The Heretic's Apprentice

Ellis Peter's medieval mystery, "The Heretic's Apprentice" (I think it was number 16 in the Brother Cadfael series) was a little slow to start, but after about 40 pages it started getting really interesting and I ended up enjoying it. It takes place in the 1500s, and is about an apprentice named Elave who returns to this little village with his master's body. His master died while on a pilgrimage, and wanted to be buried in the church graveyard, so Elave brought his body home, along with a dowry for his adopted daughter, a pretty carved box. What follows is intrigue as to what was originally in the box (turns out it was an illuminated Psalter), and who wanted it badly enough to lie, steal, and murder for it. I'm glad I'm taking the class on manuscripts so I knew what all the terms meant!

Libraries in the Ancient World

I must seem like the most boring person on earth--all I read are library related books and books on football! Lately, anyway. Well, Lionel Casson's "Libraries in the Ancient World" wasn't technically for school; it just kind of tied into my History of Books and Libraries class, so I read it. It was okay. Short (150 pages), which is always nice, but it was a little too technical for my taste. It had a lot on architecture and how the ancient libraries were designed, which is interesting, I guess. I'm more interested in how they were organized, who did the organizing, etc., which he also did talk about. All in all it wasn't a bad book, and it has illustrations (always a plus!). I'm just burnt on school stuff right now and really want to read something fun.

The Illuminator

"The Illuminator" by Brenda Rickman Vantrease is set in the 1380s, and I'm sorry, there is no way to concisely sum this one up: there's too much going on. An illuminator, a scribe who (back then, before the invention of the printing press) hand wrote books, has an assignment from a church to do a manuscript for him. The church makes arrangements for Finn and his daughter Rose to stay at a nearby manor house, Blackingham Manor, run by Lady Kathryn, a widow with twin sons. On the side, Finn is writing out what the church would consider heresy if they found out: the Bible in English, so the common people can read it. He and Lady Kathryn fall in love, as do Rose and Kathryn's younger son, Colin. Kathryn's older son is jealous and plants one of his mother's necklaces that he found in the overseer's cottage (the overseer killed the priest Kathryn had given the necklace to as a tithe; I know, I know, it's getting complicated) in Finn's bag. When the sheriff comes, he finds the necklace, assumes that Finn killed the priest, and hauls him off to jail. Rose, in the meantime, has become pregnant with Colin's child, and Colin doesn't know because he has left on a pilgrimage. Anyway, the whole book had a lot of intrigue and things going on, and while I liked it, the ending was very sad.

The Book: the Life Story of Technology and Manning

"The Book: the Life Story of Technology" by Nicole Howard was yet another book for school, but it was short (150 pages or so, compared to around 400 for the others) and concise, which I liked. It just briefly touched on the high points of how the book was made, starting with the papyrus roll up to e-books (I'm dying to get my hands on a Kindle--I just want to see how it works!).
"Manning" by Archie and Peyton Manning was about a football family dynasty. I miss football. It's been gone almost three weeks now! Anyway, this was a great book. Archie was a quarterback for the New Orleans Saints back in the 70s and early 80s, and while he was a good player (my dad actually thinks he was better than Peyton or Eli, but I wouldn't go that far!) the Saints weren't a great team and he ended up never having a winning season or going to the Super Bowl, something both of his sons have now done. The book was written in 2000, when Eli first started college at Ole Miss, and Peyton had just finished his second season with the Colts, so it begs to be updated. It sounds like Archie and Olivia Manning were great parents, and they raised three great and highly talented kids. I can't wait to see where the Manning boys end up in football history. They've both shown how great they are, and I think Eli will just keep getting better. Brett will always be my guy, but I do love to watch those Manning boys play. I can't wait for August!

How the Irish Saved Civilization

Good question! Thomas Cahill answers this in his book "How the Irish Saved Civilization". After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century C.E., the Irish became the only nation in Europe that was actively promoting literacy, and its monks were still copying manuscripts and making codices, while throughout the rest of Europe (this was the era known as the Dark Ages) barbarians were destroying libraries. Irish monks rescued as many manuscripts as they could, and once the dust settled, they started spreading out through Europe, to reteach the lost art of book making. So that, my friends, is how the Irish saved civilization, by saving and reproducting books and manuscripts. See, and you didn't think books were important :-) It was a good book, very interesting, and I really liked Cahill's style of writing: he was funny and sarcastic and engaging.

Mademoiselle Boleyn

Yesterday I finished reading Robin Maxwell's "Mademoiselle Boleyn", a highly fictionalized accout of Anne Boleyn's life in the French court of King Francois and his longsuffering wife, Claude. While very enjoyable, it was a bit of a stretch historically. She has Anne as friends with Leonardo da Vinci, who helps her by giving her advise on how to keep Francois from taking her virginity. Really? Even if she ever met da Vinci, do you honestly think he'd care? Anyway, I love how she made Thomas Boleyn out to be the villian I believe he was, forcing Mary (Anne's older sister) to prostitute herself out first to Francois and later to King Henry VIII (another villian). Some things she changed and I'm not sure why, like having Mary start her affair with Henry after her marriage to William Carey. I think most historians agree she had the affair with the king first, who then married her off to Carey, which is why many doubt the rumor that Mary's first child, a boy named Henry, was actually a royal bastard: by the time she got pregnant, her affair with Henry was over and she was married to Carey. Also, she has Anne refusing to give up her virginity to Henry Percy, who was considered by most historians not only to be the love of her life, but also someone she had a "precontract" with, which meant they were practically married and most likey slept together. I thought it was very funny, at the end of the book they have like a little author interview thing, and Maxwell expresses outrage at some of the liberties other fiction writers have taken with Anne, using a book that I've read as an example. In this other book, the author makes Anne out to be a really nasty person in comparision with her sister, Mary. Anne "adopts" Mary's boy Henry (by then Anne is the queen, so she really doesn't need to do anything legally) to raise at court as her own, and Mary is powerless to stop her. Maxwell is angry that this other writer took such liberties, but ironically, she does the same thing. There is no historical proof that Thomas Boleyn forced his daugher to become not one but two different kings' whore; yet it seems likely, given the time period.
It occurs to me that I know way too much about these people. :-)

Dahl's History of the Book

Yesterday I finished reading another book for school, Bill Katz's "Dahl's History of the Book". (Interesting sidenote: the two classes I'm taking right now deal with completely opposite ends of the spectrum: one is on the history of books and libraries, the other is on using social networking tools like blogs in a library. I'm working on two different papers right now, both due next week, one is on Medieval manuscripts, the other on blogs. Talk about surreal!). Anyway, it was easier to read than Diringer's weighty tome, and very interesting. I'm hoping all this extra reading pays off come midterm time!

Emperor: Field of Swords and Emperor: Death of Kings

The last two books in the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden. The "Field of Swords" has Caesar fighting in Gaul and Britain, and finally heading home to Rome. While he's been away, Pompey has been sowing distrust for Caesar among the Senators, and convinces them to make him Dictator. In "Death of Kings" Caesar arrives home only to find all the Senators and Pompey have fled to Greece. After having the people elect him and Mark Antony Consuls, he goes after Pompey to strip him of his illegal dictatorship. Digusted by Caesar's preference of Antony over himself, Brutus defects and joins Pompey. Caesar and his men hunt them down and slaughter Pompey's army, leaving him to flee. Caesar gives chase after forgiving and restoring Brutus as one of his generals. Caesar catches up with Pompey's head in Egypt: the Egyptians have slaughtered Pompey in a futile attempt to keep Caesar from waging war in their land. Caesar is furious at their actions of killing a Roman, but he stays to help exiled queen Cleopatra wrest control away from her husband Ptolemy's advisors, who are taking advantage of the 13 year old king's young age. After a brutual civil war, Ptolemy is dead, Cleopatra is restored as queen, and is pregnant with Caesar's child, who later is proved to be a son. Caesar returns home with Cleopatra and his son, ready to make Rome and Egypt a massive Empire of which he will rule. Disgusted by his naked ambition to destroy the Republic, Brutus conspires with others to feel the same way, and on the Ides of March (the 15th), they assassinate Caesar.
Both books were well written and easy to read, if not completely accurate historically. Iggulden doesn't linger on Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra, which was mildly disappointing. Cleopatra has always intrigued me.