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ClareR (6253 KP) rated The Woman in the Wallpaper in Books

Oct 14, 2025  
The Woman in the Wallpaper
The Woman in the Wallpaper
Lora Jones | 2025 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Woman in the Wallpaper by Lora Jones is set around the time of the French Revolution.

Sofie and Lara Thibault, along with their mother, move from Marseille to work in a wallpaper factory near Paris after he violent death of their father. The Oberst factory provides them all with a job and Josef Oberst becomes friends with the sisters.

A marriage and the Revolution see an end to the friendship.

I loved all the historical details around the Revolution, what it was like to work in a wallpaper factory, and the differences between the workers and the aristocracy. I could feel the tension radiating off the page, building to its incendiary, and very sad conclusion. I thought the character- and world-building were excellent, and I even felt some sympathy for the awful, aristo wife of Josef.

It’s a fabulous addition to stories set during the French Revolution.
  
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ClareR (6253 KP) rated A Little Trickerie in Books

Nov 23, 2025  
A Little Trickerie
A Little Trickerie
Rosanna Pike | 2024 | Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Was this on the Women’s Prize 2025 short list? Well if it wasn’t, it should have been. Top tier historical fiction, in my opinion. There’s a real sense of time and place – medieval times weren’t nice or easy to live in. Born a vagabond, orphaned and left to fend for herself, Tibb has an uncanny ability to fall in with people who will (largely) help her. Namely Ivo, who she meets shortly after the death of her mother, and some of the people in a travelling group of minstrels. Tibb is a truly wonderful character: she’s bold, adventurous and always makes the best of what she has. She hasn’t let the world turn her into a bitter, hateful person, and let’s just say that the world has had plenty of opportunities to do that! The narrative voice is so different from what I’ve read/ listened to before. Just perfect!
  
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David McK (3835 KP) rated Kingdom of Heaven (2005) in Movies

Feb 5, 2022  
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
2005 | Drama, History, War
6
7.4 (22 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Watch the Directors Cut instead.
I remember that, back in the early 2000s, there was a sudden surge in the 'Historical epic' sub genre of movies, largely as a result of 2000s 'Gladiator'

This was one such movie.

Set in a little known period of history, between the Second and Third Crusades, this follows the exploits of the blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom), who follows his estranged father Baron Godfrey (Liam Neeson) to Jerusalem to attempt to atone for his sins.

Of course, being a movie, he then goes on to be involved in many great events, from shipwreck to meeting Saladin and (eventually) leading the defence if Jerusalem.

Not bad, but maybe a bit long and slow, with The Directors Cut doing a better job of tying the themes together, including a whole subplot largely dropped from the theatrical release regarding the romance he becomes involved in.