Hear ye! Hear ye! From clever queens to dashing dukes, explore the ins and outs of the royal court with enchanting tales of faraway kingdoms, real and imagined, with this Amazing Book Challenge category: Royal Reads.
Here are some of the books Naperville Public Library has available to borrow. To see the full list of recommendations and the other categories in the challenge, go to www.naperville-lib.org/ABC.
“I was Anatasia” by Ariel Lawhon
In 1918, Bolshevik secret police forced Anastasia Romanov and her imperial family into a damp basement to face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed. But two years later, a young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering from a canal. The questions swirling around Anna Anderson’s past and the mystery of Anastasia Romanov’s fate chart a saga that spans half a century.
“Nero” by Conn Iggulden
This is Roman justice: Emperor Tiberius first dispatches a traitor, then the man’s whole family and all of his friends. Into this fevered forum, a child is born to Agrippina, granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. As the aging Tiberius becomes blind to the end awaiting him, Agrippina sees that her brother Caligula is next in succession, bringing her another step closer to the heart of the empire. Every day, she will face soldiers, senators, rivals and silver-tongued pretenders, each vying for position. Because Agrippina knows that, even in the darkest moments, opportunity rises for her son. But first, they must survive.
“My Lady Jane” by Cynthia Hand
“My Lady Jane” is a one-of-a-kind young adult fantasy in the tradition of “The Princess Bride,” featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed and only a passing resemblance to actual history — because sometimes history needs a little help. At 16, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England. Like that could go wrong.
“The School of Mirrors” by Eva Stachniak
During Louis XV’s reign, poor but beautiful girls are trained in a secret Versailles villa to become the King’s courtesans under Madame de Pompadour’s watch. Veronique, a clever favorite, learns her lover is the king, becomes pregnant and is quietly married off, never to return. Years later, her daughter Marie-Louise, unaware of her royal blood, pursues a career as a midwife. But when Veronique reappears, revealing the truth of her birth, Marie-Louise must navigate the dangers of a France on the brink of revolution, where royal ties can be perilous.
“The Tudors in Love” by Sarah Gristwood
Why did Henry VIII marry six times? Why did Anne Boleyn have to die? Why did Elizabeth I’s courtiers hail her as a goddess? In this ground-breaking history, Sarah Gristwood reveals the way courtly love made and marred the Tudor dynasty. “The Tudors in Love” dissects the codes of love, desire and power, unveiling romantic obsessions that have shaped the history of the world.
“The Princes in the Tower” by Philippa Langley
Philippa Langley, known for discovering Richard III’s grave, now investigates the centuries-old mystery of the Princes in the Tower. In the summer of 1483, young boys Edward V and his brother Richard Duke of York, disappeared from the Tower of London. For over 500 years, history has judged that they were murdered on the orders of their uncle, Richard III. Drawing on years of international archival research, Langley challenges the long-held belief that Richard III murdered his nephews — and uncovers a startling new story that reshapes history.
“Elizabeth the Queen” by Sally Bedell Smith
From the moment of her ascension to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II was the object of unparalleled scrutiny. But through the fog of glamour and gossip, how well did we really know the world’s most famous monarch? Drawing on numerous interviews and never-before-revealed documents, acclaimed biographer Sally Bedell Smith pulls back the curtain to show in intimate detail the public and private lives of Queen Elizabeth II, who led her country and Commonwealth through the wars and upheavals of the 20th and 21st centuries with unparalleled composure, intelligence and grace.
Ashlee Conour is the marketing specialist at Naperville Public Library.
