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Melody Murray's Books

Hi. I'm new here.

Currently reading

Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities
Nigella Lawson, Lis Parsons
Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause
Judy Norsigian, Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Vivian Pinn

Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII - Giles Tremlett I'm a Tudor history junkie. My mom started me on Jean Plaidy practically in the crib, and I've never looked back. This is the first truly sympathetic, in depth portrait of Catherine that I've read. It was so interesting to read the other side of the glamorous, scandalous Great Matter of the King. Because Elisabeth I was so beloved and ruled so wisely and long, the world tends to focus on her doomed, tragic, pathetic mother, and Bloody Mary's mom gets relegated to the dowdy impediment to the birth of The Virgin Queen. This book sets about redressing that imbalance.The Catherine who emerges from these pages is vital, committed, and entirely lovable. She's also smart and able, but outgunned in the end. There's a lot of familiar territory here just the same- hard to present it freshly. The writing is able but not stellar. Highly recommended for Tudor history fans.