Saturday, March 11, 2017

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? 






17 comments:

  1. Endurance was an excellent read...it is a really amazing and shocking experience these guys had. I very much enjoyed it. It seems strange to include Princess Diana in the book Sex with Queens when she was never Queen!

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  2. Sex with the Queen sounds like a really interesting book actually!

    My STS

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  3. Great haul! I've heard that The Poet's Handbook is supposed to be really good. Enjoy your new books!

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  4. Oh, these all look very tempting...Sex with the Queen could help me while away some hours.

    Enjoy them all! Thanks for sharing, and for visiting my blog.

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  5. So I haven't read any of these, but I'm rather intrigued by Sex with the Queen. I may have to check that one out. - Katie

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  6. These look fascinating, I hope you enjoy them!

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  7. Sex With The Queen by Eleanor Herman looks good. I just read her book Legacy Of Kings which is about Alexander the Great in a bit fictional plot. Hope you will enjoy all your new books. Happy reading and have a great week ahead.

    Best wishes
    Vi @ Gone With The Books

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  8. I have never heard of any of these books but, they look very interesting! Definitely adding most of the to my TBR. Also, All the Broken Pieces seems to be right up my alley so, I'm really looking forward to picking it up soon. Hope you enjoy all your new books and have a happy month!

    Elena @ Book Lady's Reviews

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  9. Nice haul! A Fortune-Teller Told Me looks interesting! I hope you'll enjoy all the books you got! Happy reading!

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  10. Looking forward to reading your A Fortune Teller Told Me review. Looks an interesting book.

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  11. Oooh! I haven't heard of these books before, but they do sound really interesting!
    I hope you have the best time ever reading them!
    Aditi @ http://athousandwordsamillionbooks.blogspot.com/

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  12. Sex with the Queen and A Fortune-teller told me sound amazing! Looking forward to your reviews!

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  13. Ooh, some of these sound fascinating! I'll need to check out Sex with the Queen, I think.

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  14. I haven't heard of any of these! I can't wait to read your reviews to see what you think of them.

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  15. I was pleasantly surprised by All the Broken Pieces, which I had mistaken for a baseball book. Not that it isn't, but it's mostly about the refugee/immigrant experience.

    We'll be waiting for you to start composing your blog posts as myth-infused poetry after you read through this list.

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  16. I love Joseph Campbell so much! I also use his work when teaching my students about writing the hero's journey. Great haul and happy reading!

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