Books Tasted - Everything bookly (and a few other things)

I need to take a break from the Tudors. I really want to go check out The Children of Henry VIII, but no! hold yourself back, Beth! Remember how bored you got reading Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey? I think this book would be good reading - if I hadn't just read two other books about the court of Henry VIII.

This novel is by Alison Weir, who has written a slew of non-fiction about the Tudors. Based on the two books of hers I've read so far, I prefer the non-fiction. This book was engaging, but she's able to make her non-fiction so interesting that it feels a little false when you read the fiction. That probably didn't make much sense, but just go with it.

If you haven't just read a bunch of books about the life and times of Henry VIII, you'll probably enjoy Innocent Traitor. It's not light reading , although it doesn't have the impact of "literature." Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for just 9 days, was beheaded at the age of 16 , and her life wasn't easy. Weir creates details where history is lacking, and often her details are brutal. The book is told in the first person but jumps from narrator to narrator. On the one hand, it gives you a more even view of Jane's traits than if it were just told from her point of view alone. But on the other, I felt it was a little jumbled and less cohesive than if it were told just from one or two viewpoints. At first, I thought it was just narrated by the women characters, which I kind of liked, but then it jumped to several of the men as well, and I thought there were overall too many voices in the pot.

I recommend Innocent Traitor, but I think that if you like history, you'll get more out of her non-fiction.