The King's Grace, by Anne Easter Smith

I just started this book a few days ago, and I'm pleasantly surprised that I don't hate it! I mean, it's not perfect, but I haven't felt like throwing it anywhere. I do have a few issues, though.

1) Is it just me, or do these types of historical fiction only come in two flavors?

- "I am a conventional, quiet woman, and since well-behaved women rarely make history my name is just a mention in a family tree. I try to get along as best I can, but I'm forced into events I'd rather not be involved with by circumstances beyond my control. Oh dear." Eg: The Other Boleyn Girl

- "I am a free-spirited, ambitious woman! Because of this, history remembers me as a Bad Girl and possibly a witch. But everything they say about me is wrong, rumors made up because people can't handle my awesomeness." Eg: The White Queen

This book is definitely in the first category. Grace is an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV, brought up in a convent until Elizabeth Woodville sent for her after Edward's death; she's in awe of graceful and kind young Elizabeth, but finds Cecily kind of mean and uncouth. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, it's just that it comes off to me (at this point; it might change) as a deliberate choice to belong to a category, rather than organic characterization.

2) There's this presentist kind of ... thing running through it. IDK how to explain it. Like they're playing cards and someone says, "this queen is ugly! I would draw you in it if I made a deck of cards, Elizabeth of York, ha ha ha." And Grace is solving the mystery of the princes in the tower, and whenever someone talks about it it's just so rational and clearly setting out the evidence. If I wanted to read someone being deductive about it, I would reread Daughter of Time. After having read A Storm of Swords, though, where rumor and a lack of real information were handled so well, it really stands out to me.

3) Okay, last thing, kind of nitpicky, but just as point one was about a systemic issue, so is this. It feels like someone (probably Philippa Gregory) wrote a book from this era and everyone else decided that that would be The Language of the Tudor Novel. Never say "it is" - only "'tis"! Never say "yes" - only "certes"! It's similar to the way that many people take Georgette Heyer's voice to be The Language of the Regency Novel. In general, I think it relates to the "drawing symbols that your brain knows mean 'nose', 'eyes' vs. drawing what you actually see" concept in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

So ...

First crossposted DW post ever. Don't worry, I'd never turn off LJ commenting, and I think I've made sure that you don't even have to see a "this post was originally made a DW" tag at the bottom. I just don't like the turn LJ is planning on making, and I thought it'd be better to import sooner rather than later. And then of course once you import you need to crosspost to keep things together.

Applied for another museum front desk position, this time at the Hyde in Glens Falls. I interned there in development for a month, so maybe they'll look favorably on me.

Got a bank statement, with two bogus charges. I've had the card closed and I'm getting a new one, and I talked to a guy at Expedia (one of the false charges) and got that one fixed. The other charge was at Lovefilms.com, which we thought was a pornsite until I went there to find a way to talk to them online, as we can't do international calls and it's in the UK. It sucks, but I checked online and there haven't been any other more recent ones, so I should be good now.

Watching 'Goodnight, Mr Tom'

I loved this book when I was younger, although I forgot about it for a while, and ... I think I know where my deep love of AU rescued!child!Harry fic comes from.