Welcome to Litsy!

Book mail! My royal obsession continues...

I‘m sorry to say I have to pan this 😕. I had hopes for it, & it started out promising. But it‘s too detailed, and trips over itself before long. Unless you really like historical detail, this may be one to pass on.

I‘m reading all of these books right now:
Short story collection - ebook nonfiction - audiobook - print fiction.
Only 1 of them is for #MountTBR 🙄😕
This is why it‘s so damn hard 😫
#thestruggleisreal

I am using the tagged book for this prompt for my #popsugarchallenge

Very good. Very informative and interesting. Read like a novel at times which meant that even though it was a dense read it didn't bog me down. Best book to start with if you want to read about Mary Queen of Scots.

Side Note: It has been RePublished with the movie poster and renamed as Mary Queen of Scots: Two Queens One Future. I just have the older version as I used it when I studied Tudor History.

#HarperPerennial

I never read anything on Mary, Queen of Scots before so this was a nice introduction. It was detailed and read like a novel.

#KindleDailyDeal alert. This #booktoscreen choice is cheap today for US users. I grabbed it up based on my love for the movie. Also, I just finished a Philippa Gregory book about Queen Mary, and the author says she became fascinated with this historical woman after reading the ⬆️ John Guy book. Double sold!

Reading up before I see the movie later.

Finally booked my spring trip to Scotland I am so delighted, especially as I am making my way through this bio of one of my favorite queens, so excited to see her rooms at Holyrood!

Also throw me all your book suggestions to get into a Scotland mood 💕💕

Apparently it's going to be made into a movie soon.

#kindledeal #kindledeals #ebooksale

I'm all about the biographies this week so here's another one: one of the most controversial monarchs in history. It's remarkably even handed- this isn't a hagiography or a hatchet job. Mary was in many ways a competent ruler but managed to fuck up pretty spectacularly. This at least gives her some credit for what she did accomplish.

A contrast to the Fraser book on MQS which I had just finished, I tackled this equally fantastic biography by John Guy. The Guy book was written more recently (2004) and where the Fraser book was a compelling well researched story, the Guy book is deep history, based on original source texts and documents. Highly recommend both, but the Guy book includes more ancillary history of the period and its influence on MQS‘ life. 5/5

Home from my travels and pretty much over the jetlag so it's time to get back into the #riotgrams I missed. Here are a couple of #bigbooks I picked up on my last round of travels - both about Mary Queen of Scots, which I bought visiting Craigmillar Castle, where the plot to kills Mary's husband was hatched.

TOKYO BOOK-OFF HAUL #1 of 5

Something to read while waiting for the third of Mantel's Cromwell trilogy to come out...

So excited this came in the other day cannot wait to get started on it

I am really taken with this painting of Antoinette de Bourbon, the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. Surprising to me, according to Antonia Fraser, she had short hair, or what passed as short in the second half of the 16th century.

Saturday morning with dog, coffee and book. ("What are you doing woman, I'm not a bookrest.") #dogsoflitsy