BW18: Ladies of Fiction - Sharon Kay Penman

Welcome to May which is officially May Mystery Month as well as National Commitment Month which means it's time to reassess all those goals we made at the beginning of the year. Coincidently it is also Date Your Mate month. There are many fun things happening this week such as Bird day, plus May the Fourth be with you and a day long marathon of Star Wars. It's time to party on the 5th with Cinco de Mayo, then celebrate all our wonderful health care folks with National Nurses day on the 6th. National Tourism day on the 7th means lots of armchair traveling before No Socks Day on the 8th so you can play footsies with your significant other. Did anyone lose a sock? The 9th is Lost Sock Memorial day which gives you time to find the matches or discard those lonely unmatched socks. 

This month we celebrate our Ladies of Fiction with Sharon Kay Penman who has written multiple historical fiction novels including the Welsh Trilogy set in 13th Wales, and Angevin Novels set during the time of the Plantagenet Kings, as well as a historical mystery series Justin De Quincy set during the 12th century. Her newest novel The Land Beyond The Sea is also set in the 12th century and surrounds the the reign of King Baldwin IV, the King of Jerusalem.

I'm not a big fan of dry history books so am really picky about historical fiction. I fell in love with Penman's writing years ago with Here Be Dragons. Her books are meant to be savored and read slowly as they are rich in detail and imagery and makes history come alive. After I finished the Welsh trilogy, I wanted to read When Christ and Her Saints Slept which has been on my shelves forever but just hadn't gotten around to it. Now is the perfect time to dive into the world of the Plantagenets.

There are a number of ways to complete the bookology challenge, including but not limited to:

• Spell out the author's name - one book per letter from the title on the cover.
• Read one or more books written by the author.
• Read a book written in the country or time period of the author or novel.

Learn more about Sharon through an interview with the Literary Librarian, the Historical Novel Society, and Goodreads Ask the Author.

Happy reading! 

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