Nov 15 - Dec 15: Nominating

[Sara W]

***FRENCH OR ITALIAN***

***ANY TIME PERIOD, 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 FRENCH OR ITALIAN (any time period, can include ancient Rome, fiction or non-fiction). The book doesn't have to be set in either of those countries the entire time, so there can be some flexibility (like Eleanor of Aquitaine or Mary Queen of Scots would be fine since they each spent quite a long time in France, etc.).

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 October 31st, 9pm Eastern.

At around that time, I'll make a voting thread and list all the nominated books, and people can vote for one book off of that list until November 4th around 9pm Eastern. Discussion can start on November 15th.

Laura previously nominated

Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles



by Margaret George

Since it didn't quite fit in last month's theme, I told her I would get it listed this month since it would fit in the theme.

Happy Nominating!

[Mandy]

I'd like to nominate one!
Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty

Madame Du Barry: The Wages of Beauty by Joan Haslip

It looks wonderful!

Regarding availability...
It is out of print. However, I was able to find several used copies for sale for very reasonable prices on Barnesandnoble.com and on ebay. I'd assume that it would be in a lot of used book stores, too.

[Sara W]

That's fine Mandy. I nominated a book that was out of print once but was pretty easy to find online (and it was reasonably priced as well). I just checked out amazon and there were a ton of sellers there too with good prices for this book, and there are always libraries that might have it. Thanks for nominating!

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

I'd like to nominate The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland. It looks really interesting.

[Catherine]

I nominate "Farewell My Queen," about Marie-Antoinette at the very beginning of the Revolution.
Not only is it French-themed, by it was written by a Frenchwoman, Chantal Thomas, who is also a historian.
Josephine B. is great, but it is a 3-book series.

[Sera]

I'd like to nominate The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoniette An Novel by Carolly Erickson. I have a few books by Erickson but I haven't read any yet so I figured that this might be a good opportunity if others are interested.

[Jill]

I nominate Royal Road to Fotheringhay by Jean Plaidy. I just finished The Other Queen about Mary Queen of Scots and I would like to learn more about her.

[Emily]

I would like to read Mistress of the Vatican by Eleanor Herman which is a non-fiction book about a woman who openly ran the Vatican back in the 1600s. She's not technically royalty, but she was the likely mistress of a Pope. It seems to have gotten good ratings and reviews.

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[Angelica]

OOOhhh Mistress of the Vatican. I saw that at the Ren Fest this summer. I'll go with that.

[Catherine]

Here's the publisher's presentation of Mistress of the Vatican: "Today's Roman Catholic Church firmly states that women must be excluded from church leadership positions..." Yeah, right, that's why the Church kept Mother Teresa of Calcutta under wraps, prevented her from founding the Sisters of Charity, etc.

In the book's website the author mentions the "terrifying confines of the convent." On the contrary at the time convents were, outside the beds of royalty, the only places of power for many women.

Don't get me wrong: many of the Renaissance Popes and Cardinals were a disgrace to the Church, and there's no reason to keep their antics, or their numerous and picturesque mistresses, under wraps, quite the contrary.

But what I don't like about the marketing of this particular book is the reek of Catholic-bashing, still apparently a popular sport (and it's even politically correct if you can dress it up as pseudo-feminism!)

[Emily]

I certainly hope that the book doesn't engage in Catholic bashing, particularly of the church of today (as compared to those Renaissance-era Popes and Cardinals you mention). I had read a few reviews before suggesting it and hadn't picked up on it, but if you think that the book is offensive, I'm happy to retract the nomination.

[Angelica]

Same here. I'd be fine with reading a Marie-Antoinette book.

[Sara W]

Geez, my computer just did something crazy and totally erased my comment.

The book can stay in for the voting. There are so many choices this month (thank you everyone!) that there are plenty of other books to choose from.

I'll try to start getting these on the nominating-shelf so people can see them all nice and pretty (although that new "add book" feature really allows me to make the voting thread look nice with the covers).

[Catherine]

My problem is with the presentation of "Mistress of the Vatican." It's completely all right with me if we as a group nominate it, though I wouldn't vote for it. It is simply a problem we need to keep in mind while reading it. Maybe it is only the publisher's (dumb and offensive) marketing strategy, or maybe it reflects the position of the author.

So I am sticking with my nomination of Farewell My Queen. Warning: I belong to HistoricalFictionOnline, and some members there loved it, but some found it slow. It is also beautifully written, and some found it too literary. I checked here at Goodreads, and it doesn't seem to have garnered many reviews.

It an accurate (isn't that nice in historical fiction?) depiction of three crucial days in Marie-Antoinette's life. To me the accuracy aspect is very important, since depictions of Marie-Antoinette, during her life and to this day, often seem to be more the product of the author's fantasies and projections than the result of objective research. And unfortunately, that's true even of non-fiction on MA. The result can be quite entertaining and successful from an artistic standpoint (see for instance the Sofia Coppola movie) but it completely distorts the character of the Queen.

So I stick to my vote!



Farewell, My Queen

[Sara W]

Oh, by all means, I don't want ANYONE to change their nominations! Sometimes the controversial books make for good discussions, but I don't want people to think that by leaving the book in for voting that I'm somehow saying people should vote for it.

I'll set up the voting thread tonight. There are a lot of great books to choose from, so everyone please vote!

[Sara W]

The time for nominating is over! Thanks for all of the great suggestions! Now it's time to vote!