What I've been reading

Last night, I finished The Discovery of France by Graham Robb. It took a while to read, for me, not because it was difficult (although I did get a little confused from time to time with some of the geography and clan names), but because it is not your typical "guidebook" or even a typical history book.

We all think we know France. After all, it had been the cultural center of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Any court worth its salt spoke French. And you didn't lightly enter into any actions which might piss off the King of France. But what we really know is the France of the court and scholars of Paris. There was an enormous countryside that existed beyond the boundaries of the city where the residents didn't consider themselves to be French, didn't speak the language, and often showed their disdain by killing tax collectors, saying they had no authority over them. Even as late as the 1800s, cartographers took their lives in their hands in going out to map the countryside. They were thought to be sorcerers and beaten to death.

But it isn't all battle and gore. There are some wonderful nuggets that Robb unearthed, such as languages that flourished into the twentieth century, customs that sustained people for hundreds of years, and a sense of identity that refused to be subsumed by a national state. Robb traveled about on bicycle - 14,000 miles - because he felt the nuances of geography and people was missed when traveling at the faster rate of trains or automobiles. This was the closest approximation he could get to the carriages of old and it shows. You really get a feel for what life must have been like as the government extended its reach across the lands it owned and made them lands that they held.

If you have any interest in history, geography, and how politics shapes both, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

Still making my way through Shakespeare. At the moment, I'm working on two plays at a time, so as to catch up to the rest of the group. This makes for a bit of jumbling at times, which is my excuse for not writing anything about it. I'd likely only confuse myself further, and totally bore all of you! ;) I've just about finished Love's Labour's Lost, which I am enjoying, and embarking on Romeo and Juliet, which I have to admit, is not one of my favorites. I did read this in high school, as I'm sure many others did, and I can't say I was all that impressed. I had a good teacher, who managed to keep things from becoming rote and boring, but I would much rather read Antigone than about the Montagues and the Capulets. Then again, maybe it'll improve for having been sitting for so long.

I've also pulled out Philippa Gregory's book The White Queen in anticipation of her new book in this series, The Red Queen. The first focused on Elizabeth Woodville, who was the wife of Edward IV. The second book is about Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudors. Most books I've read relegate Margaret to a background role, making her somewhat two-dimensional: the distant matriarch, paragon of piety, and overly ambitious for her son. I've no doubt that she was all of these things, but surely there are other facets to her personality that have been skipped. I hope this book will make her a bit more human.

So, that's what has been occupying me for the last week or so. Tomorrow will be Whimsical Wednesday, so I'll take a step back for that. I've also, in the spirit of Green Gables and Little House, started working on holiday gifts. Yes, I know it's only August, but when needles start clicking, you'd be surprised how fast that creeps up on you. So, I've been picking up yarn to make hats, mittens, socks, etc., as well as dusting off my drop spindle, and hope that by next year I'll be able to produce yarn that is not so slubby and I can hand someone something and be able to say, "I spun the yarn and knitted this myself". Everyone needs a goal, right? :)

Happy reading!