Richard III England's Black Legend by Desmond Seward (nonfiction 2014)

Seward finally writes about something he is very excited about, and sort of bowls himself over.  I wasn't able to get into another recent book of his, but was intrigued by his vehement stance against apologists and defenders of a gray or white legend.

The story is one I know, and though Seward tells it well, I realized that two things were happening.  First, he absolutely slams any whiff of a suggestion that Richard may not have been the hunchback psycho of Shakespeare, and he does it in the strongest of terms.  According to Seward, any nuance is a stretch, ludicrous, or ridiculous.  In my opinion, that very vehemence ends up weakening his argument because it is not so difficult for the average history lover to imagine a different version of the story, and it's not as if we know much for sure about what we now call the Wars of the Roses.

Second, the errors and crimes that Seward accuses Richard of are common among other kings/nobility/soldiers of the time, and Seward himself brings up several instances that do not support the Black Legend hypothesis.  Yes, infanticide is horrible, but so is killing an old lady, which Henry VIII would do 40 years later - in the open.  Seward says Richard was worse than Henry in ruthlessness. 

Seward calls Richard Machiavellian, but yet calls out several "mistakes" Richard made that Machiavelli would have helped him out with - if The Prince would have been written more than 20 years earlier.

Long story short - I got impatient with the strange attitude against anyone who might disagree with the author, though the book was very good.

The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders by Peter Heather (nonfiction 2013)

This book mostly about Theoderic the Amal, Justinian, and Charlemagne was enjoyable and full of interesting analysis, especially about how Theodoric solidified his power base in the Italian peninsula, and the political structures in early medieval northern Europe when Charlemagne came into power.  The last part of the book is about how the Catholic church became what he calls "a new kind of Roman empire."

What he means by "Rome" in the title is the Western Roman Empire, and now and again he would have been better served to spell that out, even though it's clunky.  He does manage to avoid calling the Eastern Roman Empire "Byzantine" most of the time, which is progress in my book.

In this scholarly work, I was delighted to see the word "bullshit" three times.

Sorry for all the quotation marks in this review.

The Alpha Woman Meets her Match: how Today's Strong Woman Can Find Love and Happiness without Settling by Sonya Rhodes (nonfiction 2014)

I was highly skeptical but picked it up for the giggle factor of the title, and I found a decent advice book.  Lots of good tips on how to build the relationship you want.

The Gods of Olympus: A History by Barbara Graziosi (nonfiction 2014)

Really interesting, fun, funny, and full of learned observation.  This book follows the 12 from ancient times to the Renaissance. 

Theodora by Antony Bridge (nonfiction 1978)

Bridge purports to give Theodora the nuanced analysis she deserves, and he repeatedly castigates Procopius for his hatred of her, trying to give the real story.  And although he does that, and the story is amazing, Bridge wholeheartedly jumps on the woman-hating, salacious stories-and-all bandwagon when it comes to Antonina, the wife of Belisarius.

The Histories of Herodotus translated by Tom Holland (nonfiction 2013)

Super fun translation.  The story literally gallops along, despite Herodotus sometimes overwhelming us with place and tribe names, descriptions of rivers and such.  The notes really help.

The Last White Rose: The Secret Wars of the Tudors by Desmond Seward (nonfiction 2013)

Seward's account of the various skirmishes, intrigues, and rebellions involving Henry VII and Henry VIII against Yorkists lost me.  Usually this stuff is my favorite, but the narrative didn't grip me.