This and that

[cactuswatcher]

I've been reading Alison Weir's latest The Lady in the Tower which focuses on the conspiracy against Anne Boleyn. It's a bit over-documented, but it's still fairly enjoyable, like all of her histories. As an aside, it's the first time I've read a history book that dissed a book I'd read recently enough that I knew what the complaint was (Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox) . There are lots of little facts and stray details in the book of the sort I really appreciate and usually find in Weir's works.

Apparently Anne Boleyn had an abrasive personality and was a bit careless about making enemies. She'd also picked up the habit of publicly flirting from her long stay at the court of France, giving her enemies ready evidence of her 'wantonness.' As for Henry VIII, Weir thinks he just wanted out of the marriage, and the plot to have her and her brother removed entirely from the scene was cooked up by her enemies who she'd have probably done the same to eventually.


Not to be out done by the Big 10, the leadership of the PAC-10 has launched its own investigation into expansion over the next 18 months. If they choose to expand they'd have plenty of candidates, most likely : BYU, Utah, UNLV or Nevada-Reno. I have to think Boise would not be particularly welcome for academic reasons. Idaho is also a long shot even though it was once in a conference with the core schools of the old PAC-8. I doubt there would be much enthusiasm for adding any more California schools at the moment, though San Jose or San Diego State couldn't be totally ignored. Hawaii would have seemed far more attractive back when transportation and lodging wasn't so expensive. Colorado would only be practical if the Big Ten manages to attract Iowa State or Missouri and the whole Big Twelve North goes into turmoil.

I've been tracking my blooming agave, but I'll save posting pictures for another day.

Comments

[anneth.livejournal.com]

If you're interested and not Anne Boleyn-ed out, I suggest Ives' biog of Anne Boleyn, which is both a major reexamination of her (one of the major revisionist biographies of the last few decades) and a good read.

If you fancy a book about the Reformation, you could do a lot worse than give Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars a shot. It's brilliant.

[armygeezer.livejournal.com]

If you get a chance, read the new book "Wolf Hall" by Hillary Mantel. It's given mostly from Thomas Cromwell's position, but it's about the rise of the Bolyns and Anne and Henry's early court. It has to be hard writing about something that is 400 years old, but if you read enough books on the same suject, certain things are often repeated by different authors. I think these things must be true.