European Royalty discussion

***YOUR CHOICE - EUROPEAN ROYALTY***

***ANY EUROPEAN COUNTRY, ANY TIME PERIOD, FICTION OR NON-FICTION***


Okay everyone, it's that time of the month - time to nominate! Anyone who would like to nominate one book may do so in this thread.

The theme this month is YOUR CHOICE - EUROPEAN ROYALTY (any European country, any time period, fiction or non-fiction). Keeping the theme broad seems to be working fairly well (there has been a decent variety of books selected over the past few months). If we start getting too many of the same type of books as group reads (like a ton of Tudor books in a row), I'll certainly tweak the next theme so that we maintain some diversity.

Since this group has read SO MANY books together, I'm only going to exclude the last two years of books that this group has read from being nominated (so books we read together more than two years ago are now okay). A list of every book this group has read together in the last two years is at the end of this post (alphabetically by author, then by title if we've read more than one book by that author), so please try not to nominate a book from this list.

Please try to check amazon or some other site to make sure the book is easily available - the last thing we want is to nominate some great book that no one can get! If you nominate more than one book, only the first book listed will make it into the voting poll (so save additional books for the next months!). Also, if the book doesn't fit the theme, I won't add it to this month's voting poll, but I will carry it over to the next theme that it does fit under if you would like.

Feel free to nominate one book of your choice in this thread until I close the thread (scheduled to close October 6th, 9pm Eastern).

At around that time, I'll make a voting poll and list all the nominated books in it, and people can vote in the poll until the poll closes (set to last through October 10th). Discussion will start on November 15th.

Happy Nominating!



BOOKS WE HAVE READ AS A GROUP IN THE LAST TWO YEARS (PLEASE DON'T NOMINATE):

Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell

For the King’s Favor (aka The Time of Singing) by Elizabeth Chadwick

Three Maids for a Crown: A Novel of the Grey Sisters by Ella March Chase

Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria by Julia P. Gelardi

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone

The Queen of Last Hopes: The Story of Margaret of Anjou by Susan Higginbotham

The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick

The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie

The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon’s Court by Michelle Moran

Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman

The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport

Royal Mistress by Anne Easter Smith

Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith

The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva Stachniak

Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir

The Wars of the Roses by Alison Weir

I know it's alternative history and Sara is welcome to chuck my nomination, but The Boleyn King really is nicely done and might make for interesting discussions.

Misfit wrote: "I know it's alternative history and Sara is welcome to chuck my nomination, but The Boleyn King really is nicely done and might make for interesting discussions."

That's fine by me. Sounds intriguing! I guess if anyone else has a major problem with it for some reason, please feel free to say so. We've read books where fictional characters or non-royals are the main characters and books that jump between time periods, so this feels like it falls along those lines.

I wouldn't want to give much away, but it's such a nicely imagined what-if-AB-had-a-son-that-lived. All the main players are still there, but everyone's lives are very different. Can't wait to get my hands on book two coming out in November. There's quite an unexpected twist at the end of the first one.

the daughter of time by Josephine tey

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

I enjoyed the Boleyn King as well. I liked that it was something different related to the Tudors.

Nominating is closed! Time to vote!

There was a tie between two of the books. I tried sending an email out (it said it was sent out), but I haven't received it yet so probably no one has (and it won't let me send another one). I then tried using the invitation feature to invite members of the group to answer the poll, but it only sent out 1,000 (and we have around 1,350 here). This is my last ditch effort to try and let everyone know that there is a new tie breaker poll up on the main group page and here:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

If anyone knows for sure that the invites go to the first 1,000 people, I'll try inviting the other 1,001-1,340ish people tomorrow (I'll leave this thread open for replies). I just don't want to bombard people with emails and invites!

I didn't get one (just saw your message here), if that helps.

I would like Josephine Tey Daughters of time or The Plantagenents

I don't think they made the runoff.

Margaret wrote: "I would like Josephine Tey Daughters of time or The Plantagenents"

Sorry Margaret, I should have been clearer in the message above. The tie is between The Plantagenets and The Boleyn King. If you would be interested in voting for one of those, the poll is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "I didn't get one (just saw your message here), if that helps."

Thanks, I sent out an invite to the last 350 or so people then (it probably does just take the first 1,000 I'm guessing).