We're ready for a new month.  So, what are you ordering and what are you reading.

After Will, I needed to get out of merry olde England.  I'm reading Darjeeling by Bharti Kirchner.  Looks like an interesting read.

I've just finished Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors and Bone House by Betsy Tobin. Both were good, enjoyable reads. Bone House was a bit strange, but also suspenseful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also read The Company: The Story of A Murderer by Arabella Edge last week. This one was so good! The main character is one sick puppy. I was shocked when I finished the book and found out that the novel is based on a true story. It seems impossible that this sadistic murderer could have really lived and did the horrible things he did. The book is based on the wreck of the ship Batavia in 1629. I had to add a non-fiction book about this to my wishlist so I can get more of the gory details. LOL

I have another HF book that I need to finish and then I'm going forward into the future. I need a break from history too. I'm wanting something contemporary and funny. I'm sure I can find something on these shelves that will fit my mood.

I am reading Loyal in Love, Jean Plaidy's newly released novel about Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I. I have not gotten very far yet, but I'm enjoying the recounting of Henrietta's childhood in France, with her mother and her brother, the boy king, up to their necks in intrigue.

After I finish this, I'm planning to dive back into Kathy Lynn Emerson's Elizabethan mystery series and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series (science fiction/space opera).

Just finished The Revolt of the Eaglets.  I am really enjoying the Plantagenet Series as it is clearing up for me the early reigns of English history.  It also explains the antagonism between France and England that has existed from this time.  Also, am in the last pages of Will Kingdom's The Cold Calling.  It is very similar to the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman.  Wonderful mystery mixed with the paranormal.

I started The Twelfth Transforming by Pauline Gedge last night. It is about Pharoah Akhenaten's reign.

I had to give up on Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem. As far as I could tell, there was really no plot line, and there was absolutely nothing to keep a reader interested. Really makes me wonder about all the 5 star ratings on Amazon.

Just finished (and posted!) Royal Harlot by Susan Holloway Scott.   A wonderfully, trashy novel about Barbara Villier Palmer, mistress to Charles II. 

I've been on a kick reading books about Charles II and his mistresses of late.  This wasn't the best, but it wasn't awful either.  Trashy - yes; but once in a while we all need those types of books. :)

Marci, I thought Royal Harlot was pretty trashy, too. I actually wished it had had less sex and more information about the history of the times. Does that mean I'm becoming a boring, dried-up old maid? LOL!

I don't mind sex scenes in novels, but there were so many in this one I actually felt bludgeoned by them. Kind of like watching Showgirls.

Felicia wrote:  I thought Royal Harlot was pretty trashy, too. I actually wished it had had less sex and more information about the history of the times. Does that mean I'm becoming a boring, dried-up old maid? LOL!

--

Move over and make way for another prude!  I didn't mind Duchess by the same author, wasn't anywhere near as raunchy, but Royal Harlot.  Well, I suppose with a title like that, I should have known what I was getting into.  Thanks for letting me know I wasn't alone in my thoughts.

I just picked up a copy of "Sally Hemings" by Barbara Chase-Riboud.  So far, it's very good.

I am almost done with The Skystone by Jack Whyte, first of the Camulod Chronicles--I guess since it's an Arthurian series, it would be considered part historical fiction and possibly part fantasy, but in this book it's pretty much all Roman historical fiction, set in 360's A.D. Britain.

I also just finished up The Weaver's Inheritance by Kate Sedley, that's like the 8th (I think) in the Roger the Chapman series...and I got it from the library because I had them on my WL here and never moved at all--I love that series and just wasn't willing to wait years for the books through here. LOL

Cheryl

I'm about fifty pages from the end of Graeme-Evans'  The Innocent - was there anyone who wanted to read it next? Let me know.

I also kind of want light and fluffy, so I'm going to read The Big Over-Easy next

I just started The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven.

I love these historic Arctic expedition books, but I always dread getting to the part where they have to eat the dogs. And, I don't even want to know what happens to the ship's cat. Aargh...!

Cheryl, I was lucky enough to get The Weaver's Inheritance through PBS, but it was on my list for more than a year before it came through.

What is it about this series? Libraries seem to have the books, but you can't find them for sale anywhere, or if you do find them, they cost big bucks.

Do we talk about historical non-fiction as well as fiction on this board? I'm reading The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton, which is a biography/social history about Isabella Beeton, who was sort of the Martha Stewart of the Victorian era. She wrote Beeton's Book of Household Management in the 1850's, and I guess it's still in print in Great Britain. It was the sort of book that every new bride got for 100 years and more.

OOooh, Janelle, that sounds awesome.  I definitely talk about non-fiction too ;)

I have been reading the richard sharpe books . Have you read any of these? I also read horatio hornblower.Does any body know of any other books, like these,Thank you...

I just ordered what is supposed to be a wonderful book: The Physician by Noah Gordon

In the eleventh-century London, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling,juggling, peddling cures to the sick--and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing--a gift that urged him on to become a doctor. So all consuming was his dream, that he made the perilous, unheard-of journey to Persia, to its Arab universities where he would undertake a transformation that would shape his destiny forever....

I am currently reading for my HF Soul Catcher http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780061340727-Soul+Catcher

Its really very good. Its really making me think for sure. I havent read to many Pre to during Civil War HF's but this one realy is excellent and caught my attention. I am usually reading 4 books or so at a time, this ones made it tough to pick up the other ones, lol.

Well, I thought I was getting The Queen's Handmaiden.  Pfffft.  I had it on autorequest...the person listed it and then just never did anything and the transaction timed out.  Phooey on her.

Jennifer: I have the Physician by Noah Gordon here to read.Did you know there are two other books in the series?

1)Physician

2)Sharman

3)Choices or the other title Matters of Choice.

Yep. I knew that, but the other two are set in places/ times I am completely uninterested in, so I will probably not read them unless The Physician really blows me away.

I finished The Ice Master. It was so good! I'm dying to tell what happened to the ship's cat, but I don't want to spoil it in case someone decides to read this book. It is a great story though!

I'm now reading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This book has a rather long wishlist line. If anyone would like me to post it to their wishlist, I'd be happy to do it. Just pm me.

Awww...Anne, I have already mailed my copy. If I'd known you wanted it, I would have been happy to mail it to you instead. I'm sorry! I hope you get a copy soon! I had this one on my wishlist and got a copy pretty quickly. I was the only one in line for it at the time though. It really was a great story. Tragic, but good!

Right now, I'm reading Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe by Gregory Gibson. I seem to be stuck on historic exploration and adventure again. Can't get enough of these books! I really need to find some new ones. I'm just about out of these books now.

I started the Robert the Bruce trilogy by Nigel Tranter last night. I am only about 150 pages in so far, so I haven't even made a small dent yet, but it is good so far!