Tudors in the Privy

Henry VIII, non-sexy flavor

(REREAD) Henry VIII: The King and His Court by Alison Weir
   I'll admit to keeping a book in the bathroom just in case, but I'm not camping out in there like a guy. The ideal bathroom book has to be something that you can pick up and put down at anytime and still be entertained, and this 600+ page biography fits the bill. Filled not just with the facts of Henry's life, it also covers what life was like for those at the royal court. Some of my favorite details were things like the rules the had to set down for behavior: No peeing on the floor, No drawing a penis on the wall. The more things change, huh?

   It's also interesting to see how overwhelmingly positive people were at the start of Henry's reign and how as he aged they became less optimistic. Henry was pretty much like the second coming until he started divorcing queens and breaking with the church. There's some nice coverage of all the palaces built during his reign, though not all of them have survived to the present day. This is a book to reread whenever you feel like going back in time to learn about a different way of life.