Summary:
Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days before Mary Tudor mustered an army to depose her. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner's block and tragic martyrdom.
"Learn you to die" is the advice Jane leaves in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She plans to enjoy her beauty and fall in love, but Queen Mary, and then Queen Elizabeth will never let their heir marry or produce a Tudor son. When Katherine's pregnancy betrays her secret marriage, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister's scaffold.
"Farewell, good sister" writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful Little Person disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Queen Elizabeth?
My Thoughts:
To be quite honest, I never had a negative opinion toward Elizabeth until I read this book. It is actually quite sad that she knew nothing but fear that she would be betrayed.
As the book starts, one can clearly see that Jane never wanted to rule; she was quite literally dragged into it. And that became Jane's downfall.
Katherine does not want to rule either, she wants only to be married to someone she loves. She marries in secret, but her pregnancy starts to show and the queen sends her away to confinement, never to see her husband and second child again (she dies within a few years).
Mary also only wants to marry the man she loves. However, when she finally does in secret, she too is sent away to confinement, never to see her husband again (he dies before she is eventually freed).
You feel a lot of sympathy toward pretty much everyone except for the queens Mary and Elizabeth.
I definitely enjoyed reading this novel and learning about the three doomed sisters.
My Rating: 5 stars
20 October 2019
02 October 2019
Seven Sides of Self by Nancy Joie Wilkie REVIEW
Summary:
The stories in Seven Sides of Self explore the various sides of one's personality: the storyteller, the skeptic, the saint (or the sinner), the scholar, the seeker, and the savior. Through the lives of central characters such as Zarce Sun De'oggo, Sister Othrosa Vella, Jarka Moosha, and Old Mims, Nancy Joie Wilkie explores themes of battling strong emotions, the lengths we might go for self-preservation and self-sacrifice, the inability to accept difference, and taking responsibility for what we create in pieces that inhabit the worlds of both sci-fi and fantasy. Original and thought-provoking, these are stories that will stimulate the intellect and engage the imagination.
My Thoughts:
I've never quite read a book like this. I'm not usually into short stories, but these are really entertaining and kind of relatable to me.
The first story is about a man who wants to write, but can never find the time; when he does find the time, nothing comes to him. I have had this problem a lot, but I am good at ideas. The writing and putting everything into a fleshed-out story is hard for me. At the end, he started to write a memoir.
The second story was about a man who didn't believe something called the Ledge existed. He ended up being brought there because he wasn't supposed to know about it. It erased his memories. I think that this would honestly make a great novel.
The third story was about a man who went back to his hometown to explore a place that he wanted to since he was a kid. The Microwave Man. The guy dodged all of his questions and disappeared to another world only to leave him a note explaining everything.
The fourth story is about a woman who believes in the bonding of souls and is trying to explain it to the man she believes she is bonded to in order to get him to appreciate his life. The ending of it...made no sense at all.
The fifth story was about a man going to visit another planet to find out what the people are like. Their society seems perfect...until he discovers a dark secret.
The sixth story is about a man on a journey to find a place he believes exists, despite it sounding like a myth. He succeeds in finding it, and joins a godly figure as well as the man that was in the stories.
The seventh story is about an author who copes with his problems by giving them to his characters in his books. He is prompted by a dream to give his characters happy endings or he will be in eternal torment. This is probably the only story that seemed kind of weird to me. It didn't make much sense at all.
All in all, this was a quick yet enjoyable read.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
The stories in Seven Sides of Self explore the various sides of one's personality: the storyteller, the skeptic, the saint (or the sinner), the scholar, the seeker, and the savior. Through the lives of central characters such as Zarce Sun De'oggo, Sister Othrosa Vella, Jarka Moosha, and Old Mims, Nancy Joie Wilkie explores themes of battling strong emotions, the lengths we might go for self-preservation and self-sacrifice, the inability to accept difference, and taking responsibility for what we create in pieces that inhabit the worlds of both sci-fi and fantasy. Original and thought-provoking, these are stories that will stimulate the intellect and engage the imagination.
My Thoughts:
I've never quite read a book like this. I'm not usually into short stories, but these are really entertaining and kind of relatable to me.
The first story is about a man who wants to write, but can never find the time; when he does find the time, nothing comes to him. I have had this problem a lot, but I am good at ideas. The writing and putting everything into a fleshed-out story is hard for me. At the end, he started to write a memoir.
The second story was about a man who didn't believe something called the Ledge existed. He ended up being brought there because he wasn't supposed to know about it. It erased his memories. I think that this would honestly make a great novel.
The third story was about a man who went back to his hometown to explore a place that he wanted to since he was a kid. The Microwave Man. The guy dodged all of his questions and disappeared to another world only to leave him a note explaining everything.
The fourth story is about a woman who believes in the bonding of souls and is trying to explain it to the man she believes she is bonded to in order to get him to appreciate his life. The ending of it...made no sense at all.
The fifth story was about a man going to visit another planet to find out what the people are like. Their society seems perfect...until he discovers a dark secret.
The sixth story is about a man on a journey to find a place he believes exists, despite it sounding like a myth. He succeeds in finding it, and joins a godly figure as well as the man that was in the stories.
The seventh story is about an author who copes with his problems by giving them to his characters in his books. He is prompted by a dream to give his characters happy endings or he will be in eternal torment. This is probably the only story that seemed kind of weird to me. It didn't make much sense at all.
All in all, this was a quick yet enjoyable read.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
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