bookstore ramblings
Sep. 16th, 2009 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore(No, I have no self control. Why do you ask?)
Has anyone here read Philippa Gregory, Kathryn Davis, or Tracy Chevalier? I keep stumbling accross their books, and am leery. I'm one of those weird people who tends to end up disliking really popular/acclaimed things.
But, while I was at the bookstore I noticed that there's apparently a chicklit series where all the titles were "The Little Ladies' [insert]." Uhm, really? They looked to be chick lit-ish, and all I can do is wonder at a series apparently marketed towards women that uses a phrase associated with dated, condescending attitudes to sell itself.
I also was intrigued by and then sniffed disdainfully at a book about Sancia de Aragon and Lucrezia Borgia that was apparently about how that evil meanie Lucrezia threatened poor, defenseless Sancia and made her live in terror. And then turned around and snagged Roberta Gellis's Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons by Roberta Gellis (who I've been meaning to read for ages) which is apparently about how no one understands poor Lucrezia.
Now, as fond as i am of the ever so pure and innocent Lucrezia of Cantarella, I know that not exactly anything like an accurate representation of the historical woman. But I'd rather read that take than the pure and innocent woman being the victim of the evil meanie, especially if the women in question are supposed to have been close friends in history.
I also snagged Tracy Grant's Secrets of A Lady, which appears to be one of those historical fiction books with heavy mystery and romance influences that seem to be increasingly popular, which I seem to recall someone reccing a while back.
Has anyone here read Philippa Gregory, Kathryn Davis, or Tracy Chevalier? I keep stumbling accross their books, and am leery. I'm one of those weird people who tends to end up disliking really popular/acclaimed things.
But, while I was at the bookstore I noticed that there's apparently a chicklit series where all the titles were "The Little Ladies' [insert]." Uhm, really? They looked to be chick lit-ish, and all I can do is wonder at a series apparently marketed towards women that uses a phrase associated with dated, condescending attitudes to sell itself.
I also was intrigued by and then sniffed disdainfully at a book about Sancia de Aragon and Lucrezia Borgia that was apparently about how that evil meanie Lucrezia threatened poor, defenseless Sancia and made her live in terror. And then turned around and snagged Roberta Gellis's Lucrezia Borgia and the Mother of Poisons by Roberta Gellis (who I've been meaning to read for ages) which is apparently about how no one understands poor Lucrezia.
Now, as fond as i am of the ever so pure and innocent Lucrezia of Cantarella, I know that not exactly anything like an accurate representation of the historical woman. But I'd rather read that take than the pure and innocent woman being the victim of the evil meanie, especially if the women in question are supposed to have been close friends in history.
I also snagged Tracy Grant's Secrets of A Lady, which appears to be one of those historical fiction books with heavy mystery and romance influences that seem to be increasingly popular, which I seem to recall someone reccing a while back.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-16 10:15 pm (UTC)