i drove through the rain to visit some people i hadn’t seen in a long time…

that was nice.

i put a sunshiny new project on the needles to help chase the clouds away…

(scheepjeswol – 100% virgin wool, from holland)

i don’t normally knit in the summer, but i couldn’t resist this one. sometimes the yarn just yearns for a certain pattern, and when they find each other, you just gotta let them be.

and as the tour de france (and tour de fleece) ended this weekend, i finished reading this…

the first in a trilogy about the life of josephine bonaparte (napoleon’s wife), chronicling the events leading up to the french revolution.  i read a lot, but mostly books borrowed through the library simply because of my limited shelf space. i’ll be heading out to chapter’s soon to pick up this series…yeah, i’m completely hooked. and i need more shelves.

i signed the book out on a recommendation from my hairstylist. she suggested it when i told her i’d devoured every single book written by philippa gregory (tudor history, anyone?).

not only was the many lives and secret sorrows of josephine b. “utterly absorbing” because of its tumultuous plot (really, how many hardships must one endure in a lifetime?), but i got the feeling that the author (who i just learned has her own blog, and is on twitter) must have been completely captivated, even haunted, by this character josephine b.

my hunch was confirmed when i read an interview at the back of the book. the author, sandra gulland, says she read a short biography about josephine bonaparte years ago and was

“captured (or, should I say, kidnapped) by josephine’s profound humanity, her grace, her courage….”

that was in 1972 and gulland began writing the story of josephine in 1990. she spent those 18 years raising her family, but also reading, researching and traveling…she visited the prison where josephine was kept, walked down the streets where she had walked. this book was difficult to put down, though i admit there were a couple of brief moments of romanticizing. i forgive the author for that (how generous, i know…i’d never be caught up in sentimentality myself, would i?). she more than made up for it with historical acuity and attention to detail while telling the tale. that’s the stuff i crave.

any other fans of fact-based and historical fiction? other recommendations in the same genres? i have a feeling i’ll zip through the next two novels in the series, and will be left wanting more of the same.