Doctors and scientists are, like everyone on earth, a product of their culture and upbringing. There is no such thing as “objectivity”. It is a fantasy constructed by the delusion that facts are immutable. Well, absolute facts do exist, but the interpretation of them is always skewed because they are only viewed through the prism… Read more Kell and McLeod can happen together, actually.
On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything-for Kate and for England. Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester,… Read more Book Review: The Stolen Crown
I admit it, I’ve blogged about this before. Now I am going to blog about it again. I can’t help myself. Media distortion of science and/or scholarship doesn’t just drive me bananas … it drives me banana split because the whole thing is topped with nuts. That’s why it is called yellow-journalism; all the bananas.… Read more How NOT to report on science or scholars
Lacey Baldwin Smith (LBS) is one of the “big name” historians, and for good reasons. His research is meticulous and his analysis is often profound. His book on Henry VIII is one of the most cited and significant works on that King. Thus, when he wrote a book about Anne Boleyn I scurried over to… Read more Lacey Baldwin Smith’s book about Anne Boleyn
There’s never a billionaire with a love of Tudor history will to give an author $10 million dollars around when you need him/her. Also, I am having trouble locating 10 million people willing to send me one dollar each. Or even the more modest 5 million people willing to send me two bucks. This makes… Read more I Need a Sponsor
When I found out that Susan Bordo had a book on Anne Boleyn coming out on the 9th of April I did a snoopy dance of happiness. I am an ardent intellectual admirer of Dr. Bordo. As an student in anthropology I read several of her books about the cultural reflections of the body; they… Read more Dr. Susan Bordo’s new book about Anne Boleyn!
I must confess that I am becoming a hardcore fan of Susan Higginbotham. Since I liked Higginbotham’s book, Her Highness the Traitor, so much I thought I would read some more of her work. Her first novel, The Traitor’s Wife, was on sale on Amazon Kindle so I decided to read it next. It had… Read more The Traitor’s Wife
I decided to review Hilary Mantel’s books Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies together in order to avoid redundant comments. Eschew redundancy and don’t repeat yourself, I always say! I liked both these books much better than I should have, taking into account the things I didn’t like about them. For one thing I… Read more Wolf Hall & Bringing Up the Bodies
I first became familiar with William “Billy the Butcher” Cumberland when I read the first book in Diana Gabaldon’s series, Outlander. The hero is a Scotsman from the late 18th century, so the topic of the Duke of Cumberland comes up. (I can highly recommend the first three books of Gabaldon’s Outlander series, but it… Read more Billy the Butcher’s
I confess. I have not read either of Hillary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall or Bringing Up the Bodies. Mea Culpa. I’ve heard that they are excellent (and I am sure that they are), but I freely admit that I am afraid I will not enjoy them because I am not crazy for the… Read more I am not fond of Thomas Cromwell