Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

The Other Boleyn Girl (2001) By Philippa Gregory  667 pages (Kindle Digital Edition)  Genres : Historical Fiction, Tudors, England, Boleyns. Rating : 4/5  I am reading this book after Wolf Hall. It adds a lot of context and familiarity to the plot. But I didn't see Anne's disgrace coming. I didn't expect her fate to end in such a tragic state. Spoken in the narrative tongue of Mary Boleyn,  the book takes us through the historical romance of Henry Tudor with Mary herself, with Anne Boleyn - her elder sister even while he was married to Katherine of Aragorn for over 20 years and waiting for the marriage to be annulled.  Henry Tudor has been married long time to Katherine of Aragorn and he hasn't got a son on her. He only ever got a daughter followed by a stream of miscarriages or still births. Disappointed and with a wandering eye, he takes Mary Boleyn who is married to William Carey as his lover. They have two children - a girl and a boy. But to...

 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell #1) [2009] by Hillary Mantel  Rating: 4/5 Genres : Historical Fiction, Booker Prize Winner 2009, England, Royalty, Treachery  This is not one of the most easiest of books to quickly navigate through. For one, it refers to a period of time and events that are not part of common knowledge. And second, there are a lot of characters some with no significance or bearing on the plot and they make it a little confusing to follow the narrative. Otherwise, there is ample wit and veiled humor that makes even ruthlessness seem funny in the actions of kings and queens or their high appointed officials. Hillary Mantel's style of writing is also very picturesque and some conversational exchanges between the main characters are worth bookmarking and reading over and over.  It also felt strangely funny at times that so much narrative has gone into explaining the circumstances surrounding a king marry his second wife while making his first marriage void. ?...

Matrix  By Lauren Groff  Rating 4.5/5  Genre : Monastery, Fiction, Visions, Mysticism Holy-moly! This book is totally unexpected. I and unaquainted with previous work of the author and  thought it's some science fiction novel because of the title but dealt in topics that are polar opposites to science and technology. It has nuns, monasteries, good and evil, virtue and sin, visions and prophecies..lot of stuff.. This book is probably one of my most swiftest reads..I finished it in under 24 hours. The author definitely has a skill with words and sentences..and some of her insights into spirituality and God are very astute and evolved..left me amazed. I am saving some notes from this book for later reading and they are bang on with my own beliefs. :)  Coming to the story,  its about a woman Marie who has not been gifted with looks and demeanor of a female but God has different plans for her. She is born out of rape by a royal king and after her mot...