Jacksprat Gets Lost in Fiction

Review of “The Pillow Book” By: Sei Shonagon             In the Heian period Noble women living at court kept Diaries of their time at court and most memorable experiences. The authors intended these Diaries to be autobiographical. “The Pillow Book” was like these Diaries but had considerable differences from them, which were its structure and general character.  Sei Shonagon hadn’t written it it to be autobiographical, but it was an account of what she saw during her ten years at court and her reflections on her experiences there.             Sei Shonagon had quite the personality with her strong opinions and love of pretty things.  She reminded me of Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse with her charm and opinionated, as well as judgmental nature.  Throughout there were entries on her things that annoyed her or things that gave her pleasure that...

Review of The Plantagenets: The Kings and Queens the Made England? By: Dan Jones Dan Jones writes about the history of the Plantagenet Dynasty starting with Henry I all the way to Richard II.  Some of the Kings were good leaders, but others not so much due to their choices and relationship with their people.   Dan Jones divided the book into parts and organized it by years as he focused on each king and queen of those years.  It was a nice reprieve that there were short chapters. Each section highlighted the good and bad of each King’s reign and how they impacted the country.  In my opinion, some of them proved the King had too much, because they didn’t have empathy for their people.  They believed that they were King and only their opinion mattered and who cares what the people think.  This wasn’t shown through how the people responded but also how advisors responded to the throne.  Some would even turn against the K...