Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (historical fiction)

Very very good, but not as good as Wolf Hall, the first book, which won the Man Booker Prize.  Bring Up the Bodies is in contention for that prize.  These are first-person accounts by Thomas Cromwell, a minister of Henry VIII.  The first one was gripping and amazing, while this one, still a great effort, is less inspired.

The Kings' Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin by Elizabeth Goldsmith (nonfiction)

A book about independent women before there were feminists, this is an adventure.  Apparently the media of the 1800s made up all kinds of stories about these sisters, even though the truth was amazing.  This book was almost like a novel although it is nonfiction.

Roman Women: Their History and Habits by J.P.V.D. Balsdon (nonfiction)

I should have read Caesar's Wives and Women in the Ancient World first to understand more about how interpretations of the ancient sources have evolved.  Interpretations of the same text can be so different.  The author here is male, and makes some rather interesting chauvinistic remarks that could have been left out.  His descriptions of various groups of women in the second half of the book are fascinating and new to me.

Fear of Food: A History of Why We Worry about What We Eat (nonfiction)

This book was fun, made me laugh out loud several times.  It challenged me to deal with my "fears" about food because learning about the history of food scares enlightened some of my own views.

Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox (nonfiction)

These sister queens are Juana of Castile and Catherine of Aragon.  Mary Todd Lincoln has been in the press lately because of her mock re-trial for insanity, but Juana remains the most egregious use of that charge by men who want to take over the wealth of the woman in question.  And we all think we know what happened to Catherine.  Ms. Fox alternates between the sisters throughout a timeline, articulating new interpretations of their motives and experiences.  I loved this book.

Mistress of Mourning by Karen Harper (historical fiction)

This romance/history/mystery hybrid is pretty fun, focusing on questions about Prince Arthur's death and the disappearance of the princes in the Tower.  The romance part got a little repetitive in certain passages, maybe because the heroine was a proper lady who held out for marriage.  She gets tingly and weak in the knees several times when her fella brushes up against her.  Karen Harper is always very meticulous in her research, and I enjoy the author's explanations of what she chose to use to set up her story.
Harper opts to give some plausible explanations for these mysteries that will never be solved.  It's nothing you haven't heard before, but the book is enjoyable overall.

The Divorce of Henry VIII: the Untold Story from Inside the Vatican by Catherine Fletcher (nonfiction)

Beyond a few zippier sections about diplomacy in the 1500s and Roman life, I would not recommend this to anyone who wasn't obsessed with the topic like I am.  It was dry.

The Corpus Conundrum, A Third Case from the Notebook of Pliny the Younger by Albert A. Bell, Jr. (historical mystery)

Five stars.  This book was funny, sexy, scary and twisty-turny.  Mysteries are best when you have no idea who did the deed, and even better when you change your guess over and over again.  This one had me going.