fiorentinabelga's reviews
45 reviews

 Great in depth biography of Sisi, with many quotations from the source material. However, Hamann's biases are glaringly obvious throughout the book, making it a difficult read at times. She also, at multiple points, makes assumptions about Sisi's and other people's thoughts, feelings, intentions and motives without giving any sources that substantiate these conclusions. Recreating the life of an enigmatic person like Sisi is difficult, but when one states mere assumptions about things as personal as inner thoughts as fact without having concrete proof of these claims, it smells more of the projection of the author's own feelings onto a historical character than of fact.
All in all, a good biography to get the facts of Sisi's life and those around her, but take any other "conclusions" about Sisi's mental state, feelings, etc with a large grain of salt. 

 Thank you to Netgalley and Sapere Books for providing a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Omens of Death has a promising and exciting premise at first glance: a brother-sister duo investigate crimes in late 15th century Rome, under the watchful eye of the Borgia pope. As a lover of Renaissance Italy and a good murder mystery, I was immediately drawn to this, especially as it's the first book in a series.

However, I ended up DNF'ing less than 100 pages in. While the concept of the book is incredibly interesting, the execution of it falls flat. Cristina and Domenico are one-dimensional and boring, and make no sense within their setting. Cristina feels like a female and cheaper version of Sherlock Holmes with her cold, intellectual behavior and penchant for deductive reasoning based on little to no actual evidence. Meanwhile, Domenico is supposed to be a young soldier who made a rapid rise in the ranks of the Vatican army but is entirely dependent on his right hand Gilo's legwork and his sister's brains. None of the sidecharacters feel real or believable, even those that are actual historical characters, such as Rodrigo Borgia or Giuliano della Rovere. They seem to be a desperate attempt to make the setting feel more historical than it actually is.

Because the atmosphere in this book is definitely not 15th century Rome. While descriptions are plentiful and get some stuff right, the way the characters behave and move through the setting feels far too modern. The entire story is written as if the author had a basic knowledge of the look of Renaissance Rome, but did little research on the actual lives of the people during this time. The dialogue is far too casual and modern, the behavior of both Domenico and Cristina is utterly unrealistic and the methods they use to solve the mystery at the heart of the story feel plucked out of a Victorian detective novel. Every chapter, it became harder to focus on the actual plot because it was so hard to believe the setting and allow it to transport me into the story.

Speaking of chapters, there are far too many. The ebook stands at about 270 pages and yet there is a total of 62 (!) chapters. That's about 4,5 pages per chapter. While short chapters are fun sometimes and can really push the story forward, the shortness of the chapters in Omens of Death became annoying after the first 50 pages. Nearly every scene became a separate chapter, which kept interrupting the flow of the story and made every scene feel rushed and disconnected from the ones that came before and after.

To summarise: Omens of Death had a lot of potential, but didn't actually do anything with it.

 

 First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an incredibly well-researched and well-written book about two (in)famous queens in British history: Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I. The book sets out to explore how these two extraordinary women, mother and daughter, influenced each other throughout their lives. This isn't a biography of either of them, so you won't find a complete analysis of their separate lives, but rather a look at key moments in their lives in which one played an important role to the other. This makes for an interesting new look at the motivations and personalities of both women.

Borman is evidently an expert on the subject and her knowledge on both women is immense. I learned a ton about both Anne and Elizabeth that I didn't know before, from small details to interesting aspects of their personalities and reigns. However, Borman sometimes seems to lose herself in these details and at times the chapters become an endless list of when Anne or Elizabeth met who and how these people were related to each other. Or what Anne bought for Elizabeth and what Elizabeth inherited or bought, etc. This makes some chapters hard to get through. Especially since keeping all these people apart and remembering which functions they went in and out of becomes confusing at times.

Along with this overload on details, the book does require a certain previous knowledge of Tudor court life and the stories of both women to really understand the complexities of how their lives were entwined with those of their courtiers. This isn't a book I'd recommend to someone who only has a fleeting familiarity with Anne and Elizabeth's story.

Throughout the book, Borman's central thesis seems to be that Anne's life and especially her horrific death were of such a profound influence on Elizabeth that it triggered her desire to remain unmarried and a Virgin Queen, despite the fact that mother and daughter were often in different households between Elizabeth's birth and Anne's execution. The author makes quite a few arguments to this case, all very plausible and intriguing. It's absolutely undeniable that Anne's tragic life and Elizabeth's subsequent struggles with illegitimacy and the stain of Anne's reputation were formative to the future queen. But sometimes I wished Borman had gone more in-depth on these arguments. While all of them are intriguing, some feel like little more than assumptions. As logical as they are, I was left wanting more at times: more evidence, more analysis, just more.

Despite this, I greatly enjoyed reading the book and look forward to reading more from this author. 

Fern Riddell has written a very accessible and interesting history of sexuality that challenges you to rethink your own views and prejudices towards sex and everything it entails. Both people who've never read anything on the history of sexuality and people who have will find new and surprising information in this book. Riddell's writing is a joy to read with precise but engaging descriptions and some humorous notes sprinkled in along the way. 
The entire book is clearly written and designed to highlight female voices, female participation and female stories while still managing to give a broad overview. She also doesn't shy away from controversial but important topics, such as when she addresses the "debate" on transgender issues by TERF's and "gender critical feminists" in her final chapter. 
The only "negative" remarks I can give is that, especially in the first few chapters of the book, there are quite a few typos and mistakes that were clearly missed in editing. But this is a minor concern. Aside from that, she can also get a little repetitive in her conclusions of every chapter, always alluding to the same "we have lost and misconstrued a lot of sexual freedom from the past" idea but as this is the central tenet of her book, it isn't overly annoying. 
All in all, a great read that will amaze, shock and lure you into further reflection, even after finishing.