The Content Reader

Historical Tapestry is hosting the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2014 . I choose to read 10 Renaissance books and has now finalised this challenge. I am lucky to finalise at least one of the challenges. It has been a little bit uphill this year. Here are the books that I read. 1. The Chosen Man by J.G. Harlond 2. The King's Concubine by Anne O'Brien 3. The Forbidden Queen by Anne O'Brien 4. The Kingmaker's Daughter by Anne O'Brien Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant (not finished!)) 5. Sofia Magdalena A True Queen by Gerd Ribbing 6. A Divided Inheritance by Deborah Swift 7. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 8. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon 9. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon 10. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon I could not finish Sacred Hearts, I found it too slow, but all the other books are interesting. My absolute favourite  will have to be The Chosen Man by J.G. Harlond ( review here ), which takes place in Holland (among other places) during the Tu...

During our 17 years in Brussels we have never visited Keukenhof,  the Garden of Europe as it is known. Well, we actually passed by once but it was the wrong time of the year so we didn't see any flowers. Mid-April (depending on the weather as always is the best time to go there to see the tulips but also a lot of other flowers. On top of this I can tell you that we were not alone. It is amazing to see all these people in all different angles, standing, leaning, bending, kneeing, sitting, lying and I don't know what angle to try to get a good photo of the flowers. People use not only cameras (some bring their tripods with them so it looks really professional) but also ipads and smart phones. It seems to be a mecca for photographers. Well, we took a few photos as well. My husband did most and he tends to inflate them. But that is the luxury of the digital photo cameras today. I delete some of them discreetly afterwards! Flowers in various arrangements Keukenhof means ...

Since we are popping over to Amsterdam for the weekend I thought it would be interesting to read something connected to Holland. Recently I found a reference to 'Tulipomania' by historian Mike Dash as a reference book for an historical novel. Tulipomania is the name for a period in the Dutch Golden Age in the beginning of the 17th century during which prices for tulip bulbs which had then recently been introduced to Europe reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. Do we see here a forerunner to modern share markets?  "The Viceroy", from a 1637 Dutch catalog. Price between 3,000 and 4,150  guilders (florins)  depending on size. A skilled craftsman at the timeearned about 300 guilders a year. Just starting it and it is bound to be a fascinating book. During the years 1633-37 there was a boom in the prices of tulip bulbs than can only be compared to the frenzy of shares today. Fortunes were made and lost over night. People paid more for a tu...