Mailbox Monday (12.11)

Elysium meme 7 Comments 11th November, 2012

Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia, is on a blog tour! This month’s host is BermudaOnion’s Weblog.

The Normans: The History of a Dynasty by David Crouch (bought)

“The Normans” is the history of a dynasty. It is also the history of ruthless ambition, rivalry and war between brothers and cousins. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 was a critical moment in history. Following the death of Harold at the battle of Hastings, it established William, duke of Normandy, on the throne of England. By ending Anglo-Saxon rule, it tied England to Normandy and to involvement in France for the next five hundred years.
The Normans were pioneers of strong government, vigorous builders of church-es and castles, and fierce warriors. William l’s death was followed by civil war and continued tension between England and Normandy, unresolved at the time of he death of William Rufus in a hunting accident in the New Forest in 1100. Peace under Henry I was followed by final eclipse after the Anarchy of Stephen’s reign, when ‘Christ and his saints slept’.

Must Love Hellhounds by Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook (bought)

In these hound-eat-hound worlds, anything goes… and everything bites.

Follow paranormal bodyguards Clovache and Batanya into Lucifer’s realm, where they encounter his fearsome four-legged pets, in Charlaine Harris’s The Britlingens Go to Hell. Seek out a traitor in the midst of a guild of non-lethal vampire trackers, one that intends to eradicate the entire species of bloodsuckers, in Nalini Singh’s Angels’ Judgment. Find out why the giant three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades has left the underworld for the real world—and whose scent he’s following—in Ilona Andrews’s Magic Mourns. Embark on a perilous search for the kidnapped niece of a powerful vampire alongside her blind—and damn sexy—companion and a hellhound in Meljean Brook’s Blind Spot.

These four novellas by today’s hottest paranormal authors will have hellhound lovers everywhere howling.

In a Dark Wood Wandering: A Novel of the Middle Ages by Hella S. Haasse (bookmooch)

Set during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), the narrative creates believable human beings from the great roll of historical figures. Here are the mad Charles VI, the brilliant Louis d’Orleans, Joan of Arc, Henry V, and, most importantly, Charles d’Orleans, whose loyalty to France brought him decades of captivity in England. A natural poet and scholar, his birth and rank thrust him into the center of intrigue and strife, and through his observant eyes readers enter fully into his colorful, dangerous times.