Sunne in Splendour

 

This book was fantastic. It's the first fiction title I've read from Richard's point of view. The others have all been from his wife, Anne Neville, and therefore ended before he died. 

I liked Penman's Richard. Not as much as O'Brien's, Penman's Richard did some things that made me want to smack him, but he was honestly very well rounded and had his flaws, like I'm sure he did in real life. She brought the time period and all the dozens of characters to life, it was very skillfully done. We got to see Richard on the battlefield with his older brother, King Edward, we got to see him in conversation with his mother (surprisingly touching), his wife, his best friends. Penman makes it clear that Richard's downfall was due to treason and trusting the wrong people. After he died, several of the remaining characters worried about his reputation, since it seemed like Henry Tudor was trying to erase everything good about him and make him out to be a monster. One day history would only know what was written about him and no one would be around to speak up for him, they lamented. I'm so glad history is finally able to speak up for him again. I had to admit, when I got to the last 100 pages or so, I had a hard time reading it, knowing what was coming. 

Faster; Cecily Neville

 

Okay, still trying to get used to this new Blogger format. It's a little weird. 

First up: "Faster" by Neal Bascomb. Set in the 1920s and 1930s, it covered the competitive early years of car racing. The German Mercedes dominated the field, and German race car drivers were considered the elitist of the elite. Driver Rene Dreyfus was Jewish, and therefore not welcome on most teams during the rise of the Third Reich. He partnered with an American heiress and a French car manufacturer and against all odds beat the Mercedes in a few key races. It was interesting and I learned a lot about early Grand Prix auto racing and how insanely dangerous it was. 

                                                                                                                                                                       Another Richard III book, this one about his mother, Cecily Neville, the Duchess of York (I'm also reading a book about his father, Richard, Duke of York, so the two intertwined quite a lot. At least until he died). Cecily and Richard were married when they were children, so it took a long time before they were living together as husband and wife and having kids, but once they started they didn't stop. Cecily had at least 12 children that we know about. Six died in infancy, making the future King Richard III the baby of the family when his little sister died. Not much is known for sure about Cecily Neville, even important women in Medieval England didn't get much documentation. Hers had to have been a sorrowful life at times, though, losing her husband and second son, Edmund, fighting the Lancasters. Even when her eldest son, Edward, was King, he was married to a woman she didn't like. Her son George so envied his older brother he tried to depose him and take the crown himself. And then there was poor Richard. Cecily lived for about a decade after Richard was murdered at Bosworth. In her will, she left a prayer book that most likely belonged to her youngest son to Henry Tudor's mother (and her cousin) Margaret Beaufort. I had a good laugh at that. The irony! John Ashdown-Hill also mentioned that the bones that are generally believed to be those of the Princes in the Tower most likely aren't: since finding Richard's bones, we know he had a full set of normal adult teeth. The bones that are often touted as his nephews' show a genetic dental deformity that for many years scholars thought they had inherited from Cecily Neville's line. But Richard didn't have it, so it makes the idea that those bones belonged to his nephews that much less likely. Interesting, as all Ashdown-Hill's books are. 

The Virgin Widow; The Children of Richard III; It Had to Be You; Richard III: the Maligned King

All right, some terrific books over the last few days about one of my favorite subjects, Richard III. Can I just say how much I wish there were more great fiction titles about him and Anne like "The Virgin Widow"? I'm amazed I haven't read this one before, since it was published in 2011. I somehow missed it.
At any rate, told from Anne's point of view, this was great fun, I loved it. O'Brien made Anne very spunky and determined, and her Richard...oh, her Richard! He was ambitious and courageous and just a teeny bit naughty, which I don't think I've seen before. It makes sense if you think about it: we're talking about a guy who had two acknowledged illegitimate children who were born to him most likely while he was still in his teens.
Anne develops a crush on her older cousin when he comes to live and train to be a knight at her father's castle. Richard teases her but they do become friends and when Anne's father announces his decision to marry his girls to the King's younger brothers, Anne is not unhappy at the thought of marrying Richard. Then of course the Earl turns against Edward when Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville in secret and makes an alliance with Margaret of Anjou. He marries Anne to her son, Edward. Anne and Richard eventually make their way back to each other, and marry in secret--good thing, too, since Anne is pregnant (tsk, tsk, Richard). The book ends with the birth of their son, Edward. It was a lovely story, nicely done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While I wait for some more Richard fiction that I've had to order, I turned to the shelf of books I already do own and read "The Children of Richard III" by Peter Hammond. There is, unfortunately, not a lot of information out there about Richard's children, not even his one legitimate son, Edward. No one is even really sure when he was born: it could have been as early as 1472, or as late as 1476. During his lifetime, he acknowledged two illegitimate children: a daughter named Katherine and a son named John. There have been rumors of others over the years, but we'll never know for sure. Edward of course died in 1484 during his father's reign as king. Richard made a good marriage for Katherine, who most likely died before her father, although of course we can't be sure. Her husband was described as a "widower" during the reign of Henry VII, and never remarried. Richard made his son John captain of Calais, a post he held until Henry VII had him executed.

I took a quick break from Richard to finish up the last Gossip Girl book, "It Had to be You". It was actually a prequel, set in sophomore year. Same old, same old: Serena and Blair are both fighting over Nate, who just wants to smoke weed and get laid. Nate is, quite possibly, the most realistic teenage boy I've ever seen in fiction. He's dumb as a post, can't make up his freaking mind about anything, and thinks about sex all the time. In the end Serena takes off for boarding school rather than be around to watch Nate and Blair be happy.
I'm glad I'm done with these books.

Okay, and finally, "Richard III: the Maligned King" by Annette Carson. Carson beautifully dismantles every negative thing said about King Richard, deftly taking on the Princes in the Tower, the rumors of his desire to marry his niece Elizabeth, and the notion that he was a tyrant. Richard's greatest downfall was how badly he underestimated his enemies. He kept putting faith in people who betrayed him, and when he would try to reconcile, they would betray him again. She made some wonderful points about all the good he did in such a short time on the throne, the laws he made that benefited the common people and angered the nobility, who sought to take him down, so eager to get rid of him that they backed a usurper with literally no legitimate claim to the throne. It was wonderfully done and extremely persuasive.
I'm enjoying seeing the rise in interest about King Richard III since the discovery of his bones back in 2012. Hopefully more will come to light about who he truly was and he'll gain the reputation and popularity he so richly deserves.

How I Got This Way; I Will Always Love You

Aw, poor Regis. RIP. I always enjoyed watching him and Kathie Lee, and later on Kelly Ripa. He seemed so high energy and full of fun. He wrote this book right after he retired in 2011, talking about the great people he had in his life and the lessons he learned from all of them. It was a terrific, uplifting, positive book and I enjoyed his nuggets of wisdom.

Book 12 of the Gossip Girl series. Technically the last one, but there is a prequel I'm slogging my way through. I really didn't enjoy these as much as I hoped I would. I guess the whole Nate/Blair/Serena love triangle just didn't appeal to me. I kept screaming at him to just MAKE UP HIS MIND ALREADY. Jesus. And what was wrong with those two girls?! Sure, Nate is hot but come on. He's a commitment phobic jerk. I've dated enough of those to know what to expect. They both deserve better.
The only nice thing about this book was that Chuck finally got a decent part and wasn't a complete weirdo like he was in all the others. Of course Blair broke his heart to go back to Nate (ughhhhh).