Saturday, June 14, 2008

HENRY VIII by Alison Weir

In my last book review I ask the old question, "Can you judge a book by its cover?"

Not all the time, however the Tudor King's smirking smile on the cover of this non-fiction account of his life warns the reader that Ms. Weir spends a lot of pages building up the atmosphere of the 15th century without ever tackling the man, almost as if she's playing hard to get with the father of Elizabeth I.

I flickered through the pages like a poker card sharp. I already knew he cut off the heads of two wives and exiled another to a castle. He fought with the Catholic Church and dissolved the monasteries and also that Herman and the hermits had a hit song about him. I didn't glean anything new from the book and finished the 496 pages like Lance Armstrong on steroids, having only read about 34 of them.

No questions asked and you get a better sense for the man by reading Wikpedia's version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VIII_of_England

For a related article click on this URL

http://www.mangozeen.com/walk-like-a-woman-by-peter-nolan-smith.htm

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