Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dining on Words

Warning: No actual knitting content!

My love of knitting is very very close in ranking to my love of literature... Here is a long-ish story of my current reading addiction. And when I say addiction, I mean it. I have been reading nonstop for days!!

When it came to movie theaters, DJ and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl. History is absolutely one of my favorite subjects, and so I love historical fiction. I found the movie to be very exciting. I couldn't wait to find out the next scheme or plot...

So... When a friend told me that the movie came from a book, I was intrigued. As you may know, I greatly enjoy reading. I just had to read the book. Well, when I went to the library to find The Other Boleyn Girl I was saddened to discover it was already checked out. I found, however, another by the same author, Philippa Gregory. That was Wideacre. Now, this wasn't the Tudor era historical fiction I was looking for, but I found it hard to put down. I then discovered that it was one of a trilogy. Of course I had to read the last two! I found those to be equally difficult to put down!

I have just this afternoon finished The Boleyn Inheritance. It was based on the stories of Henry VII's third and fourth wives. He really was a vile man! I have done research (if you would call it that) on the series to find the "proper" reading order. Here is the complete list if you are interested in reading it:

1. The Constant Princess
2. The Other Boleyn Girl
3. The Boleyn Inheritance
4. The Queen’s Fool
5. The Virgin’s Lover
6. The Other Queen

Now, the list is in chronological order, but Gregory did not write the books in this order. I don't think it is necessary to read them in this order, just nice to follow the story from beginning to end, though I suppose it hasn't really ended at all but is still happening... In any case, I have begun them out of order, and I can follow what is going on easily.

I checked The Other Boleyn Girl out from my library this evening, and have just ordered the remaining books from Barnes & Noble with the gift card that my wonderful DJ put in my stocking at Christmas!

Let me know if you decide to try this author, or if you have already read anything by her! I would love to see what you think!

2 comments:

Brena said...

I love Philippa Gregory! I've read the Constant Princess and the Other Boleyn Girl. I also love the movie.

As a side note... is your library becoming scarce with books? I'm just curious because it seems that membership to my local library has really increased this past year and now it's hard for me to find anything!

Kathleen Colligan said...

I will have to check your book ideas out..

So you much be in a rural area like me to have no cell service? We just got cable last year so I could get rid of dial up.
I hope to get most of our cruise $$ after all the red tape ..

Has college started back yet?