Started reading this book a few weeks after returning home from a trip to Florence and Rome - and I didn't know what it was about. One of our favourite places in Florence was the Museo di San Marco. Imagine my delight when I realized this book was about the person whose little cell I had just visited, whose hair shirt/belt I had gazed upon only a few weeks earlier. I even bought a bookmark of Fra Angelico's Annunciation from one of the monk's cells.
This was my first Jo Walton book. I was quite surprised by the twist, and found it very interesting. Overall the story is compelling and I enjoyed it very much. Some previous knowledge of Savonarola might be helpful for context.
And as someone firmly on team "Richard III didn't do it" this book provides a rather striking possible alternative outcome...
This was my first Jo Walton book. I was quite surprised by the twist, and found it very interesting. Overall the story is compelling and I enjoyed it very much. Some previous knowledge of Savonarola might be helpful for context.
And as someone firmly on team "Richard III didn't do it" this book provides a rather striking possible alternative outcome...
I loved it - wondering if there's an annotated updated version...?
June 2020: Finally finished. How much and how little has changed in 600 years.
May 2020: I still have about 150 pages to go (I read non-fiction very slowly!) but am completely interested and enthralled by Barbara Tuchman's writing, and am already wondering what book about the 15th century I'll read...
May 2020: I still have about 150 pages to go (I read non-fiction very slowly!) but am completely interested and enthralled by Barbara Tuchman's writing, and am already wondering what book about the 15th century I'll read...
I took almost a year to read this, mostly a page or two at a time. The stories are all shared pretty much as they were told to Barry Broadfoot, so it reads as a transcription of interviews (which I suspect they may be!)
This is a time capsule of people in their 50s-70s talking in the 1970s about the 1930s. It's fascinating!
More...colourful than a textbook, let's say. Lots of opinions and spirited comments about R. B. Bennett, Mackenzie King, and others. A lot of the stories are in BC and the Prairies, and a good number from the Maritimes. There are several dollops of racist epithets throughout, often anti-Semitic and anti-Ukrainian in nature.
I didn't know that Ontario had sent train loads of goods (clothing etc) to the Prairies during the drought. I didn't know about relief camps. There is a LOT I didn't know, and I now want to read more about it.
Also, it seems privileged conservative types have always called poor people wanting food & shelter for everyone "communists." Plus ca change...
This is a time capsule of people in their 50s-70s talking in the 1970s about the 1930s. It's fascinating!
More...colourful than a textbook, let's say. Lots of opinions and spirited comments about R. B. Bennett, Mackenzie King, and others. A lot of the stories are in BC and the Prairies, and a good number from the Maritimes. There are several dollops of racist epithets throughout, often anti-Semitic and anti-Ukrainian in nature.
I didn't know that Ontario had sent train loads of goods (clothing etc) to the Prairies during the drought. I didn't know about relief camps. There is a LOT I didn't know, and I now want to read more about it.
Also, it seems privileged conservative types have always called poor people wanting food & shelter for everyone "communists." Plus ca change...
Another wonderful P.D. James. Special mention to the excellent narrator, Penelope Dellaporta.
I'm terrible at reviews, so:
Thank you, Ms. McCracken, I loved it.
Thank you, Ms. McCracken, I loved it.
Moving Pictures: Discworld: The Unseen University Collection (Discworld Hardback Library) by Terry Pratchett
Not my favourite Discworld (by a longshot!) Best part of the book are the Gaspode/Laddie sections. On to Lords & Ladies!
One of the most remarkable narratives I've read in recent years. I'm terrible at reviews: it was thoroughly engrossing and I loved it. Contains a lot of difficult passages, describing situations in prison mines and interrogation cells. But the story is captivating and beautifully written.
(I am a terrible review writer.) I loved this book, I loved her voice, I loved the thickness of the paper, I loved her investigations into feelings and the why of feelings and the quirky and interesting groups of people she met along the way. Strongly recommended.
Like nothing else I have ever read. Wowzers.
Yeah I say 'wowzers' more often than I ought. So be it.
Yeah I say 'wowzers' more often than I ought. So be it.
Just read it. It's so beautiful.
Y by Marjorie Celona
I thought this book wasn't having a deep effect on me. Then, twenty pages left to read, tears are streaming down my face. Ah, good books.
Thank you, Caitlin, for this wonderful book. Three cheers for sleeves and choices!
So beautiful. I did not have enough Kleenex on hand. Highly recommended.
This book made me wish I'd known Nora Ephron. I really enjoyed it, even the painful parts. She writes about food like someone who actually eats, which I love.
Very scary. Well-written. Looking forward to reading more of this author's work.
I loved this book. Read it in Paris over baguette with butter and jam and yummy coffee. Gothic, mysterious, with characters whose pain seems as real as their situation seems absurd.
Not sure how I managed 25 years of reading detective novels and sopping up the history of the British monarchy - including a strong pro-Ricardian revisionist bent - without reading this book.
That oversight has now been righted!
Absolutely brilliant.
That oversight has now been righted!
Absolutely brilliant.
Fascinating, difficult. Haven't read many novels with illustrated examples of sexual acts. I was infatuated with the person who first mentioned this author to me. So I found this book, devoured it, and of course read things into it to cushion my hurt feelings. 'Twas ever thus.
Dark, creepy, really put me in the Christmas spirit. :-)
I'm surprised the book didn't catch fire as I turned the pages!
Easily the best one so far (though I have many to read yet!!)