Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week :)
Book reviews featuring history, historical fiction, and mysteries, as well as my thoughts on all things bookish.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Stacking the Shelves #28
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week :)
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Can't Wait Wednesday: The Schoolmaster by Jessica Tvordi
Scotland, 1570. Catholic followers of the exiled Mary, Queen of Scots wage war against those of her four-year-old son, King James VI. Enter Master Peter Young, a Geneva-educated merchant’s son. Eager to make his way in the world, Peter is appointed to serve as the king’s tutor alongside the formidable George Buchanan. Their objective? To shape Scotland’s young monarch into a perfect, Protestant ruler—a difficult task in a world filled with religious violence, power-hungry lords, and the petty squabbles of both boys and men.
Over the years, Peter sees success with his pupils, proves an invaluable friend to the king’s caretaker, the Countess of Mar, and her troubled son, Johnny Erskine, and gains status at court. But when the king’s French-raised cousin Esmé Stewart, Seigneur d’Aubigny, arrives in Scotland, Peter and his friends must discover whether this seductive stranger is an agent of Catholic Rome or another greedy relation hoping for preferment.
The Schoolmaster is a coming-of-age story, as King James rejects lessons of the schoolroom for love, and Peter navigates treacherous political waters to ensure the nation's security. Through Peter's eyes, readers are transported to a pivotal moment in Scottish history: the arrival of the first of King James’s many controversial lover-favorites.
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Top Ten Tuesday: Reasons I DNF'd a Book
Monday, April 29, 2024
The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple Mysteries Book One) Read Christie 2024 April Selection
Publication Date:
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
A Royal Murder by Verity Bright (Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery Book 9)
Monday, April 15, 2024
Dark Clouds Over Nuala by Harriet Steel (The Inspector de Silva Mysteries) Book Two
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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Conquest by David Field (The Medieval Saga Series Book One)
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Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Can't Wait Wednesday: A Death in Venice by Verity Bright (A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery: Book 17)
For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, I'm featuring A Death in Venice by Verity Bright. I can't believe this is already book 17 in this series. I am planning to read books 9, 10, 11, and 12 this year. Maybe one day I will catch up! Always a lot of fun, this story features Eleanor and her crew on a grand tour of Italy. Of course she becomes entangled in yet another murder and must follow the clues.
Stunning views across the Grand Canal and a hotel suite fit for royalty… Lady Eleanor Swift is having a jolly good time on her Italian vacation, until a gondola ride is cut murderously short!
1924. Lady Eleanor Swift has been on a grand tour around Italy for a month with her butler Clifford. Finally arriving in Venice, she’s thrilled to be attending the famous carnival: all that’s needed is the perfect bejewelled costume for her faithful bulldog, Gladstone. But on her first gondola ride to take in the sights, a passenger collapses into the canal with a knife sticking out of his back.
Eleanor saw an argument break out between the gondolier and the victim, Councillor Benetto Vendelini, and it turns out they're rivals from the city's two great families. Vendelini’s murder is sure to reignite their centuries-long feud. While attending a glitzy ball that night, Eleanor learns of a plot to steal a precious family heirloom from the Vendelini household. Is the stolen item the key to solving this baffling murder?
In this floating city of tiny winding alleyways, Eleanor traces the missing heirloom to an antiques dealer in a far-flung corner of town. But when her handbag is snatched by a cloaked thief, she realises the murderer is dangerously close. Can Eleanor unmask this most cunning of killers, before she joins the other victim at the bottom of the Grand Canal?
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Stacking the Shelves #27
It is hard to find books set around the time of Richard II and Henry IV. This historical mystery, set in 1399, follows Brother Chandler, who is asked to investigate the killing of a nun in London, whose remains were tossed into the river. As he looks into the murder, Henry Bolingbroke is advancing toward the city, set on taking the throne from his cousin, Richard. This sounds a bit like a Cadfael mystery set in a different era. Hoping it is good as it is book one of a three part series.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Noteworthy News #3: History Hit: Tutankhamen and the Valley of the Kings
I didn't have a review this week as I'm currently reading two books, one of which is an 800 page Penman epic and I'm nowhere near finished with my shorter book either. So I wanted to shift gears from reviewing and post some noteworthy news. In thinking about something interesting I've run across lately, I wanted to give a mention to the series on the podcast, History Hit, about the Valley of the Kings and the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. I have listened to the first episode and it is an award winning series with four episodes total. As work has been crazy in February I have been doing more listening and less reading. But that's okay because this series is so good!
Saturday, February 24, 2024
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (Book One Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries) Read Christie February 2024 Selection
Publication Date:
Sunday, February 18, 2024
The Leper of Saint Giles by Ellis Peters (Cadfael Chronicles Book 5)
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Sunday, February 11, 2024
Stacking the Shelves #26