I still find myself unable to focus on anything overly complex. I'm slowly working my way through The Mirror and the Light but find myself only able to read about ten or so pages at a time. I blame the kids. They're every where. I'm tired of people telling me this is just like summer vacation. It is nothing like summer vacation.

Anyway, this book made for a good filler. Honestly, if I had been looking for anything more complex, I probably would have hated this book. Louise was a little stuck up. She cried all the time. Nothing about her personality made her very likable. Of course it is made very clear to the reader early on that we aren't suppose to be interested in her personality. 

Louise aside, the pacing of the book was off. The author drags us through three years of "will they, won't they" for nearly 300 pages. Then suddenly it's a "As you know Bob" in the last 100 pages to cover 14 years of the reign of Charles II. 

I see the author has two other books covering two of Charles' other mistresses (Barbara Villers and Nell Gwyn. The book about Barbara I'm interested in. The book about Nell Gwyn? Well if she's the same Nell Gwyn we meet in Louise's story, I'm going to pass. 

Dates Read 4/20/2020 - 4/23/2020

Book 29/75

Typically non-fiction takes me months to read. I tend to get so bogged down in the details that I find myself able to only read a chapter at a time. This was not the case with Guy's biography of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

I have yet to find a biographical work that doesn't show any bias. Suggestions welcome if you know of any. This book wasn't any different. Guy obvious has a fangirl thing going on with Mary. He things she's smart, beautiful, and cunning. Personally I think one of those two things may be true. To quote some of my favorite preschool teachers, Mary makes a lot of bad choices. 

While Guy makes his adoration of Mary no secret, he also makes it perfectly clear that he is not a fan of one William Cecil (later Lord Burghley). Guy seems to believe Cecil is the root of all Mary's problems. Cecil wasn't leading Mary's fan club or even getting the newsletters but let's not get nuts. Mary was a queen in her own right. If Mary was as smart and capable as Guy wants his readers to believe, shouldn't she have been able to outsmart Cecil and survive? 

I have Guy's biography of Elizabeth I on my shelf. While I wasn't planning on reading it any time soon, I may have to move it up the list. I'm interested to see what kind of picture Guy paints of the people living on the other side of Mary's fence. I would think his characterization of Cecil would remain consistent. Right?

Read 1/1/2020- 1/5/2020

I had several reasons for picking up this book, and my high expectations were not disappointed. This was an enjoyable adventure into the Stuart court with all its gilded surface and dirty underbelly. Lucy St John is in a unique position as the daughter of a prominent family but a younger sister with an unsympathetic guardian. Her coming of age takes place in an environment where no one allows their true self to be exposed. Being more honest and naive than those around her, Lucy learns some difficult lessons in courtly love and betrayal, but these experiences set her upon the path to find faith, true love, and happiness

I'm suppose to start back at work full-time this week. I probably should have picked a smaller book to round out the month of August. 

Enjoying this one so far. Shockingly I know next to nothing about the English Civil War. You might ask how that is possible, but it just always passed me by. In my schooling it was always either Tudor England, Victorian England or Nazi Germany/Soviet Union. You would think that the people who decide education in the UK might deem it important to teach people about the Civil War, but alas this country's education system leaves a lot to be desired at least in the neglected north it does. 

Still on my chosen path of attempting to broaden my horizons, I have fallen upon this and decided it is important stuff to learn and so far I am yet to be disappointed.

Over and out.