This month's book group selection is The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I wasn't at book group the day they made this selection so I don't know if any of the ladies had read it beforehand. I'm going to guess not. I suspect that with Philippa Gregory a very popular author right now the ladies just wanted to get a feel for her writing.
Oh. My. God. This book is like crack. It had tons of sex, royal politics, deceit, vivid descriptions of costumes, and jewely. I love it. Dean and I usually go to sleep around 11 or so. Most if the time we read for half hour before hand but not if the Twins game is on and it runs until bed time. Lately I will lie in bed wondering what will happen next in the book and after I hear Dean's breathing take on a slow rythmic sound I sneak out of bed into the office and read for an hour or two. Yesterday Wrigley wasn't feeling well after being vaccinated the day before. I was a little worried about him so I went to work for a presentation I had to go to and then around lunch time I went home. I told Dr. Hari I would work from home and be available if he needed anything. I worked for an hour and then started thinking about The Other Boleyn Girl. It was all over. I layed on the couch and read the rest of the day with my cats taking turns on my lap and my computer alerting me when Dr. Hari had a quick question.
I have under 100 pages left (I knocked out about 200 of the 650 total pages yesterday) and I'm contemplating how soon I can get outta here. I am dying to know what the other ladies will think of it. Will they be appalled at the graphic language? Or will they love the scandal and the period descriptions? Most importantly, will we read more Philippa Gregory?!
I am not going to say this is the best piece of literature ever written. I don't even know how much of the historical events are accurate. They can't all possibly be true, but everything I've questioned and subsequently looked up on the internet is at least speculated by historians but not always accepted. I like to think of it more like a guilty pleasure, and learning a little about the time period as well. It's perfect for the beach, a plane ride or hijacking your real life for a little while.
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2 comments:
Now that's a recommendation to live by. You have to sneak out to read it, like a guilty pleasure, a drug, or as you say, crack? That's awesome. I haven't been held captive to a book for years. I need to check this one out.
scott~
I by no means consider crack a guilty pleasure. The guilty pleasure is the romance of the book, the crack factor is the highly addictive nature of the story. Just to clarify ;)
And I did some reseach and apparently there was a big uproar when the book was released that the portrait of Anne Boleyn was unfairly painted. So off of half.com I just ordered "Divorced Beheaded Survived: A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII" by Karen Lindsey. It sounds up my alley!
lefty~
Dean and are going out tonight to purchase three copies of the Baby Jesus SI. One for us to read, one for BJ to autograph, and one for me to keep for my own, um, personal use.
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