Down The TBR Hole #7

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Welcome to my latest edition of Down The TBR Hole! Jody at the blog I'm Into Books has offered this solution to help remind us of all those books we added to our Goodreads list in the distant past and hopefully start managing the list. The idea is to start cleaning up our Goodreads TBR lists of all the books that have piled up over time, and share our progress in the link-up every Thursday. Here's how Jody explains it:

Most of you probably know this feeling, your Goodreads TBR pile keeps growing and growing and it seems like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You keep adding, but you add more than you actually read. And then when you're scrolling through your list, you realize that you have no idea what half the books are about and why you added them. 

So here's what we'll do: On the Goodreads to-read shelf, order all your books ascending by date added. Look at the first four (or more) books on the list, read the synopses and decide whether the books should stay or go. Post in the link-up and share using the hashtag #DTTBRH and tagging @Jodyblogs.

I have missed several weeks now! Between the Easter weekend, just being busy on Thursdays, and then being on a little vacation, it kept sliding lower on my to-do list. Looks like I might have time today!

Here's what I found on Week Seven:

The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith - All that history knows of Grace Plantagent is that she was an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and one of two attendants aboard the funeral barge of his widowed queen. Thus, she was half sister of the famous young princes, who - when this story begins in 1485 - had been housed in the Tower by uncle, Richard III, and are presumed dead . . . in the 1490s, a young man appears at the courts of Europe claiming to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the boys, and seeking to claim his rightful throne from England's first Tudor king, Henry VII. But is this man who he says he is? . . . Grace Plantagenet finds herself in the midst of one of English history's greatest mysteries.

Keeping it!

The Queen's Pawn by Christy English - Princess Alais of France travels to England to marry Richard the Lionhearted, the son of King Henry II, armed only with her dowry, the valuable Vexin. When Alais arrives in the land of her father's enemies, she is welcomed by the beautiful and powerful queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. . . But Eleanor and Alais' love for each other is threatened when the capricious and imperious King Henry meets the lovely young princess. Fascination with the king draws Alais deep into political intrigue, and she soon discovers what Eleanor is prepared to do to retain her position as queen. Alais, the one-time pawn, takes ruthless action of her own, as the the two women become rivals both for the king's love and the throne of England itself.

This one's gone - after reading some of the reviews, I concluded that it's probably not my style after all.

The Secret Bride by Diane Haeger - Mary Tudor, the headstrong younger sister of the ruthless King Henry VIII, has always been her brother's favorite - but now she is also an important political bargaining chip. When she is promised to the elderly, ailing King Louis of France, a heartbroken Mary accepts her fate, but not before exacting a promise from her brother: When the old king dies, her next marriage shall be solely of her choosing. For Mary has a forbidden passion, and is determined, through her own cunning, courage, and boldness, to forge her own destiny.

Also gone, after reading the reviews which had a recurring theme: that Haeger's characters all sound the same and sound fake. Not worth my trouble.

Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer - Little is known about the wife of the world's most famous playwright; a great deal, none of it complimentary, has been assumed. . .  Yet Shakespeare is above all the poet of marriage. Before him, there were few comedies or tragedies about wooing or wedding. . . Part biography, part history, Shakespeare's wife is a fascinating reconstruction of Ann's life and an illuminating look at the daily lives of Elizabethan women . . .

This one's gone down the TBR Hole - the reviews weren't stellar and I'm no longer in the mood for a dry biography.

Tales of a Female Nomad: Living At Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman - At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visiting trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita's example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.

The premise is really interesting, but I've lost interest, so this one's gone.

Four gone is pretty good for a day's work, I'd say.

This post will be linked at Down The TBR Hole hosted by Jody at I'm Into Books.

#DTTBRH

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