AJ Dunn Reads

  Beyond Black By Hilary Mantel  4 stars.

The Mirror & the Light By Hilary Mantel In the final installment of the Wolf Hall/Thomas Cromwell trilogy, we follow Thomas Cromwell's final year. He attains his highest position as Earl of Essex, but his downfall is imminent as his enemies find new purchase and surround him. Anne Boleyn is dead and Cromwell carries on with his and Henry's agendas, which usually align, but not always. Cromwell has plans for England. He works hard to make religion accessible to everyone and to have justice and equality become the law of the land. He has his work cut out for him because now his enemies, who helped him free Henry from his marriage, want their rewards. Mary is reunited with Henry after Cromwell makes her swear obedience. Henry becomes sovereign over the church and requires all nobles in his family to have his blessing in their marriages. A rebellion rocks England, but is soon squelched, with all of its leaders executed. The Duke of Norfolk, Cromwell's great enemy, looks to ...

  Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel This is the second in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Cromwell is well-positioned with the king, but he finds that he is gaining enemies. Some of the nobles have become more irritated that someone as low born as Cromwell should have such wealth and influence. Anne has no more use for him now that Katherine is dead, and he finds that King Henry has been having meetings without him. Then Jane Seymour, one of Anne's ladies, catches Henry's eye and, when Anne miscarries again, Henry wonders  if his marriage is not legitimate in the eyes of God and he is being punished to continually not be given a male heir. Cromwell encourages the King's doubts and moves to gather the Boleyn enemies together to bring charges of adultery and treason against Anne and the many men that surround her. Though most of the men, as well as Anne herself, deny the charges, Cromwell is a master of word play and manipulation. He has a long memory and a knack for making e...

  Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall is the first in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy and my first experience with Hilary Mantel. All I can say is WOW! What a powerhouse of a write! Mantel is a genius. This first book tells the story of Cromwell's rise from a poor, beaten child through his work as an assistant to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in England, to his rise as King Henry VIII's right hand man. It is the story of a man who changes his life, who raises a family of mutual love, loses most of them, and decides he has nothing to lose, so he uses his intelligence, his ability to read people and to sway them in order to make something of himself. To give his remaining son a better life than he had with all of the possibilities open to the nobility. Along the way Cromwell makes those who thought they were above him worship the ground he walks on and puts them in a servile position. He also takes into his house and employ a collection of outcasts and downtrodden people who, because of h...