Pope Joan
Registered by 
bookczuk
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on 3/1/2004
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
bookczuk of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on 3/1/2004 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
After all the talk in the forums about this, I wanted to read it. Haven't decided what the status will be afterwards, but will do that after reading.
From the Publisher
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her older brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity, goes to the monastery of Fulda, and is initiated into the brotherhood in his place. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great Christian scholar. Eventually she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest throne in Christendom. Pope Joan is a sweeping historical drama set against the turbulent events of the ninth century - the Saracen sacking of St. Peter's; the famous fire in the Borgo that destroyed over three quarters of the Vatican; and the Battle of Fontenoy, arguably the bloodiest and most terrible of medieval conflicts. The novel is a fascinating, vivid record of what life was really like during the so-called Dark Ages, a masterwork of suspense and passion that has as its center an unforgettable woman, reminiscent of Dorothea in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Jane Austen's Emma, and other heroines who struggle against restrictions their souls will not accept.
Registered as part of the BC Convention/Anniversary Challenge
From the Publisher
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her older brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity, goes to the monastery of Fulda, and is initiated into the brotherhood in his place. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great Christian scholar. Eventually she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest throne in Christendom. Pope Joan is a sweeping historical drama set against the turbulent events of the ninth century - the Saracen sacking of St. Peter's; the famous fire in the Borgo that destroyed over three quarters of the Vatican; and the Battle of Fontenoy, arguably the bloodiest and most terrible of medieval conflicts. The novel is a fascinating, vivid record of what life was really like during the so-called Dark Ages, a masterwork of suspense and passion that has as its center an unforgettable woman, reminiscent of Dorothea in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Jane Austen's Emma, and other heroines who struggle against restrictions their souls will not accept.
Registered as part of the BC Convention/Anniversary Challenge
This book is reserved for a special mission but is officially not being entered into the What's My Name October 2004 Challenge. I love doing challenges and wild releases, but this month have promised to take a break from them. However, being the irrepressible challenge fiend that I am, I am creating my own twist to the proposition. I am seeing how many books I can NOT release that qualify! Talk about convoluted!
This book and this one were side by side on my shelf for the past two years. Somehow, bugger and tougher books came and pushed them aside and they got lost behind newer acquisitions. I have finally read them both, back to back.
The Durrell book is a bit quirkier and more irreverent, whereas this one is more like some of the historical fiction I read as a teen that told the story with some embellishment and some romance, more in modern day parlance. I think Cross did an impressive amount of research. The fact that I found the story a little too pat, is my own fault, not hers. Horrible father, long suffering mother, daughter who shines at everything and would have been the ideal child had she not had ovaries...But Cross's Joan always lands on her feet (well-- except for one time in the flood of the Tiber, when she seems to have landed on her back-- no more or there's a spoiler there.)
As I wrote in the other journal:
I shall offer this to the person who I first heard about the book from (it's not on her shelf) along with the Durrell one. If she doesn't want it, I may offer it up on the forum or wild release it.
The Durrell book is a bit quirkier and more irreverent, whereas this one is more like some of the historical fiction I read as a teen that told the story with some embellishment and some romance, more in modern day parlance. I think Cross did an impressive amount of research. The fact that I found the story a little too pat, is my own fault, not hers. Horrible father, long suffering mother, daughter who shines at everything and would have been the ideal child had she not had ovaries...But Cross's Joan always lands on her feet (well-- except for one time in the flood of the Tiber, when she seems to have landed on her back-- no more or there's a spoiler there.)
As I wrote in the other journal:
My friend Fr Dennis would be appalled that I might even consider it to be historically based. But who is to say? The 800's were a long time ago and historical information or sources from that time are sketchy. To this day, the Catholic Church continues to deny Pope Joan's existence. Instead, the "legend" is said to be an invention of Protestant reformers. (Yet Joan supposedly lived hundreds of years before the Protestants' break from the Catholic church. And there's the church's institution of the so-called chair exam (sella stercoraria). Each newly elected Pope after Joan sat on the sella stercoraria (literally, dung seat), which was like a toilet seat (or birthing chair) so that his genitals could be examined to prove he was a guy. Why start this new requirement if there had not been a need to? (I think the practice has been abandoned in modern day.)
I shall offer this to the person who I first heard about the book from (it's not on her shelf) along with the Durrell one. If she doesn't want it, I may offer it up on the forum or wild release it.
Off media mail to pokpok. She was the one that got me started on my whole Pope Joan quest by mentioning this book. Enjoy!
Rec'd today. Thank you!
Journal Entry 6 by PokPok at Panera Bread, 401 Vista Village Dr. in Vista, California USA on Sunday, July 8, 2018
Released 5 yrs ago (7/9/2018 UTC) at Panera Bread, 401 Vista Village Dr. in Vista, California USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Welcome to BookCrossing!
Thank you for picking up this book. Please make a journal entry on the BookCrossing site (www.bookcrossing.com) to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free). If you join, please consider indicating that you were referred by PokPok. I hope you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you’ve finished reading. Whenever you’re ready to send it on its way, make release notes if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.
Thank you for picking up this book. Please make a journal entry on the BookCrossing site (www.bookcrossing.com) to let me know that this book has found a good home with you. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free). If you join, please consider indicating that you were referred by PokPok. I hope you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you’ve finished reading. Whenever you’re ready to send it on its way, make release notes if you are leaving it “in the wild” again for anyone to catch. Then watch its journey. You’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry. It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free.
