THE CATHOLIC KINGS

The trilogy about the Catholic Kings is about Isabel’s ascension to the throne in the 1400’s. Queen Isabel of Spain is renowned for several things, the most important which are the sponsoring of Cristopher Columbus’s voyage to the new world, the conquest of the moors, and also, regrettably, the Spanish Inquisition.

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THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS by Pat Barker

This book, The Silence of the Girls, is powerful as well but it’s almost too blunt in its realness. But that would also be unfair to say—that it’s too blunt—because nothing happened in this book that wouldn’t have happened in real life, and so if this book is too blunt, then real life itself is too blunt as well. In truth I just found it kind of horrible that all of these female characters suffered such a harsh fate.