Review: The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This reads like a Lonely planet guide to traveling to Elizabethan England, complete with which years to travel there in order to avoid the plague.

It also reads like a Travelogue in time. All in all a great and interesting read.




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Review: London

London by Edward Rutherfurd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The style of this book reminded me of "Il prete rosso", although I have to admit I enjoyed it more then, since it only covered 500 or so years so the families and generations were more intertwined (also it took place in a much smaller valley).

After a while this book seemed more like a collection of short stories. Each story takes place in London at a different point in time, involving people of the same family(ies), from the Ancient Roman times to the 20th century. This is a lot of ground to cover, and at many points I found myself not caring about the stories and just wanting to hear more about the time and age.

In fact, if this had been a real series, with a different book of this size for each time period, I think it would have been more interesting, since it could delve deeper into each era.


Regardless, I definitely enjoyed it. 3.5 stars.



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Review: The Anglo-Saxons A History of the Beginnings of England: 400–1066

The Anglo-Saxons A History of the Beginnings of England: 400–1066 by Marc Morris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was excellent and is probably the definitive book on Anglo-Saxons. If you want to delve into that period and get an in-depth look into Anglo-Saxon times, this is the book.




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Review: The Birth of Britain

The Birth of Britain by Winston S. Churchill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Like most people, I imagine, my first impression of this book was "How did he find the time?" (Answer: he wrote it over the course of 20 years), and when I read that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, I was even more impressed. Quality as well as Quantity!

Well this book has plenty of both. Although at times I felt like I was plodding through an endless number of Henrys, Richards, Yorks (people, the city, the faction), etc., especially during the War of the Roses, this book kept me interested and I can confidently say I learned a great deal (except maybe about the War of the Roses. I'm still confused about that). I found the early history to be the most fascinating, clear through the Norman conquest.

In other words, aside from having been written by a famous person, and even though it is currently over 60 years old, this book really holds its own.


4.5 stars

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