Midnight Musings

Or, why I sometimes like historical fiction more than anything else…

I’m babysitting a script so I thought I’d take the time to ponder on yesterday’s reading since today my reading time was limited to menus and map directions. Had lunch with my friend and co-worker M today and as usual, we discussed our reading. She’s stuck on a book verging on chick-lit (not her favorite by any stretch of the imagination) and I was extolling the historical I stayed up MUCH too late to finish — EARTHLY JOYS by Philippa Gregory.

Sometimes you just feel like reading a certain type of book, and the Tudor series by
Philippa Gregory being reissued by Touchstone traces the stories of characters in Tudor England. Not necessarily the main well-known actors but fictionalizations to tell much more than the surface story. EARTHLY JOYS begins the story of the Tradescants, gardeners to the royals and their advisors. Also, by the by, the founders of one of the first museums as we know them (open to the general public, or anyone who could pay a small fee) today. Isn’t history interesting?

Except for the “rape” or “whatever you want to call it,” I really enjoyed EARTHLY JOYS, especially since I had to go and look up the history of the age, try to remember THE THREE MUSKETEERS, and had lots to talk about at lunch. Not a bad night’s loss of sleep, I’d say. I can’t wait for John Tradescant the Younger’s story, coming out in August.