Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine and is where we can talk about books we are looking forward to being released!
Here are my picks for the week:
Summary:
Set in the mid-18th century, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is the story of a young man, Tristan Hunt who, at the age of 20, goes up to London to study anatomy and surgery at St Thomas’s. Since childhood, Tristan has been subject to sudden, explosive episodes of extreme violence. Considered a genius and a physician of extraordinary promise, he is also, alas, psychotic. Torn between the body (his uncontrollable lust for causing pain) and the mind (his insatiable intellectual curiosity) Tristan’s struggle for self-control mirrors and personifies the contradictions of the Enlightenment, and the emergence of reason as the absolute standard.
A lost, motherless boy, a sadistic monster, a philosopher, fantasist, visionary, Tristan’s story is funny, moving and frightening. With touches of both Patrick Suskind’s Perfume and Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones will never be forgotten by those who dare to read it.
A lost, motherless boy, a sadistic monster, a philosopher, fantasist, visionary, Tristan’s story is funny, moving and frightening. With touches of both Patrick Suskind’s Perfume and Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones will never be forgotten by those who dare to read it.
Summary & Photo taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 547 pages
Expected Publication Date: March 26th 2013
Why I'm Waiting:
As you probably know I am a huge fan of historical fiction and I love when the genre takes a dark twist. This one sounds like an incredibly intense read and I'm really looking forward to it.
Plus I love the cover :)
Summary:
The startling truth behind one of the most notorious dynasties in history is revealed in a remarkable new account by the acclaimed author of The Tudors and A World Undone. Sweeping aside the gossip, slander, and distortion that have shrouded the Borgias for centuries, G. J. Meyer offers an unprecedented portrait of the infamous Renaissance family and their storied milieu.
THE BORGIAS
They burst out of obscurity in Spain not only to capture the great prize of the papacy, but to do so twice. Throughout a tumultuous half-century—as popes, statesmen, warriors, lovers, and breathtakingly ambitious political adventurers—they held center stage in the glorious and blood-drenched pageant known to us as the Italian Renaissance, standing at the epicenter of the power games in which Europe’s kings and Italy’s warlords gambled for life-and-death stakes.
Five centuries after their fall—a fall even more sudden than their rise to the heights of power—they remain immutable symbols of the depths to which humanity can descend: Rodrigo, the Borgia who bought the papal crown and prostituted the Roman Church; Cesare, the Borgia who became first a teenage cardinal and then the most treacherous cutthroat of a violent time; Lucrezia, the Borgia as shockingly immoral as she was beautiful. These have long been stock figures in the dark chronicle of European villainy, their name synonymous with unspeakable evil.
But did these Borgias of legend actually exist? Grounding his narrative in exhaustive research and drawing from rarely examined key sources, Meyer brings fascinating new insight to the real people within the age-encrusted myth. Equally illuminating is the light he shines on the brilliant circles in which the Borgias moved and the thrilling era they helped to shape, a time of wars and political convulsions that reverberate to the present day, when Western civilization simultaneously wallowed in appalling brutality and soared to extraordinary heights. Stunning in scope, rich in telling detail, G. J. Meyer’s The Borgias is an indelible work sure to become the new standard on a family and a world that continue to enthrall.
THE BORGIAS
They burst out of obscurity in Spain not only to capture the great prize of the papacy, but to do so twice. Throughout a tumultuous half-century—as popes, statesmen, warriors, lovers, and breathtakingly ambitious political adventurers—they held center stage in the glorious and blood-drenched pageant known to us as the Italian Renaissance, standing at the epicenter of the power games in which Europe’s kings and Italy’s warlords gambled for life-and-death stakes.
Five centuries after their fall—a fall even more sudden than their rise to the heights of power—they remain immutable symbols of the depths to which humanity can descend: Rodrigo, the Borgia who bought the papal crown and prostituted the Roman Church; Cesare, the Borgia who became first a teenage cardinal and then the most treacherous cutthroat of a violent time; Lucrezia, the Borgia as shockingly immoral as she was beautiful. These have long been stock figures in the dark chronicle of European villainy, their name synonymous with unspeakable evil.
But did these Borgias of legend actually exist? Grounding his narrative in exhaustive research and drawing from rarely examined key sources, Meyer brings fascinating new insight to the real people within the age-encrusted myth. Equally illuminating is the light he shines on the brilliant circles in which the Borgias moved and the thrilling era they helped to shape, a time of wars and political convulsions that reverberate to the present day, when Western civilization simultaneously wallowed in appalling brutality and soared to extraordinary heights. Stunning in scope, rich in telling detail, G. J. Meyer’s The Borgias is an indelible work sure to become the new standard on a family and a world that continue to enthrall.
Summary & Photo taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 517 pages (Hardcover)
Expected Publication Date: April 2nd 2013 by Bantam
Why I'm Waiting:
I love history as you well know and I'm fascinated by the Borgias so I'm eagerly anticipating this book!
Damn! Count me in for Raw Head & Blood Bones. Sounds like an awesome read.
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Two great choices, enjoy!
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I don't really read many historical novels, but the Borgias really interest me. I'm gonna have to add that book to my list!
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Both of these are new to me. Interesting! I am fascinated by history, but tend to have a hard time reading hist'l books for some odd reason. Great shares. Thanks!
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I’d have to check with you here. Which is not something I usually do! I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
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