Sara W's comments (member since Jan 02, 2008)

Sara W's comments from the European Royalty group.

Ha ha ha, I haven't even gotten to anything about the Bess/R3 relationship in this book, but I can guess where you guys (and probably Gregory) are going, and I thought she would take that route way back when Misfit first posted the cover of the book! It's Gregory after all! If she had Anne sleeping with her brother in TOBG, there is no way she's going to pass this up.

I actually did not expect a lot of sizzle between Elizabeth and Edward (I expected about as much sizzle between them as I do between Anne and Henry VIII - pretty much one sided). Stuff that I read about Elizabeth prior to this book portrayed her as kind of a cold fish (albeit a very beautiful one who refused to put out until married) who didn't mind her husband sleeping around as long as the mistresses didn't try to influence him (which was one reason she tolerated Shore) so that he would continue to be influenced by her and her family. I'm interested in the idea that they were a passionate couple though. What books have you read which feature that? It makes for a much nicer story.

I set up a poll with this month's nominations for the History group read. Go check it out (click polls over there to the right or scroll to the bottom of the group's home page). Voting can take place UNTIL the poll shuts itself down (sometime early morning of the 25th). Feel free to try to lobby for your favorite nominee in this thread or the comments section of the poll, but I will NOT be counting votes from here or the comments section of the poll - ONLY the votes in the actual poll count. If there is a tie after the poll closes itself down, we will have a tie-breaker vote amongst the tied books. Enjoy!

***Note - Once in the polling area, if you click on "comments and details" or "comments [some #:]" in the lower right corner directly underneath the poll, it lists the authors and book titles so you can click on them for details about the books (especially good if you don't know what some of them are about)***

Nominating is closed! Time to vote!

Laura wrote: "I don't know if this one will count since part of it is in the present. The 19th Wife A Novel"

Perfectly fine! We've read other books that jump around different periods.

Well, I'm just starting this section, but I can see why people had some complaints. I didn't anticipate Elizabeth and her mom blowing up storms by whistling for one thing. Gregory does a lot of telling what happens (in a quick manner) as opposed to showing us what's happening. The first person POV didn't bother me too much at first, but it does kind of limit the book (can't really talk much about a battle if your POV character is hiding in a church which goes back to the telling and not showing part). Edward dying seemed to come out of no where - I agree with the people who commented that the book felt rushed. There was a lot of repetitive phrasing in the dialogue which is starting to irritate me (I can't think of some of the lines at this moment, but the characters would say a line, and then repeat the same phrase - seemed very unnecessary).

I'm still enjoying it for the most part, but I'm kind of ready for the book to end. Oh, and them still referring to Edward as "Baby" when he's 12 is just weird - how the hell do they expect him to lead an army and country when they are calling him that?

I liked it too, but certain parts dragged a little bit for me. I like Isabelle a lot, and I'll definitely read the next book.

Well, I'm surprised - I'm enjoying this book quite a bit so far. It seems like it should be a quick read. So far, at least with how far I've read (right up to the point where Edward stood up to the Kingmaker and Elizabeth has come to court), there hasn't been anything too outrageous. I mean, Gregory plays up aspects of the story that other books I've read have only hinted at (Elizabeth's mom's family background with witchcraft, Edward's possible first marriage, his mother's alleged affair), but I'm not pulling my hair out and screaming like I was when I tried to get through The Other Boleyn Girl. Maybe she'll start screwing with the story eventually, but for me, so far so good!

Hhhmmm, good question! I just tried googling something like that, but couldn't find too much. There is a free language course website - www.livemocha.com - where you can "friend" people (like here) and they can help you with things like pronunciations. That could be worth looking into for you. I think they have new "upgrades" that you pay for, but I think the basic courses (and socializing aspect of it) are still free.

Thanks Robin!

Please discuss Spring 1464 to Winter 1469-70.

Please discuss Spring 1470 through Spring 1479 here.

Please discuss April 1483 to the end here.

Feel free to discuss anything about the book in this thread. If you (and others) are here, you (and they) have finished the book, so don't worry about posting spoilers. If you haven't finished the book, you may not want to read anything here yet!

***NORTH AMERICA (BEFORE 1945)***

***FICTION OR NON-FICTION***

Okay everyone, it's that time of the month - time to nominate! Anyone who would like to nominate ONE book may do so in this thread.

The theme this month is NORTH AMERICA (BEFORE 1945) (fiction or non-fiction). United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean - lots of choices and flexibility!

Please try to check amazon or some other site to make sure the book is easily available - the last thing we want is to nominate some great book that no one can get! If you nominate more than ONE book, only the first book listed will make it into the voting thread (so save additional books for the next months!). Also, if the book doesn't fit the theme, I won't add it to this month's voting list, but I will carry it over to the next theme that it does fit under if you would like.

Feel free to nominate one book of your choice in this thread until November 18th, 9pm Eastern.

At around that time, I'll make a voting poll and list all the nominated books in it, and people can vote in the poll until the poll closes (set to last through November 23rd). Discussion will start on January 1st.

Happy Nominating!

I liked the Pope stories the best because I didn't know most of them. The Spanish Haspburg ones are good too (I've read most of them before though)! OMG, all the uncles marrying nieces! It's no wonder there were so many physical and mental problems.

Susan C wrote: "Well now I'm stumped, should I get Eleanor The Queen or not? Opinions Please!!!

right now i think it's 2-1 no."

Well, I'm certainly late to the discussion (worked 12 days straight and finally have a day off), but I enjoyed Eleanor the Queen by Lofts and have read it twice.

I have been crazy busy at work lately, so I've kind of fallen behind checking the threads besides setting up the group reads (thank goodness for Mandy and all the regulars here!). If you ask me a question in a thread and I don't respond, it's not because I'm ignoring you! I just haven't had a chance to read it. If you have a question that someone else here can't answer, please feel free to send me a message through goodreads since I should get it through my regular email. I hope to get caught up here soon!

Hey everyone! Our December 15 to January 15 European Royalty group read will be:

The Queen's Secret A Novel



by Jean Plaidy



It only took about two years, but we are finally reading a Plaidy book here!

We will start the discussion on DECEMBER 15TH.

We'll do the discussion threads broken up by chapters like all the other times, but I figure this thread can be used by those frustrated with amazon's delivery slowness (or your library's slowness) or for any other reason. Just don't discuss the book in any detail here! (General "I'm a couple chapters in and I like it" comments are fine, but we'll start the real discussion threads on DECEMBER 15th.) For those of you just joining us, you can look through the previous threads in this Monthly Group Read section to see how we did it before because the process will be the same (there's also a thread just like this thread for the other books we've read together).

I set up a poll with this month's nominations for the European Royalty group read. Go check it out (click polls over there to the right or scroll to the bottom of the group's home page). Voting can take place UNTIL the poll shuts itself down (sometime early morning of the 6th). Feel free to try to lobby for your favorite nominee in this thread or the comments section of the poll, but I will NOT be counting votes from here or the comments section of the poll - ONLY the votes in the actual poll count. If there is a tie after the poll closes itself down, we will have a tie-breaker vote amongst the tied books. Enjoy!

***Note - Once in the polling area, if you click on "comments and details" or "comments [some #:]" in the lower right corner directly underneath the poll, it lists the authors and book titles so you can click on them for details about the books (especially good if you don't know what some of them are about)***

Nominating is closed! Sorry this one got away from me a bit. I'm going to sub in that other Gortner book for The Last Queen since we have read it (Secret Lion was the only one I found by him readily available besides The Last Queen).

Oh, and I'll nominate The Queen's Secret by Jean Plaidy. Not necessarily my favorite Plaidy, but it's very good and would be fun to discuss.