I did get one book finished and started another. What have you been reading lately? I hope a book that was good!Finished:
This book I learned quite a bit about the way Hangman's and their families during the mid 1600's were treated and thought of, basically they were shunned by society. The author of this book ancestors were in fact the Kuisl's, who were for centuries the hangmen of a village in Bavaria called Schongau. This book is the first in a series about his ancestors, and of course some fiction based characters and events, at the end of the book the author does a good job of explaining what is fiction and not, etc. This book focuses on Jakob Kuisl and his family, when a little boy is killed the town aldermen council (landowners/gentlemen/rich people) decides that it most be due to a witch. Jakob Kuisl doesn't believe this and tries to find out who is causing problems in the town and killing orphans. No one wants this event to turn into a witch hunt like years previously in the late 1500's were 70 women and children were burned for witchcraft, including aldermen's wives. No one is really sure why the novel is called The Hangman's Daughter, while she is a chracter in the book and more so in the last part, it is mostly about her father. I have heard some people complain about the translation as this book thinking to much modern language was used, it is originally written in German. I know some people wanted it written more in the language from back then, but I do think then that today's audience that may turn people away, although I wouldn't have minded if it was more in the original language. Since though we do not write or speak as they did back then I am sure it would be much harder to write a book. Anyways, I give this book 4 out of 5 I did think it was a little too long but I thought it had quite a few twists and turns.
Currently Reading:
I started reading this on Saturday and it is pretty interesting so far. It is the first book of a historical fiction series which takes place during the early 1000 AD years. The main character is Emma of Normandy, whose brother is the Duke, and in order to form an alliance againgst the Vikings she is married to the King of England. You also get the viewpoints of several main historical people as well. Quite a bit of the histoical facts are from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles that was written later on in the life of Emma.
Lately for a book club I have been reading the book Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am almost finished reading and it is a whopper of a book with almost 900 pages. Each of her books as far as I know are about this length. I have read the book years ago in the 90's and read to book three in the series. I had stopped reading them since there were so many years in between books, sometimes five years for each one. It also became hard to remember where the plot was at while waiting for a new book to come out. Now, however I have been enjoying the tv series and rereading the first book. Since, I have taken such a big break in not reading this series now there are a total of eight books out, so I have quite a bit of catching up to do. I think the 9th book will be out next year. Have you read this series before and what did you think? I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea but I like the series for a variety of reasons; history, romance, time travel, and culture about the clans of Scotland.
