The Blood Countess

  

The Blood Countess:Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster- Shelley Puhak

Bloomsbury Publishing

Release Day: February 17, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her.

Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power.

_____________________________________

If you go into Shelley Puhak's The Blood Countess expecting to read confirmation of the same horror stories you've heard before, imaging Elizabeth Bathory as a serial killer of innocent young women and bathing in their blood, you'll be disappointed. If, however, you want to read it for a fascinating exploration of a woman in power and how she was brought down by politics, religion, and the patriarchy—this is the book for you.

I knew nothing about Hungarian politics or how the Lutheran/Calvinist religious division manifested itself there or affected everyday people before reading this book. Puhak does a good job of breaking things down into understandable accounts, sticking to what we need to know because it's going to be important to Elizabeth's story. Puhak talks about working with translators and what previous translations of documents got wrong, which first led to accounts of cannibalism (for example) when that's not what was happening. 

The Bathorys were a powerful family in Hungary and Transylvania at a time when this was dangerous. Elizabeth was a strong woman who held a lot of land (both on her own and for her young son), she supported women healers during a time they were being pushed out by men. She made enemies by standing up for herself and other women, for insisting on justice during a time of corruption. She believed in the courts and the law, even when she saw it being made a mockery of by the Holy Roman Emperor, her supposed ruler and protector. When her neighbors came for her, she thought the laws would protect her. 

Instead, she became perhaps the greatest reminder of how much men fear women's minds, their leadership, their knowledge, and their strength, and how far men will go to erase women's power.

The Blood Countess is well researched, well written, full of fascinating information, and a great read for anyone interested in learning how politics, jealousy, and greed can create such an enduring and false legacy. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 

Winston and the Windsors

 

Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty- Andrew Morton

Hanover Square Press

Release Date: October 21, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Few figures in British history have been so deeply and consequentially involved with the British royal family as Winston Churchill. Churchill was unique in his helping to shape not only a single reign but an entire royal dynasty.

However, it was by no means a seamless relationship. At times, the royals treated him with suspicion and contempt; at others they were avuncular, competitive and cheering. Yet whether he was playing the role of antagonist to the royal family or that of trusted confidante, the Prime Minister's influence was central to the twentieth-century history of the monarchy. This is drama of the first order, at times thrilling and always compelling.

Winston and the Windsors marks the first dual biography of Winston Churchill alongside the royal family. Having unearthed much under-appreciated archival material – including diary entries, postcards and letters to and from Kings, Queens and princes – Morton presents a meticulously researched biography of a royal house and a beloved Prime Minister.

______________________________________________

I've read many books on Winston Churchill, but this is the first I've read that focuses specifically on his relationship with the royal family- not as The Monarchy, but as individuals. In following his career there are certainly cases where his influence did help shape the monarchy's path, particularly during World War II, but it was the individual stories I found most interesting.

  

Churchill was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and his parents were close friends with her eldest son, the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII. While I knew Edward and Churchill's mother Jennie had a close friendship, I'd never known how close the relationship between Edward and Winston was. Even after becoming king, Edward took the time to offer nearly parternal advise and praise to young Winston- something he never received from his own father. That section was perhaps my favorite to read for the new knowledge I gained and the stories it shared. 

As a rising politician Churchill frequently clashed in his thoughts and policy ideals with the reigning monarch (especially George V!) and Morton includes notes and diary entries from George V with his thoughts on Churchill that were less than complementary at times. But each man was able to separate politics from the personal and it was fascinating to watch their developing relationships on different fronts.

Much of the information covering the Abdication Crisis, Winston's relationship with David (Edward VIII) and George VI wasn't new but still presented well. And within the context of the book it put a different spin on things I already knew. Morton goes deeply, if briefly into Churchill's relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and I greatly enjoyed that section- again the context of the book helped me see things I knew as well as new information (maybe just new to me) in new and interesting ways.

Winston and the Windsors is more than a new biography of Winston Churchill. It is a biography of the Windsor family and the monarchy throughout the first part of the 20th century, and the huge part that Churchill played in keeping it a strong institution in trying times. Anyone interested in Churchill, the British royal family, and 20th century Briish history should read the carefully researched and entertainingly written book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Wild For Austen

 

Wild For Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane- Devoney Looser

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: September 2, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.

All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.

______________________________________________

When you think about Jane Austen and her books, what comes to mind? Do you still imagine a quiet woman who never did anything and whose characters never challenge anyone? 

This image has been challenged more and more and in Wild for Austen Devoney Looser wants to put that out-dated Victorian fictional image to rest once and for all. She explores the real Austen, the women in her family who wrote, the ones who inspired her fictional characters, the brothers who spoke out against slavery, and more. Who would Austen have known whose actions and reputations would have been considered "wild" in her day? 

Looser explores what the word "wild" meant (both positive and negative) in Austen's time and how it is used in her books and letters. Each book, including the frequently forgotten Juvenilia, is explored for the "wildness" of its characters and what Austen might have been saying or satirizing on each occasion. It was an interesting angle of exploration that I quite enjoyed. Her research and arguements are interesting and cover a wide range of topics, several that I'd never heard before (like Austen's brothers in support of abolition).

Looser also explores our changing relationship with Austen's works. How has fan fiction, Hollywood interpretations, and our perhaps more willingness to accept Austen as a complete person, changed our relationship with her and her works? Can we accept her today in ways that were denied to her after her death? As perhaps more "wild" than "mild"? I think, based on Looser's arguments, we both can and should- and that an understanding of Austen like the one presented in Wild For Austen might make her more accessible in some ways to younger readers assigned the books in school who find them irrelevant today.   

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Sisterhood of Ravensbruck

 

The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Femal Concentration Camp- Lynne Olson

Random House

Release Date: June 3, 2025

Rating:📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: For decades after World War II, histories of the French Resistance were written almost exclusively by men and largely ignored the contributions of women. Many current overviews of the subject continue to underplay the extent and importance of women’s participation in the Resistance, treating the subject, in the words of one historian, as ‘an anonymous background element in an essentially male story’.

The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück corrects that omission, surveying the bond between four women — Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Genevieve de Gaulle, and Jacqueline d’Alincourt — who fought valiantly against Nazi oppression. While the women belonged to different Resistance movements and networks, they were united by a common they were arrested by the Gestapo, underwent merciless interrogations and beatings, were jailed — and, most significantly, survived, if just barely, the hell of Ravensbrück, the only concentration camp designed specifically for women. In an institution designed to dehumanise and kill, the sisterhood maintained their sense of self and joined together to face down death.

____________________________________________________________

Lynne Olson is one of my favorite historians, and has a wonderful talent for bringing out hidden voices and stories during World War 2 that help us discover so many new aspects to that time. Her last two books (Madame Fourcarde's Secret War and Empress of the Nile) explore the lives of two women who were trail-blazers both during and after the war, but who during the war helped build the French resistance against the Nazis. The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck follows the lives of four women: Germaine Tillion, Anise Girard, Genevieve de Gaulle, and Jacqueline d'Alincourt who were also part of the French Resistance- and who were sent to (and survived) Ravensbruck camp for that resistance.

The book is divided into three sections: before, during, and after Ravensbruck, and I was a little surprised at much of it focused on the after. As you'd expect with any book dealing with Nazis, concentration camps, etc. there are some parts that are hard to read. But the sisterhood that developed among the women in the camp, particularly the French women Olson focuses on, brought with it such surprising hope as well. They helped each other survive through so many acts that it brought tears to my eyes as I was reading. The Polish women (called "rabbits") who were used as medical experiments in the camp were helped by everyone, including being hidden when the order to kill them came at the end of the war (if you've read Martha Hall Kelly's Lilac Girls, it's based on the rabbit's story). The prisoners knew they all faced death for defying their captors, but they resisted the Nazis again. The strength of the women, sharing their tiny amounts of food, medicine, gathering evidence of the crimes against them in the hope that one day they would be free to use it, was staggering to me. As I read I could only wonder if I would have been that brave, and hope the answer would have been yes.

It should come as no surprise that none of the Ravensbruck women stopped being amazing after leaving the camp. They continued to stand together to ensure whoever needed medical help got it, to help each other reintergrate into post-War life. They stood as witnesses for the dead against the crimes the Ravensbruck Nazis had committed. They helped the "rabbits" get to America for medical tretment. And continued to stand up against injustices and crimes against humanity wherever they saw them for the rest of their lives. 

The inspiration brought to me by this story leaves me speechless. It is hard and uplifting, often at the same time– and absolutely a book we should all read and learn from. As we should learn from these women.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Affiliate link

Rebel Romanov

The Rebel Romanov: Julie of Saxe-Coburg, the Empress Russia Never Had- Helen Rappaprt

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: April 15, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: In 1795, Catherine the Great of Russia was in search of a bride for her grandson Constantine, who stood third in line to her throne. In an eerie echo of her own story, Catherine selected an innocent young German princess, Julie of Saxe-Coburg, aunt of the future Queen Victoria. Though Julie had everything a young bride could wish for, she was alone in a court dominated by an aging empress and riven with rivalries, plotting, and gossip―not to mention her brute of a husband, who was tender one moment and violent the next. She longed to leave Russia and her disastrous marriage, but her family in Germany refused to allow her to do so.

Desperate for love, Julie allegedly sought consolation in the arms of others. Finally, Tsar Alexander granted her permission to leave in 1801, even though her husband was now heir to the throne. Rootless in Europe, Julie gave birth to two―possibly three―illegitimate children, all of whom she was forced to give up for adoption. Despite entreaties from Constantine to return and provide an heir, she refused, eventually finding love with her own married physician.

At a time when many royal brides meekly submitted to disastrous marriages, Julie proved to be a woman ahead of her time, sacrificing her reputation and a life of luxury in exchange for the freedom to live as she wished. The Rebel Romanov is the inspiring tale of a bold woman who, until now, has been ignored by history.

________________________________________________________

There are a lot of names throughout the history of the 1800s that we know- even if you aren't really a history person. Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria, Napoleon. Julie of Saxe-Coburg isn't a woman whose name jumps to mind, but, as Helen Rappaport's most recent biography proves, she was certainly a part of the power family circles of the times. After trying to live the life others dictated for her, Julie seems to have balanced political necessity with a personal desire to live a quiet life- rebelling against all expectations for her rather successfully.

The older sister of Leopold (who would marry Princess Charlotte of England and later become King of Belgium) and Victoire (who later became Queen Victoria's mother), Julie was one of the daughters of an ambitious but poor Saxe-Coburg noble house. When Catherine the Great was shopping for a German bride for her grandson Constantine, Julie ended up the winner-or loser. While she got on well with Catherine, her brother-in-law Alexander and his wife Elise (another German bride), Constantine was an abusive man, obsessed with the military and overall not someone you'd want to be married to.  By the time Alexander became tsar Julie had had enough and asked permission from her brother-in-law to leave Russia (and Constantine) permanently. 

She was always known as a "Russian grand duchess" and was frequently an unofficial envoy for Russia, but Julie never returned to Russia- despite her parents and siblings disagreeing with her leaving her husband. Whether she told any of them at the time the full truth behind her reasons for leaving him or not isn't clear, though in her journals her mother frequently laments at Julie's miserable existence, so she must have known something. Society as a whole never knew exactly what to do with Julie- she was a Russian grand duchess so they wanted to make a big deal out of that, but she was a woman separated (and eventually divorced) from her husband and they all frowned on that. 

As interesting as reading about Julie in the book was, it was also frustrating. She's an elusive woman and impossible to feel like you get to know. Rappaport quotes from letters and journals of others about her, you see her through the eyes of people who liked her, admired her, or disliked her based on what she could do for them. But Julie's own letters and journals seem to have completely been destroyed- exactly because she was so close the Romanov family and was such a rebellious person. She knew things the family didn't want talked about, her very existence outside of Russia seems to have been a problem even when they used it as an advantage. Covering up the kind of individual, semi-free life she wanted to lead (even from her neice Victoria) seems to have been somthing the men in the family especially tried to do as she got older. Finding any words she herself wrote, let alone a personal thought she had, are now all but impossible. Meaning by the end of The Rebel Romanov, I wasn't sure I knew Julie as a person any more than when I started the book. I knew about her. I knew about some of the tragedies of the life she had lived and how she had been strong enough to move forward against immense social and sometimes familial pressure to do the opposite. I would love to have known the woman behind the public mask she wore. I expect she was strong and stubborn in a lot of ways. And I think history has a lot more women like her than we know about. We just haven't discovered their voices yet.  But Julie meets several other divorced or separated women and gives us hints at the lives they were leading- so maybe we just need to start following those hints.

I received a DRC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Affiliate link

Jane Austen's Bookshelf

 Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend- Rebecca Romney

 Simon & Schuster

Release Date: February 18, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.

______________________________________________________

What is a classic and how does it become one? We can probably all name some "classic novels", maybe even some "great American novels", even if we've never read them. And almost all of the early ones will have been written by men, with the undisputed exception of Jane Austen. 

Jane Austen's Bookshelf explores the authors Austen herself enjoyed reading, and the ones who influenced her own writing: Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth specifically. These authors are mentioned in Austen's letters and novels, they were among the best sellers of her day. Author Rebecca Romney takes us on two adventures: she explores the lives of each of these remarkable women- their lives, their triumphs, tragedies, and how they came to fall from best selling author status off of the canon of "must-read English authors"; Romney also takes us on her modern journey of discovering these authors herself. 

As a rare book seller and a lover of Jane Austen books, Romney wanted to read the books Austen read and find out what she enjoyed reading. Did they stand up to the test of time or did they deserve their fall off their pedestals as brilliant writers? As much as I enjoyed the biographies Romney crafted of the writers themselves, I enjoyed her discoveries of these women, their lives, their books, and their reinterpretations over the centuries possibly more. Her descriptions of finding the copies of the rare book edition that speaks to her for her own collection, her discoveries of her own particular prides and prejudices towards certain kind of books and how she changes her thinking, and the books themselves, are all wonderful.

Romney makes sure Jane Austen's Bookshelf is never a dull read. If you decide after reading this to add Burney, Lennox, and any of the other women's works (and their biographies) to your TBR piles like I have, Romney includes a wonderfully helpful appendix "Selected Books from the Jane Austen Bookshelf" to get you started.

Not a daunting, scholarly work, but readers who enjoyed Devoney Looser's Sister Novelists or Ramie Targoff's Shakespear's Sisters and the forgotten- or purposely overlooked- women writers  will enjoy Rebecca Romney's Jane Austen's Bookshelf for many of the same reasons.

I received a DRC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Affiliate link

                  

Cure for Women

 

The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine THat Changed Women's Lives Forever- Lydia Reeder

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: December 3, 2024

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: After Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to graduate from medical school, more women demanded a chance to study medicine. Barred entrance to universities like Harvard, women built their own first-rate medical schools and hospitals. Their success spurred a chilling backlash from elite, white male physicians who were obsessed with eugenics and the propagation of the white race. Distorting Darwin’s evolution theory, these haughty physicians proclaimed in bestselling books that women should never be allowed to attend college or enter a profession because their menstrual cycles made them perpetually sick. Motherhood was their constitution and duty.

Into the midst of this turmoil marched tiny, dynamic Mary Putnam Jacobi, daughter of New York publisher George Palmer Putnam and the first woman to be accepted into the world-renowned Sorbonne medical school in Paris. As one of the best-educated doctors in the world, she returned to New York for the fight of her life. Aided by other prominent women physicians and suffragists, Jacobi conducted the first-ever data-backed, scientific research on women's reproductive biology. The results of her studies shook the foundations of medical science and higher education. Full of larger than life characters and cinematically written, The Cure for Women documents the birth of a sexist science still haunting us today as the fight for control of women’s bodies and lives continues.

_____________________________________________________

Once Elizabeth Blackwell broke the glass ceiling and became the first women to graduate medical school, more women demanded the chance to study medicine. In America, men did their best to prevent this so women with means traveled to Europe, getting degrees in France and returning to practice and teach other women. In The Cure For Women Lydia Reeder introduces readers to a few of these early medical pioneers and the challenges they faced, then focuses the rest of the book through Mary Putnam and her research, challenges, and advances.

Like many of the early women who were able to travel to Europe to become doctors, Putnam was from a wealthy family (she was the eldest daughter of publisher George Putnam), though money alone never smoothed all her ways. A combination of money, charm, brilliance, stubbornness, and a refusal to fail when she knew she was in the right were the characteristics needed of all of the early women doctors, and Mary had most of these in spades. 

I knew when I started this book I was going to spend a lot of it angry or fustrated by the challenges men placed in the way of women trying to reach their highest potential. I was blown away by the arrogance shown by many of the male doctors in these pages. There are doctors who treat surgery like a grand spectacle to show off their skills, doctors who refuse anesthesia to their female patients for a variety of horrific reasons. Doctors who seem to genuinely believe women aren't capable of the thought necessary for anything because of their menstral cycles, and plenty of men willing to use (and distort) Darwin's theories to promote eugenics for their own ends to control women's bodies. 

It was fascinating to watch doctors like Mary Putnam Jacobi develop theories and entire processes that we now take for granted (like surveys of patients) to begin undertanding and developing new sciences of the time- hygiene, pediatrics, and women's health and gynecology. But more interesting to me was watching them take these sciences and common sense and begin to apply them to the fight for women's rights across a large spectrum of issues, such as voting and education. Jacobi became a proponent of educating women equally to men, preferrably in equal settings, and she worked with all the big names of the era in women's suffrage to fight for the causes she believed in. 

The Cure for Women is overall a really interesting and well-written book, certainly well researched, accessible to everyone. I do wish the author had used more quotes from the writings of Jacobi and the other women involved to help us get more into their heads, but that's my only real complaint. 

For anyone interested in the development of medical science in the nineteenth century, women's education and fight for equality, or readers of Olivia Campbell's Women in White, The Cure for Women is a book to add to the TBR list!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 

Affiliate link

Power and Glory

 Power and Glory: Elizabeth II and the Rebirth of Royalty- Alexander Larman

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: April 30, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: When the Royal Family took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day in 1945, they knew that the happiness and excitement of the day was illusory. Britain may have been victorious in a painful war, but the peace would be no easier. Between the abdication crisis, the death of King George VI, and the ascension of young Elizabeth II to the throne, the continued existence of the monarchy seemed uncertain. And the presence of the former Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor, conniving and sniping from the sidelines in an attempt to regain relevance, even down to writing a controversial and revelatory memoir, could only make matters worse. Still, the question of whether or not Elizabeth could succeed and make the monarchy something that once again inspired international pride and even love remained.

In Power and Glory, Alexander Larman completes his acclaimed Windsor family trilogy, using rare and previously unseen documents to illuminate their unique family dynamic. Through his chronicling of events like the Royal Wedding, George VI’s death and the discovery of the Duke of Windsor’s treacherous activities in WWII, Larman paints a vivid portrait of the end of one sovereign’s reign and the beginning of another’s that heralded a new Elizabethan Age which would bring power and glory back to a monarchy desperately in need of it.

________________________________________________________

Book 3 in his carefully researched trilogy, "Power and Glory" is Alexander Larman's conclusion to the saga of King Edward VIII and King George VI of England. The first two books followed the death of their father, King George V and the abdication crisis as Edward (David to the family) abdicated his responsibilities to the throne, meaning his younger brother (Bertie in the family) had to become king. It ended up being the best thing that could happen for England, even if the stress and strain of the job probably helped kill him. Book two follows World War 2 and Bertie leading England while David flits around being thoughtless at best, a Nazi sympathizer and possibly quite a bit more. 

Book 3, "Power and Glory" is the immediate aftermath of the war. England is dealing with economic crisis and a shrinking empire, George VI is trying to deal with local crisis as well as the rise of Communist Russia and his own failing health. Elizabeth is growing up, falling in love with Phillip, and marrying him despite some push back. I was saddened by reading exactly how ill George VI was and how much he suffered, but the rest of that part of the story didn't hold my attention too much. What I very much enjoyed was when the story would switch to David and Wallis.

Trying desperately to hold on to some level of power or relevance in the world, David and Wallis try to get the crown to have the former king made a kind of ambassador so he can have social parties and get the government to pay for them (and not pay taxes). Surprisingly, the government declines this offer. So they start trying to see what kind of trouble they can cause.

Probably a tragic-comedy if they weren't so thoroughly dislikable, the detailed research into David and Wallis' actions and how the British government and the Royal family had to deal with them were by far my favorite parts of this book, and I'd recommend it for that alone. If you're interested in Britain post WW2, this is a good place to start. 

As always, thoroughly researched and generally well written, if occasionally given to more "if they only knew then"type of chapter endings than I prefer, Larman's "Power and Glory" is a solid conclusion to his trilogy on the Windsor family and Great Britain and their combined experiences in World War II. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Hunting the Falcon

 Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage that Shook Europe- John Guy & Julia Fox

Bloomsbury

Released: September 14, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn is one of the most remarkable in a long courtship followed by a shotgun wedding and then a coronation, ending just short of three years later when a husband's passion turned to such hatred that he simply wanted his wife gone. In Hunting the Falcon, John Guy and Julia Fox examine the most recent archival discoveries and peel back layers of historical myth to present Anne and Henry in startlingly new ways. They show how Anne and Henry's relationship was tied almost completely to the major events of international politics at one of the great turning points of European history, and dispel any assumptions that a sixteenth-century woman, even a queen, could exert little influence on the politics and beliefs of a patriarchal society. Anne was in fact a shrewd and ruthless politician in her own right, a woman who steered Henry and his policies - and whom Henry seriously contemplated making joint sovereign.

Hunting the Falcon sets the facts and some completely new finds into a wide frame, unearthing the truth about these two extraordinary lives and their tumultuous times. It pays particular attention to the seven 'missing' years that Anne spent in France, and explores how she organised her side of the royal court in novel ways that ultimately sowed the seeds of her own downfall. In this feat of historical research and analysis, Guy and Fox offer a sumptuous retelling of one of the most consequential marriages in history and an exhilarating portrait of love, lust, politics and power.

_________________________________________________________

I've read a number of biographies on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn recently, and Hunting the Falcon has to be right up at the top. I love how historians John Guy and Julia Fox take the wide view of the relationship. It wasn't ever just about love, or even lust, it was always about power and politics- both on the small family scale and on the European scale.

Guy and Fox do an excellent job of describing Anne's life in Europe before coming to Katherine of Aragon's court and Henry's attention, and how what she learned there greatly influenced what she herself would do when she was queen. She modeled her court on Queen Claude, who she served in France, allowing both women and men into her court. This probably allowed her access to more information than she might otherwise have gotten, certainly made her feel more accessible to those who wanted to ask for favors and knew the Queen was the one to go to, and in the end, helped Cromwell exploit chinks in Anne's armor that led to her execution. We see what Anne did as queen for those around her, the changes she made and those she tried, but failed, to make.  

But more than focusing on the power Anne wielded in England, Guy and Fox help the reader understand the ever-shifting power plays going on between England and France, the pope and Charles (Katherine of Aragon's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor, Hapsburg emperor, etc.). Who sided with who, when, where, and why changed regularly and Guy and Fox do the best job of explaining the players and their motivations (at any given time) that I've read yet. I think that was what impressed me the most in Hunting the Falcon. I always knew that Anne was pro-French, but here we get deeply into why sometimes it was to Henry's advantage to side with Francis and France, other times with Charles, who might support him against the pope, and who's wars in Europe would benefit him the most.

Whether you think you know all there is to know about Henry and Anne, or are looking for a good book to start your exploration of this explosive relationship, Hunting the Falcon is definitely a book I recommend!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Empress of the Nile

 Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples From Destruction- Lynne Olson

Random House

Release Date: February 28, 2023

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: Fifty countries contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples, built during the height of the pharaohs’ rule, from drowning in the floodwaters of the massive new Aswan High Dam. But the extensive press coverage at the time overlooked the gutsy French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would now be at the bottom of a vast reservoir. It was an unimaginably large and complex project that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by stone, and rebuilt on higher ground.

A willful real-life version of Indiana Jones, Desroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. During World War II she joined the French Resistance and was held by the Nazis; in her fight to save the temples she challenged two of the postwar world’s most daunting leaders, Egypt’s President Nasser and France’s President de Gaulle. As she told a reporter, “You don’t get anywhere without a fight, you know.”

Yet Desroches-Noblecourt was not the only woman who played an essential role in the historic endeavor. The other was Jacqueline Kennedy, who persuaded her husband to call on Congress to help fund the rescue effort. After years of Western plunder of Egypt’s ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt did the opposite. She helped preserve a crucial part of Egypt’s cultural heritage, and made sure it remained in its homeland.

_____________________________________________________________

Historian Lynne Olson, best known for her fantastic books on little known aspects of World War II history,  (Last Hope Island) gives us another little known but hugely influential story in Empress of the Nile. Along the lines of Madame Fourcade's Secret War, Empress of the Nile focuses on a Frenchwoman- Christine Desroches-Noblecourt, a resistance fighter during World War II. But what I thought would be the most interesting part of her story ended up being only a small part, and by no means the most fascinating.

Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt was fascinated by Egypt from a young age and was fortunate enough to have parents who supported her in following her dreams. She became the first female archaeologist and Egyptologist in France, facing incredible hostility from the men in her field, who didn't want her on dig sites. They disliked her presence in general, her talent and intelligence, her familiarity and positive working relationship with the local Egyptian workers, and her successes. When not on a dig in Egypt she was working at the Louvre. As the Nazi threat began to loom, the Louvre packed up its treasures and shipped them to different places for protection, with Christiane helping catalog, pack, and transport the Egyptian collections. She remained in Paris during the occupation and was part of the first resistance group against the Nazis, a fascinating collection of men and women who were mostly museum workers but were able to help hide escaping POWs in their museums and get them to safety, among many other things. When Christiane was arrested, questioned, and then released by Nazi officers she knew she would be under surveillance and backed away from the group to keep her friends in the movement safe. While I thought this early part of her life would have been the most fascinating, what really captivated me was what came after the war. Christiane worked with Egyptian officials, UNESCO, and other agencies during the 1960s to save Abu Simbel, the Temple at Philae, and other priceless monuments from being lost to flooding with the building of the new Aswan High Dam. She was the visionary and the driving force behind the effort, even though she received little credit then or now. It was Desroches-Noblecourt who brought experts and professionals from around the world together to work on a project with no political motivation, just pure desire to save archaeological treasures for the good of humankind.

Lynne Olson describes the race to save Abu Simbel, the Temple of Philae, and the other endangered monuments in breathtaking details that leave the reader's heart racing, desperate to find out what will happen next and how they will succeed. What will go wrong? How will they triumph? What political disasters will get in the way? The reader feels some of what Desroches-Noblecourt must have felt as she worked nonstop to save the temples. Along the way I learned a lot about the politics of Egypt, from when France and England took over during the 1800s through the 1960s and how the world's politics affected Egyptology. And how this can be overcome when a few voices prove what really matters.  

Empress of the Nile is a fascinating story of the little known life of Christiane Desroche-Noblecourt and her life long dedication to discovering, interpreting, and preserving Egypt's past. Carefully researched and beautifully written, this is the story of a strong and dedicated woman who inspired generations of archaeologists, and should inspire future generations of people to go for their dreams, no matter how impossible they seem. Because sometimes, you can move mountains.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review