Books and Book Reviews

Exciting Stuff!

I wanted to mention several things that I’m excited about. First and foremost, here’s the cover design for my forthcoming nonfiction book about the Woodville family. Love it! The book will be released by the History Press  in October of this year and is available for pre-order at Amazon UK. Second, the Historical Novel Society …

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My Favorite Reads of 2011, and Books to Look For in 2012

Happy New Year! I wanted to end the year by listing (in no particular order) some of my favorite reads of 2011. Most of these weren’t books that appeared in 2011, just books I read in 2011. Nonfiction: My Thoughts Be Bloody: The Bitter Rivalry That Led to the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Nora …

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The Horsey Master Stokes and the Gullible Mr. Marples

Where would the history of Lady Jane Grey and her family be without the intrepid Victorians? I came across this gem today while looking up a reference for Adrian Stokes. It’s from a piece in the 1885-86 Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society called “A Noble Family of the Middle Ages” by one …

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A Book to Avoid: The Nine Days Queen by Mary Luke

Last week, I picked up this 1986 biography of Lady Jane Grey by Mary Luke, a historical novelist who also dabbled in nonfiction. While I had been warned that this book was a heavily fictionalized account of Jane’s life, I had no idea just how fictionalized it was. In fact, it’s essentially a novel, and should …

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A Christmas Scene at Barnes and Noble

While buying a gift card at Barnes and Noble today, I overheard the following exchange: Clueless customer: “Do you sell Kindle gift cards?” Clerk: “No, we have Nooks here.” Clueless customer: “I need a gift card for my friend.” Clerk: “Well, the Nook gift cards are right here.” Clueless customer: “But where are the Kindle …

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Mean Girls, Historical Fiction Style

As some of my Facebook friends know, there’s a group called The History Police where like-minded individuals congregate in order to decry books and movies that distort history. Because a lot of us in that particular group are interested in medieval and Tudor history, books dealing with those periods get a good going-over there. One …

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