Book Review: A Respectable Trade

Title: A Respectable Trade

Author: Philippa Gregory

Pages: 488

Format: Paperback

Genre: Historical Fiction

Star Rating: 4/5

Network: Shelfari | Goodreads | Librarything

Buy: Amazon

My Summary: Mehuru is a priest in the African nation of Yoruba who is captured by (black) African slavers and is sold to an English slave trader.

Frances is the niece of Lord Scott and is left orphaned and unmarried when her father dies. In desperation, she accepts the marriage proposal of a trader, Josiah Cole.

Circumstances bring Mehuru and Frances Cole together, for better or for worse. Philippa Gregory tells an amazing story of their relationship in this novel.

My Thoughts: I wept throughout the entire novel. When I say "wept" I'm not talking about the tears that often fall when I am touched by a story -- I'm talking about being moved so deeply by a book that I know that it will stay with me forever.

I've seen Amazing Grace and as much as the movie explored the depth of suffering on the slave ships, it didn't sink in fully until I had read about it, able to apply my own imagination to the story of Mehuru and his friends. And when Mehuru met Frances, it was all over for me.

This book would be very easy for me to spoil, and I want to be careful of what I say. I've been asked recently to give more detail in my reviews about what I enjoyed (or didn't enjoy) about a book -- specifically. In this book I have to say that what touched me the most was the relationships between the slaves, particularly Elizabeth (who's African name I don't know) and Mehuru. I also really liked the way that the author went out of her way to describe the way that black and white "saw" one another so differently from their own people, almost as though they were an entirely different species. As someone who is in her thirties in the 21st century, I find this so difficult to relate to, but it helped to bring me closer to real understanding of what it might have been like in the 18th century.

I enjoy Philippa Gregory and look forward to reading more from her!

Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

The Other Boleyn Girl is a book that has haunted me since the movie was released. Although I didn't see the film until after I had read the book (and thank goodness, too!), the book kept calling to me, mostly because I had heard the title and the concept sounded interesting -- the story of Anne Boleyn, told from the perspective of her sister.

Who doesn't know the story of Anne Boleyn, the woman who dethroned Catherine of Aragon and married King Henry VIII? It was Anne Boleyn who helped Henry to found the Church of England, and it was Anne who was the first executed wife of King Henry the VIII, put to death on charges of incest, adultery and treason.

The stories of the other Boleyns are less-told: George and Thomas, Mary and Elizabeth (Anne's Mother, not her daughter) are less well known. The Other Boleyn Girl begins to tell the story of Anne's siblings, Mary and George, and the relationships that they had with one another and with Anne.

In spite of my intense desire to read The Other Boleyn Girl, I was disturbed the idea that I believed the book would be dry. I pondered the length of the novel (nearly 700 pages) and the content (I am no a history buff by any means) and several times overlooked the book. I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on this novel.

When I ran into The Other Boleyn Girl at a used book store, however, I snatched it up eagerly and perhaps a bit greedily and read it promptly.

While Philippa Gregory takes some license with the story line regarding Mary, George and even Anne, I felt that this book was a wonderful, fast-paced and easy read. I was able to pick it up and put it down during waiting periods and still finished reading it within a week of having started the book.

I highly recommend The Other Boleyn Girl and look forward to reviewing other books in the Tudors series!

You can get your copy of The Other Boleyn Girl on Amazon.