug-based pet care books as not all of my questions were answered.