Author: marionvermazen

I speed read Catherine de Medici – Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda last week in order to finish it in time for the Newcomers Club Book Club. It is not an easy read and the author who is Swedish by birth and apparently speaks five languages loves using unusual words like bobbish, chimera and  tergiversations. In spite of the fact that reading the book is a bit of a slog, it reads like a text book, I did find it very interesting.

Renaissance France is fascinating. Catherine De Medici lived from 1519 to 1589, during the reigns of 5 French kings. One of them was her husband and three of them were her sons. This was a particularly violent period. There were constantly recurring religious wars (at least six), the St Bartholomew's Day massacre (for which Catherine was blamed), Burnings of protestants, and  political assassinations. Catherine survived and perhaps even thrived, shaping French politics through most of this period.

I am glad I read this book. I learned a lot about this period in history in general and French history in particular. It certainly helped me better understand the renaissance and the reformation.

Thanks to my friend Linda here are a few of the obscure words, their meanings and the page references.

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin and Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher – How's that for two ends of the spectrum.

I frequently read several books at one time and I just finished these two. Your Inner Fish is a fascinating book about evolutionary biology. Neil Shubin is a paleontologist, a professor of anatomy and a science writer. Coming Home is a family saga set in Cornwall before and during World War II. Rosamund Pilcher is a British author of romance novels and mainstream women's fiction.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of these books.

In Your Inner Fish Shubin uses his experience and knowledge about geology, anatomy, DNA, and fossil hunting to explain the  latest thinking about how man evolved. The book is fascinating and very readable. Here is an entertaining quote from the last chapter:

"Fish have gonads that extend toward their chest, approaching their heart. Mammals don't, and therein lies the problem. It is a very good thing that our gonads are not deep in our chest and near our heart (although it might make reciting the pledge of Allegiance a different experience). If our gonads were in our chest, we wouldn't be able to reproduce."

Coming Home is a very enjoyable book. It is the kind of English family saga that you can wrap yourself in and just feel good. It is set in Cornwall the part of England that Pilcher is from. Her descriptions of the countryside are wonderful and the people she writes about are people you want to have as friends. Sometimes I just want to read a feel good book and Coming Home is one of the best.