16th century Archives - The Gilmore Guide to Books

Those Fatal Flowers

Catherine — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 08:54:28 +0000

While my fascination surrounding the legend of Troy has waned (I can only watch Eric Bana and Brad Pitt in the movie so many times) my curiosity about mythology has not. Those Fatal Flowers is a genre-bending tale of a handmaiden to a goddess who is cursed for her carelessness, but has the opportunity to […]

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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Catherine — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 07:33:40 +0000

I adored Maggie O’Farrell’s last novel, Hamnet. She returns, with another novel set in the 1500s, but in Italy this time. The Marriage Portrait is about a young Italian princess and bride, Lucrezia of the famous Medici family, known for its support of key artists and scientists of the Renaissance. The Marriage Portrait is both […]

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The Chef’s Secret by Crystal King

Catherine — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 08:59:49 +0000

Giovanni’s uncle, Bartolomeo Scappi, was a celebrity in Rome. He was the private chef to three popes and the author of a wildly popular cookbook. Now he is dead and Giovanni’s life is about to turn upside down. He had been his uncle’s apprentice for 11 years and had known the man as a father […]

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A Column of Fire by Ken Follett

Catherine — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 22:51:04 +0000

In the eyes of the church, the Bible was the most dangerous of all banned books…Priests said that ordinary people were unable to rightly interpret God’s word, and needed guidance. Protestants said the Bible opened men’s eyes to the errors of the priesthood. A Column of Fire is the third book in Ken Follett’s […]

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The Last Tudor

Catherine — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 07:21:16 +0000

Just when I think I know all I need to know about the Tudors, Philippa Gregory writes another riveting piece of historical fiction about the family. And when her latest, The Last Tudor, ends I’m still thinking there should be one more book to come. I began The Last Tudor thinking it would be […]

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It’s Monday, August 7th: What Are You Reading?

Catherine — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 07:11:31 +0000

Hello, Monday! Once again, I’ve gone with a photo that represents where I’d like to be reading. For whatever reason I have always wanted a hammock, but none of the houses I’ve ever lived in had hammock-friendly backyards. My reading seems to be falling along those lines—wanting something I don’t have or can’t find. I’m […]

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June Reading Wrap-Up

Catherine — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:06:03 +0000

Quick disclaimer: it never got anywhere near warm enough in Seattle in June for outdoor swimming so this photo is fake news. There was no lounging and reading by the pool—I was wearing socks the last week of the month, but that’s all right for me. I spent three days in the 90° heat […]

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The Moor’s Account

Catherine — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 07:04:18 +0000

And thus it was done. Of all the contracts I had signed, this was perhaps the only one my father could never have imagined me signing, for it traded what should never be traded. It delivered me into the unknown and erased my father’s name. I could not know that this was just the first […]

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