Michael Crichton passed away yesterday at age 66 after a “courageous and private battle against cancer,” according to his public relations firm’s news release. When I heard the news, I was completely surprised, as I hadn’t even known that he was sick. This comes as depressing news, for I greatly… Read More »A Farewell to Michael Crichton
On this date, October 31st, in medieval history: 1147 -Robert, the Earl of Gloucester, dies 1517 – Martin Luther presents his “95 theses” to the Catholic Church, which he may or may not have posted on the door of the castle church at Wittenburg (scholars and historians debate this point)
The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts, And Walled Cities Of The Middle Ages by J.E. Kaufmann and H.W. Kaufmann is one of the most comprehensive, detailed books on castle architecture in the medieval period. The book is split into five major sections: Elements of Medieval Fortifications, Early Medieval Fortifications, The Age… Read More »Review of The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts, And Walled Cities Of The Middle Ages
Essential Pictures has acquired the rights to develop Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series into a major motion picture. Randall Wallace (Braveheart, We Were Soldiers) will write the screenplay. No word on a director or cast yet, but Essential hopes to put the project into production by next spring. I haven’t read… Read More »Outlander by Diana Gabaldon Slated for the Big Screen
Following my last post and keeping in the spirit of Elves and fantasy role-playing, I stumbled across a site that automatically generates your elvish name. Mine is Finrod Telrúnya. Names are generated based on an algorithm that takes the first and last letters of each name, and then, based on… Read More »What’s Your Elvish name?
I was stumbling the Internet this morning, and first of all, came across a list of 100 extensive libraries that anyone from around the world can access, and on that list was the Syracuse University Digital Library, so I clicked that link and about half-way down the page was a… Read More »Medieval Manuscript Collection – Syracuse University
On this date, October 21st, in medieval history: 1096 – Turks attack and slaughter the army of the People’s Crusade near Civetot 1422 – Death of Charles VI (the “Well-loved” and the “Mad”), King of France
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Paperback: 704 pages Publisher: Back Bay Books (October 1, 2006) ISBN-10: 0316154547 The Historian is the debut novel from Elizabeth Kostova. I read this novel a couple of years back when it first came out. I was working in a bookstore at the time, and… Read More »Review of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
“Peter Vansittart, the English writer who breathed new life into the historical novel by mingling myth with modernity, and by injecting 20th-century preoccupations into historical settings as various as Roman Britain, medieval France and 16th-century Germany, died on Oct. 4, in Ipswich, Suffolk. He was 88 and lived in Kersey.”… Read More »Peter Vansittart, Historical Fiction Author, Dies at Age 88