Thursday, July 25, 2013

Five of the best books on Britain's royal inheritors

One title on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of books on baby-watching in Great Britain, past and present:
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel

Henry VIII is brilliantly reimagined by Hilary Mantel in her fictionalized account of the Tudor king and his unfortunate wives -- specifically, their lifelong struggle to produce a male heir. Chronicling Henry's passionate and doomed relationship with Anne Boleyn, as well as his complicated rapport with the ambitious Thomas Cromwell, Mantel creates a rich dramatization of the most notorious English king in history. Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize.
Read about another book on the list.

Wolf Hall made Julie Buntin's top ten list of literary kids with deadbeat and/or absent dads, Hermione Norris's 6 best books list, John Mullan's list of ten of the best cardinals in literature, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five books on dangerous minds and Lev Grossman's list of the top ten fiction books of 2009, and is one of Geraldine Brooks's favorite works of historical fiction; Matt Beynon Rees called it "[s]imply the best historical novel for many, many years."

--Marshal Zeringue