The “More Things You Told Me To Read” Book Haul

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews. I get to show off all the books I’ve gotten recently. A few months ago, I asked you guys for book recommendations, and you delivered. I decided to spend my bookstore credits on some of the things you told me to read. I plan on acquiring more of the books you recommended in the future, so if you have more recs, I’d love to hear them. These are just the books I could find right now.

Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics – Eleanor Herman

In royal courts bristling with testosterone—swashbuckling generals, polished courtiers, and virile cardinals—how did repressed regal ladies find happiness? 

Anne Boleyn flirted with courtiers; Catherine Howard slept with one. Henry VIII had both of them beheaded. 

Catherine the Great had her idiot husband murdered and ruled the Russian empire with a long list of sexy young favorites. 

Marie Antoinette fell in love with the handsome Swedish count Axel Fersen, who tried valiantly to rescue her from the guillotine. 

Princess Diana gave up her palace bodyguard to enjoy countless love affairs, which tragically led to her early death. 

In this impeccably researched, scandalously readable follow-up to her New York Times bestseller Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what has historically gone on behind the closed door of the queen's boudoir.

The Poet’s Handbook – Judson Jerome

Judson Jerome's years of experience as both a poet and a teacher come together to expertly guide you through the poetry writing process. You'll learn how to merge mechanics with art to produce poetry that will endure. You'll discover the meanings and uses of a wide variety of poetic terms, illustrated with the works of such poets as Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, and John Gardner. Jerome also includes a versification chart, an index to poetry terms, and indexes to poems/poets quoted in the book, making this book equally valuable for quick reference or in-depth study.

All the Broken Pieces – Ann E. Burg

Two years after being airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam, Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family—and the terrible secret—he left behind. Now, inside a caring adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events force him to choose between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom.

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East – Tiziano Terzani

Warned by a Hong Kong fortune-teller not to risk flying for an entire year, Tiziano Terzani—a vastly experienced Asia correspondent—took what he called “the first step into an unknown world. . . . It turned out to be one of the most extraordinary years I have ever spent: I was marked for death, and instead I was reborn.” 

Traveling by foot, boat, bus, car, and train, he visited Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. Geography expanded under his feet. He consulted soothsayers, sorcerers, and shamans and received much advice—some wise, some otherwise—about his future. With time to think, he learned to understand, respect, and fear for older ways of life and beliefs now threatened by the crasser forms of Western modernity. He rediscovered a place he had been reporting on for decades. And reinvigorated himself in the process.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell

The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, the book creates a roadmap for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today—and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence.

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage – Alfred Lansing

In December 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven men set sail from South Georgia for the South Pole aboard the Endurance, the object of their expedition to cross Antarctica overland. A month later the ship was beset in the ice of the Weddell Sea, just outside the Antarctic Circle. Temperatures dropped to 35 degrees Celsius below zero. Ice-moored, the Endurance drifted northwest for ten months before it was finally crushed. The ordeal, however, had barely begun.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?