Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (1364)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

Deborah (162 KP) rated The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig in Books

Dec 21, 2018  
The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig
The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig
John Ashdown-Hill | 2013 | Biography
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is only a fairly short book with a limited focus, but nevertheless I found it very interesting. It's odd really, because opinion on the subject tends to be so polarised that it's easy to lose sight of a few simple facts and some of what Ashdown-Hill presents here should really be so obvious! For starters, for all the association of Bosworth with Richard III he didn't know it was going to happen and obviously didn't go in 'knowing' that he was going to be defeated - hindsight may be a great thing, but not if you want to look at historical events in context!

The Portuguese marriage proposals was something that I did know about, but here it's presented so logically it makes absolute sense. The chosen bride was a princes of Portugal, with a Spanish Infanta also in the playing as a reserve option. Both of these princesses were descended from the legitimate and senior branch of the House of Lancaster! Furthermore, it seems that a Portuguese marriage was also in the offing for Elizabeth of York. That being so, the letter supposedly written by her (reported by Buck, but now seemingly lost) makes more sense as does the confusion over Richard II wanting to marry Elizabeth, his niece, which never made any real sort of sense as, if we accept the truth of the Eleanor Butler pre-contract, then the children of Edward IV by Elizabeth Woodville were undoubtedly illegitimate, so there would be absolutely no point in Richard marrying her. On the other hand, Elizabeth and her sisters were the closest things available to Royal Princesses to be traded on the dynastic marriage market.
  
40x40

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2099 KP) rated Life on the Mississippi in Books

Feb 22, 2023 (Updated Feb 22, 2023)  
Life on the Mississippi
Life on the Mississippi
Rinker Buck | 2022 | History & Politics
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Book Wanders Like a River – Not Always for the Best
Journalist Rinker Buck decided to take his love for the flat boats of the 1800’s and make that his next trip into America’s past. He has one built for himself and sets out to sail it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Along the way, he studies up on this part of American history. How will his journey go?

The idea of a trip like this appealed to me, so I sat down to read this with high hopes. Sadly, it wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped it would be, mostly thanks for things the author put in he didn’t need to. There was more history than I was expecting; I was expecting more of a travelogue. That’s on me, although I did find much of this interesting if a little too long. However, I didn’t need all the biographical sketches about Rinker. I feel like some of that was his grieving process over having recently lost his mother. It would make for good reading, but in a different book. He also seemed to want to inject politics into the book where it didn’t need to be, and his attitude was very smug when this came up, even condescending at times. However, when he was actually describing the river and talking about what it took to navigate it, I was enthralled. I never thought about what it would take. The stories about some of the people he met along the way were good as well. The end result was a mixed bag.