Christopher Wellard Wellard من عند نيويورك من عند نيويورك

Mr. Fish loves sentences. That much is obvious from the very beginning of his book. Early on, Mr. Fish declares, “Some people are bird watchers, others are celebrity watchers; still others are flora and fauna watchers. I belong to the tribe of sentence watchers.” He writes as passionately and gleefully about sentences as my son recounts every particular of his Pokemon card deck. His fondness for these collections of words is infectious. In keeping with the implications of its title, How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One is an interactive book. Mr. Fish scatters several exercises throughout the first half of the book to engage the reader's mind and pencil (or keyboard). Once the basic mechanics have been explained and experimented with by the reader, Mr. Fish moves on to appreciation. The later half of this slim volume focuses more on the finer points of enjoying sentences, specifically first sentences and last sentences, as well as other favorites of his. Mr. Fish's exuberance for language, especially well-crafted sentences, spills off of every page. His writing made me more aware of areas in which I can improve as a writer and, better yet, provided some effective tools for improvement. For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.

Since Philippa Gregory published the populist fictional novel The Other Boleyn Girl in 2002, the book has been turned into a BBC television series and a Hollywood movie, but as interest in Tudor England has experienced an upturn so too has the fog of myth and misconception surrounding the history. The blurb of this latest historical non-fiction claims to "[explode]... the mythology" surrounding Mary Boleyn and "[uncover] the facts", and I must admit I was curious to see what conclusions Weir's research had made. Reading Weir’s introduction, I agreed with a lot of the sentiments she expressed and admired her goal of redressing the misconceptions and attempting to find the facts. However, I didn’t agree with all of Weir’s conclusions - namely the 1501 birth year that Weir gives to Anne Boleyn, Weir's argument that Anne was euphemistically "corrupted" whilst at the French court, and her argument that Catherine Carey was the daughter of Henry VIII - the latter two, in my opinion, are based far too much on circumstantial evidence alone and unreliable sources. There were also what appeared to be one or two genuine factual blips during the course of the text. However, I also found it easy to read; flowing style, clear, understandable - in contrast to some of Weir's other non-fiction works which in the past I have found at times to be a bit of a dry read. And whilst I didn't agree with some of Weir's conclusions, she definitely addressed the misconceptions, and brought to light some misplaced information. In particular I thought Weir's arguments addressing the "great and infamous" notoriety of Mary Boleyn were well-argued and thoroughly plausible. And credit to Weir for taking on an undoubtedly difficult subject and trying to cut through the shroud of myth to produce this biography of Mary Boleyn.