Book Review - The Other Boleyn Girl by Philppa Gregory

I picked up The Other Boleyn Girl the day before I left for vacation, thinking it would be a good airplane/beach read. It was all I hoped for and more. Not only was I thoroughly entertained by the steamy happenings of Henry the VIII’s court, impressed with Philippa Gergory’s deft writing style, and consumed with the Boleyn family and their endeavors, I have also become enthralled with England in the 1500s. I’ve found myself on my computer, combing sites like www.tudorhistory.org , www.englishhistory.net , and www.tudorplace.com , just to find out how historically accurate this novel is. What I’ve learned is that Henry and his six wives are fascinating, especially Anne Boleyn, her sister Mary and her brother George.
The novel focuses on the three of them. I won’t go into all the history, but here’s a rundown: before Anne and Henry ever go together, Henry and Mary were involved, and Henry allegedly fathered two of Mary’s children. In addition, George, who was a prominent member of Henry’s court, was (at the end of his life) accused both of incest with Anne, and of homosexuality. Nonetheless, Anne becomes Henry’s second queen. Unfortunately for Anne, the road she felt forced to go down in order to become queen is full of regret, and inevitably she is led down a much darker path. The joy of reading the novel isn’t in trying to figure out how it’s going to end, because most of us already know. Instead, it’s fun to read, in intimate detail, of how the Boleyns come to win everything at an incredible cost, and how they lose it all in agonizing turn of events. The book is told from Mary’s perspective, and she’s a sympathetic narrator. My research tells me that Mary did in fact have a reputation for being easy, and that Henry was not her only lover. But Gregory paints a picture of what life must have been like for Mary and other women like her, that as daughters their families afforded them no power nor choices, and that their only value was in capturing the hearts of important men. Mary and Anne were, according to Gregory, only obeying the wishes of their families.
It’s an interesting premise, and one that I doubt is often offered up in the history books.
At any rate, the book is really good, and I strongly recommend it.



Review by Laurel Osterkamp. Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Book Review - Sammy's House

Sammy’s House, by Kristen Gore, is a sequel to Sammy’s Hill, and it picks up nearly two years after where the first one left off. Sammy is a low-on-the-food-chain white house official who specializes in health care and reports to the vice president, RG. She is still dating Charley, a reporter for the Washington Post, she still rooms with her relationship-challenged friend Liza, and she still obsesses over keeping her Japanese fighting fish alive.
But some stuff has changed. While Sammy is still prone to putting herself in embarrassing situations and making cringe-worthy gaffs, she isn’t as Lucile Ballish as she was in the first book. In fact, it’s completely understandable why this woman would be a valued member of the vice president’s staff; she’s loyal, hard-working, and competent.
But here is where Kristen Gore’s skill as a writer shines. She has created a loveable, funny, and smart character in Sammy, and she does so with aplomb. So many times I have read books about heroines who are supposed to super-intelligent, and I feel hit over the head with proclamations by the author about how genius the heroine is. (The Jessica Darling books by Megan McCafferty come to mind...) In contrast, Gore never ever tells us that Sammy is smart; instead, she includes us in Sammy’s thought process, which covers everything from healthcare reform, made-up holidays, interpersonal insights, and neurotic anxieties. Sammy’s brain is always in overdrive, and I find myself at once laughing and feeling in awe of how her mind works.
I’ll admit it; when I first heard that Kristen Gore got a book deal I was jealous and bitter. I was sure she was one more example of an undeserving author succeeding purely based off her connections. But then I checked out her first book from the library on a whim, and I realized how wrong I was. Sammy’s House is just as good as her first book, if not better.
In this one we learn about the inner-workings of the White House as Sammy becomes unwillingly privy to confidential information that could bring the administration she’s working for down. In addition, she’s struggling in her relationship after Charley moves to New York. With the perfect balance of political intrigue and romance, Sammy’s House is book not to be missed!


Copyright 2008 by Laurel Osterkamp. All rights reserved