Goodreads.com = Amazing

I have no clue how I didn't know about the site Good Reads before starting this blog! It's great, and it would have been so useful over the years had I known about it! I was always googling "historical fiction" trying to find new authors that I might be interested in reading. I'm the type of person who finds a book I love, and then I'll read every book that author has written. That would be why I've read all of Philippa Gregory, Robin Maxwell, Bertrice Smalls, Susan Higginbotham, and C.W. Gortner's books! Good Reads makes it so easy to find books that I like reading.
It's funny that I spent the past 15 or so years thinking that I was strange for loving historical fiction so much, and then I decide to check out blogspot (because I decided that I needed to start keeping track of the books I read), and I discovered that there are so many people out there who love historical fiction as much as I do, probably even more! My friends and family could never understand why I would want to read about Kings and Queens and other historical figures, hell, half my friends don't even know who King Henry VIII was or whether the Civil War or Revolutionary War happened first! I have always been fascinated by  history. I wanted to major in history when I went to college, but I knew it would be pretty much impossible to get a job. I ended up graduating with my B.A. in English Literature, so yeah, there were no jobs for that either (which is why I went back for my M.A. in Education!) I would love to teach history, but only if it was what I wanted to teach! I would despise teaching politics, but that's a part of being a Social Studies teacher now. Plus, the History teaching field is even more flooded than English, so it would be even harder to find a job.
Anyways, I'm rambling again. I am just extremely excited to find a couple of sites where I can finally share my love of reading historical fiction (and just reading in general). I love being able to read other's blogs, and I love Good Reads, because it allows me to see what other people, who have similar interests as me, are reading as well.
The only problem now is that I have about 15 books or more, sitting at home waiting for me to read them, and I want to read them all at once! I'm reading two books at the same time right now! I'm re-reading "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin, because the HBO show based on his series, "A Game of Thrones" begins in April, and I want to refresh myself with the books. I'm also reading Jean Plaidy's "A Murder Most Royal." I like it, but it's a little slow. It might seem a little slow because I've read around ten other books about Anne Boleyn, so everything in the book I've read or heard about Anne before. I guess I just thought it was going to be a lot more interesting than it is. I'm sure I'll finish it, but I wish I could put it down and start a new one! If I did that I'd end up forgetting everything I had read up to my stopping point, and have to start over again, so I just need to finish it. I think I'll read "A Clash of Kings" first though!

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

This is probably one of the best historical fiction novels I have read in awhile. I loved it! The author gives the reader an inside view of what may have been going on inside Juana "la loca's" head. I had always heard that she was crazy, that she dragged her dead husband's body around Spain, that she was psycho and possessive of her husband when he was alive, but this gave me a new perspective. The author showed Juana as an intelligent woman who was deceived by the people who she loved and trusted the most. Her husband, father, and son. She was forced to go along with things she did not believe in simply b/c the men in her life willed it so. In this novel she is shown in a new light, where the reader respects her as well as feels sorry for her. A lot of the book is based on facts, which I always appreciate in a historical novel! I had trouble putting this book down. It was the first novel I've read about Juana. I've read a few novels that included stories about her, but they all portrayed her as completely nutty, so it was refreshing to read a novel that made her out to be a heroine, and not just some crazy chic who lived 500 years ago!