Book Talk

[potioncat]

> Carol:
 
> Seriously, I have a problem that I can't solve. I've tried other books, but either (like the HP books and LOTR and Jane Austen) they're so familiar that I know them by heart or I can't get into them. 

Potioncat:
Me too. I have a difficult finding fiction at all.

Carol:
I reread <snip> and all my evolution books (anyone want to discuss Australopithecines or Homo Habilils?) 

Potioncat:
Which evolution books would you recommend? 

> 
> Carol:
> Biography? Have you read her "biography" of Richard's wife, Anne Neville? Alison Weir is the Rita Skeeter of fifteenth-century history. 

Potioncat:
LOL...just my luck! 

She 'has' dropped some inuendo-laced hints about Richard II. I was thinking that I had heard about this author from you, yet I didn't think you read about Swynford's time. So it must have been the Anne Neville book you told me about. Did you read it? It must have been written after the Katherine book, because I don't see it listed on the jacket. Looks like she's written several bios.


Carol:
She may be okay with Katherine Swynford since she was before Richard's time, but I'm sure you can't help noting a marked pro-Lancastrain bias, even there. BTW, "several of their descendants were involved in the War[s] of the Roses" is a bit of an understatement <snip>

Potioncat:
That was my wording, because I took a look at the geneology chart and rather than try to count it out, went for a vague number. Frankly it seems to me that the labels Yorkist or Lancastrian were really sides rather than families. Because everyone seems to have a little of both in their "bloodline." Gees, it's worse than the Black Family Tapestry.

As far as Lancatrian bias, as you say, this is before Richard III's time. The York-Lancaster feud hasn't started yet--but I think I see it coming. Since the main characters are John and Katherine, the book does has a bias toward them. And it is mainly about their relationship with some politics and sociology thrown in.

The book was inspired by "Katherine" by Anya Seton which is the book that started me on historical fiction and started my Lancasterian leanings. Since knowing you (Carol) I've gone from being a Lascaster supporter to pretty much thinking "A pox on both your houses."

But I still like reading the books. ;-)