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THIS BOOK.
I wanted to hug it to myself forever. And really, I probably never would have read it but for the book bingo challenge. I decided to widen my net for the "book your friend loves" category and asked for recommendations on Facebook. A huge list resulted, but for some reason it was this one, recommended by one of my English professors from college, Sandy Feinstein, that I fixated on. It's the somewhat familiar story of Henry VIII, but focused on Thomas Cromwell instead.
I did spend entire ...more
I wanted to hug it to myself forever. And really, I probably never would have read it but for the book bingo challenge. I decided to widen my net for the "book your friend loves" category and asked for recommendations on Facebook. A huge list resulted, but for some reason it was this one, recommended by one of my English professors from college, Sandy Feinstein, that I fixated on. It's the somewhat familiar story of Henry VIII, but focused on Thomas Cromwell instead.
I did spend entire ...more
I don't always have the greatest luck with liking the Booker Prize winners, and Wolf Hall is no exception. I could only give it three stars because Mantel's use of the first person (Cromwell himself) was just annoying. I did finally get used to it, but the voice made me less able to focus on the story itself.
The story - it's a good one. Mantel gives us Cromwell's account of Henry VIII's "divorce" from Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent "marriage" to Anne Boleyn. All the right historical cha ...more
The story - it's a good one. Mantel gives us Cromwell's account of Henry VIII's "divorce" from Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent "marriage" to Anne Boleyn. All the right historical cha ...more
OK. So the things she added to flesh out Thomas Cromwell's private life were interesting. However, her writing style was horrible and difficult to follow at times and the book was SO long and didn't have enough to hook the reader in my opinion. I would have stopped reading it halfway through if I hadn't HAD to read it for school.
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This book is incredible at humanizing these far-off historical figures. I never thought I would be truly invested in Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and cardinals and counselors, etc. etc.
Mantel's writing is incredible... something about the way she sort of goes sideways into dialogue and begins chapters without identifying who's speaking requires a lot of concentration, so I found it slow-going albeit beautifully done -- a tough read, but worth it. ...more
Mantel's writing is incredible... something about the way she sort of goes sideways into dialogue and begins chapters without identifying who's speaking requires a lot of concentration, so I found it slow-going albeit beautifully done -- a tough read, but worth it. ...more
Could not do it
I have already read The Other Boleyn Girl and watched some episodes of The Tudors, so this subject was not new territory for me. This book is long and focuses on the politics that go on around the king, specifically, between the church and Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Moore. Just not my favorite type of book.
Made it half way through this book before giving up on it. I really wanted to like it. The pacing is very slow. Although every part of the story had a purpose, it felt like it was going nowhere.
Sep 03, 2010
Amy
marked it as to-read
Sep 26, 2012
A
marked it as shelved
Oct 20, 2012
Alison
marked it as to-read
Oct 21, 2012
Halsted Bernard
marked it as to-read
Nov 28, 2012
Leah Fitzgerald
marked it as to-read
May 10, 2013
Maureen
added it
Nov 25, 2013
Melle
marked it as to-read
May 06, 2017
Chris Stanford
marked it as to-read
