The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by CW Gortner

The truth is, none of us are innocent. We all have sins to confess.

So reveals Catherine de Medici in this brilliantly imagined novel about one of history’s most powerful and controversial women. To some she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy. Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter into the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power.

 The last legitimate descendant of the illustrious Medici line, Catherine suffers the expulsion of her family from her native Florence and narrowly escapes death at the hands of an enraged mob. While still a teenager, she is betrothed to Henri, son of François I of France, and sent from Italy to an unfamiliar realm where she is overshadowed and humiliated by her husband’s lifelong mistress. Ever resilient, Catherine strives to create a role for herself through her patronage of the famous clairvoyant Nostradamus and her own innate gift as a seer. But in her fortieth year, Catherine is widowed, left alone with six young children as regent of a kingdom torn apart by religious discord and the ambitions of a treacherous nobility.

Relying on her tenacity, wit, and uncanny gift for compromise, Catherine seizes power, intent on securing the throne for her sons. She allies herself with the enigmatic Protestant leader Coligny, with whom she shares an intimate secret, and implacably carves a path toward peace, unaware that her own dark fate looms beforeher—a fate that, if she is to save France, will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and the passion of her embattled heart.

From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.

There are certain figures from history whose lasting legacy seems to be a bad reputation in some way, usually deservedly so. If a novelist chooses to write about them it can be difficult for them to walk the fine line between writing the history or trying to rehabilitate their reputation or to be apologist.

CW Gortner has chosen to write about Catherine de Medici, a woman known through history as a someone who would do whatever she could to maintain her grip on power, including meddling in the dark arts, poisoning her enemies, inciting religious disharmony and so much more. In doing so, he tries to bring a balance to the stories we think we know about Catherine and presents her as a wife and mother trying to do everything she can to maintain her family's grip on power, a stranger in a foreign land, a woman whose husband loves another. For the most part, Gortner manages to tell this woman's story without straying too far into sentimentality or being too apologetic.

Catherine is a member of the de Medici family, but they are no longer the all powerful family they once were. Spirited away from a dangerous situation at home, Catherine is married off to a French Prince - Henri. He is however destined to become King Henri II.  This Catherine is innocent, full of hope that she may find love and fulfilment within her marriage, but she is also determined and after all a Medici. Packed in her trousseau - a vial of poison. Her husband has, however, already given his love to another - the beautiful and powerful Diane de Poitiers, and the French Court does not like the young Catherine. Not only is she lonely in her marriage, but she is dealing with new customs she must learn to fit in in the French Court, but even if she does she will always be seen as an outsider.


Diane is not content with taking Catherine's husband's affections, she also wants to usurp her role at court, to find a place in Catherine's children affection, and her house! I remember reading years ago that Diane de Poitiers was a forebear of Princess Diana. If ever there was another case of 'there were three people in this marriage' then this would be it!
 
As Catherine's hopes of happiness fade, she eventually finds power the one way that she can - through her children, but even then there are obstacles. Widowed at 40, she becomes regent for her sons, and finds herself part of a struggle for power between the de Guise family and the ruling family, and so she must make the hard decisions to protect her children's legacy. At the same time, there is religious upheaval and rebellion.

The narrator is Catherine herself, looking back over her life from the relative distance of old age. She shares with us her hopes and dreams, her loves,  her disappointments, the meetings with influential people of the age including Nostradamus, and yes, her regrets.

Whilst this wasn't quite a warts and all look at the life of Catherine de Medici, the author certainly didn't gloss over the terrible consequences of the decisions that were made, whether they were the intended consequences or not.

As much as I liked CW Gortners previous book The Last Queen, this was a step up. Now I am eager to read his next book on Isabel of Castile. I am expecting a very readable and enjoyable look at another fascinating female character from history.

This review is part of the blog tour for The Confessions of Catherine de Medici being run by Historical Fiction Virtual Blog Tours. You can follow the blog tour by visiting the tour schedule here. Also, if you head over to Historical Tapestry, I have cross-posted this review, but there is also a chance to win a copy of the paperback release of the book.

French Historical Challenge completed

I made it to the La Princesse level of the French Historicals Oh La La! Challenge!

What does that mean? It means that I read three books that were set some time in French history.

The three books I read were:

Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland
For the King by Catherine Delors
Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C W Gortner

A Murderous Procession: A Mistress of the Art of Death Novel by Ariana Franklin

Adelia is back in this thrilling fourth installment of the Mistress of the Art of Death series

In 1176, King Henry II sends his ten-year-old daughter, Joanna, to Palermo to marry William II of Sicily. War on the Continent and outbreaks of plague make it an especially dangerous journey, so the king selects as his daughter’s companion the woman he trusts most: Adelia Aguilar, his mistress of the art of death. As a medical doctor and native of Sicily, it will be Adelia’s job to travel with the princess and safeguarding her health until the wedding.

Adelia wants to refuse—accompanying the royal procession means leaving behind her nine-year-old daughter. Unfortunately, Henry has arranged for the girl to live at court, both as a royal ward and as a hostage to ensure that Adelia will return to the king’s service. So Adelia sets off for a yearlong royal procession. Accompanying her on the journey are her Arab companion, Mansur, her lover, Rowley, and an unusual newcomer: the Irish sea captain O’Donnell, who may prove more useful to Adelia than Rowley would like.

But another man has joined the procession—a murderer bent on the worst kind of revenge. When people in the princess’s household begin to die, Adelia and Rowley suspect that the killer is hiding in plain sight. Is his intended victim the princess . . . or Adelia herself?

Having spent a couple of years living in relative obscurity, happily raising her daughter, sharing her home with her friends and when possible spending time with her lover, Rowley, Adelia Aguilar is not best pleased when she is summoned by King Henry II. He has a task for her. She has been chosen to accompany the King's young daughter Joanna from England to her wedding in Sicily. Also in the party is Rowley and her Arab companion Mansur but her daughter is going to be lodging with Queen Eleanor, both for her development, but also as surety that Adelia will return to England.

The journey itself is dangerous. The procession goes through France, to Aquitaine, through the Languedoc region where the Cathar heresy is spreading and so is the Church's eagerness and enthusiasm in squashing that faith, and then onto Sicily. Along the way the young princess is accompanied by a large party. There are her servants, her ladies in waiting, the requisite churchmen, a few knights and soldiers. For different parts of the journey we also get glimpses of her brothers, Young Henry and Richard, who is now most famously known as Richard the Lionheart. We also spend time in the court at Aquitaine, famous for courtly love and also in the inhospitable mountains of the Languedoc region of France where Adelia comes into contact with two Cathar women and very nearly finds herself being treated as one.

In keeping with the attitudes of the time, Mansur and Adelia are mistrusted by many of their travelling companions, especially after some of their travelling companions begin to be murdered. It isn't clear though exactly who it is that is the target. Is it the princess? Is it someone who is hoping to steal the priceless treasure that is travelling with the party, or is it someone who is targeting Adelia herself?

I never thought I would find myself saying this about a Ariana Franklin/Diana Norman novel, but I didn't really enjoy this one that much.There are a number of reasons why.

The first is that the author used quite an unusual technique in that where ever we were inside the thoughts of the characters then those thoughts were italicised. No great drama there, except that we spent the majority of time inside the thoughts of Scarry, who is the villain of the piece but then we were following Adelia's thoughts, and then back to Scarry. At one point, I was waiting for us to get a glimpse into the thoughts of the dog. And yes, we know the whole time through the book who the villain is. What we don't know is who he is disguised as and what role he has within the travelling party. That mystery in itself is not too badly handled.

The second is that I didn't like Rowley as much as I usually do. I have liked Rowley in the previous books with his unusual mix of knight and churchman sensibilities. Here is a man who is in love with a woman but is restricted from being able to be with her because he was appointed to a role within the church and because of her occupation and beliefs. In this book he has morphed into a jealous and domineering lover (and yes, you are reminded repeatedly that he and Adelia are lovers). It is difficult for Adelia and Rowley because he is a church man and therefore can not be seen to have a lover and so they are forced to stay away from one another during the procession, but at one stop on their journey he hires a room for them, and basically on arrival he walks in and says " Renting this hovel is costing me a fortune. Now get your clothes off."  Yes, he was always a man's man with man's needs but it just didn't feel to me as though this is the way that Rowley would have spoken to Adelia in the previous books.

Adelia was also a bit more petulant than she normally seemed to be to me, often being angry with Rowley and Mansur and not speaking to them etc. Admittedly everyone around her seemed to know what was happening to her and they did their best to make sure that she didn't know which annoyed  her, but still. I didn't like this aspect of her character.

I am not sure if it is that I am not remembering this from the previous books but it seems to me that this book was a lot coarser than the earlier books in the series. For example, at one point the Bishop of Avergnon is imagining the burning at the stake of a Cathar woman and the description given is:

When Gerhardt had gone, his lord poured himself another glass of the vintage from his vineyard near Carcassonne and sipped it while he engineered a new vision of Ermengarde his black-clad tauntress, this time tied to a stake with faggots laid around her feet.

He saw himself thrusting a torch into the wood like a penis into her parts and sighed because, alas, that pleasure must be left to the executioner. One day, though, yes, yes, one day, the flames he'd light would consume them all...men, women, and children.

This really was most excellent wine.

There were also a number of new characters introduced from a new maid named Boggart, and the charismatic, charming, almost swashbuckling captain O'Donnell. I am not sure what the purpose of introducing O'Donnell was really. I liked O'Donnell a lot, and I would be happy to read more about him, but without giving too much away it almost seemed as though it was an unfulfilled attempt at a love triangle. I suspect though that we will see more of O'Donnell in future books in the series, which may give us more insight into what the author was trying to achieve.

In no way am I suggesting that I am giving up on this author, because I have enjoyed far too many of her books over the last few years to let one disappointment get in my way. I might be a little more wary though when I start the next book.

This book is my August read for the Year of the Historical, and I am also potentially counting it as a read for the French Historical challenge, simply because a lot of the book was set in France, and we see the beginnings of one of the major events for France - the persecution of the Cathars that led to the only crusade on European soil.

Rating: 3/5

June Reading Reflections

After a slow reading month in May, unfortunately things didn't really pick up all that much for me in June. Last month I attributed the slow month to the fact that I was reading Brothers of Gwynedd. This month I am still reading that book, and have added War and Peace into the mix as well, and so yes, not that many books finished! The sense of accomplishment will be so worth it when I finish both of those books! So what did I finish?

Emma Vol 3 by Kaoru Mori 4/5
A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware 4/5
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos 5/5
The Making of a Duchess by Shana Galen 3.5/5
The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley 5/5
The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey 4/5
Mort by Terry Pratchett 4/5
For the King by Catherine Delors 4/5
Fire by Kristin Cashore 4/5

Less books read means less progress on challenges as well unfortunately!

Let's start with the Period Drama Challenge. When I signed up for it, I said that I would watch 4 movies/series etc in one year. Shouldn't have been that difficult really. In the end I managed to watch one whole movie which was Sense and Sensibility and started to watch North and South (the US mini-series starring Patrick Swayze not my normal North and South). I think I watched the first disc but I definitely didn't finish it!

The book that I read for the Year of the Historical in June was Emma Vol 3 by Kaoru Mori, and that was one of my final reads for this years Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, along with Yellow House by Patricia Falvey. I have now finished this challenge!

I haven't been reading very many romances over the last few months, and I actually am beginning to feel like I NEED to read one. The only book that I read this month that counted for the Romance Reading Challenge was The Making of a Duchess by Shana Galen.

I finally got to read books for challenges that I hadn't previously started. For the King counts for the French Historical Reading Challenge, and The Yellow House counts as one book read for the Ireland Reading Challenge.

In addition Burned counts for the Vampire Reading Challenge, and Mort was a book that I read for the Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge.

I also joined in a new challenge this month - the Amy Einhorn Perpetual Reading Challenge. I have got my next read from the library for this one.

The final challenges to update are the 100+ Reading Challenge, of which I have now read 69 books, and for the Support Your Local Library Challenge I have now read 47 books.

Alphabet in Historical Fiction: G is for Gulland

It is time for the next entry in the Alphabet in Historical Fiction challenge that is being run over at Historical Tapestry. This time I am focusing on Sandra Gulland's most recent novel Mistress of the Sun. Luckily for me, this novel also counts for several other challenges I am participating in including the French Historical Challenge: Oh-La-La!, and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Here is the blurb:

The author of the internationally acclaimed Josephine Bonaparte trilogy returns with another irresistible historical novel, this one based on the life of Louise de la Vallière, who, against all odds, became one of the most mysterious consorts of France's Louis XIV, the charismatic Sun King.

Set against the magnificent decadence of the seventeenth-century French court, Mistress of the Sun begins when an eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This one desperate action of her youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine.

Unmarriageable, and too poor to join a convent, Louise enters the court of the Sun King, where the king is captivated by her. As their love unfolds, Louise bears Louis four children, is made a duchess, and reigns unrivaled as his official mistress until dangerous intrigue threatens her position at court and in Louis's heart.

A riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its heart, Mistress of the Sun illuminates both the power of true and perfect love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.

Just under three years ago I started reading Sandra Gulland's excellent Josephine B trilogy, and I was a bit surprised that there were no other books out by this author. Then came news about the upcoming release of Mistress of the Sun, and I was excited, and then I had to wait for what seemed an age before the books came on to the library catalogue.  The first time I borrowed this book it was June 2008, but I had to return it unread, and then the same thing happened, and then again, and again, and, well you get the picture.

It's not that I didn't want to read the book, because I clearly did seeing as I kept on borrowing it, but other books just kept on getting in the way. So, was it worth the time it took to read? I would say that it was for the most part, but I am a little bit guarded with that affirmation, simply because for me, it never quite reached the same dizzy heights that were achieved whilst reading the aforementioned Josephine B trilogy.

The story opens with a young girl called Louise de la Valliere who lives in genteel poverty in country France, far away from the royal courts in Paris. She has an uncanny skill with animals, particularly after she uses some old style magic, which would be much frowned upon by her pious mother and by anyone else who knew about it, to tame a wild stallion. When her father dies, she is sent to a convent to continue her education, knowing that she is pretty much unmarriageable, and too poor to become a nun. As a result of family connections following her mother's remarriage, she instead finds herself attached to a royal household as a maid, finally becoming an attendant to Henrietta, sister in law of the young King Louis XIV, who is remembered through history as the Sun King, and sister of one of my favourite kings of England to read about, Charles II.

The first part of the novel was quite plodding for me, but once I got through the first hundred of so pages of establishing Louise's background and how she came to be at court, the novel picks up. When Louise catches the attention of the young king, it is only a matter of time before she becomes his mistress, firstly in secret and later more openly. Being the king's mistress brings great joy, but also trials, but Louise manages to keep his attention over an extended period of time, even if she does have to share him, until that is, she feels that she must choose between Louis and her eternal salvation.

Along the way, I was reacquainted with many of the names from history that I have read about in other novels - Athenais de Montespan who I first got to know in the delicious Angelique by Sergeanne Golon, Henrietta who I most recently read about in Susan Holloway Scott's The French Mistress - and also some of the places. For example, at one point Louis takes Louise to a hunting lodge that he owns just outside Paris. Now we know that hunting lodge as Versailles, the building that Louis extensively remodeled and made into the centre of his glittering court. Whilst this isn't a book about the remodeling process, it was interesting to read snippets about it, and about the celebrations that were held when it was opened.

As I mentioned before, I did find the opening parts of this novel quite slow, but its strength definitely lay within the portrayal of the relationship between Louis and Louise, the secrecy with which they met whilst falling in love, the opposition of both Louis' wife and mother, and other members of the court, the jostling for position, the tragedies and the loss that they shared, and the betrayal as Louise realises that she is no longer his only mistress.

Whilst the ending was perhaps not the one that I would have hoped for I recognise that the poetic license of a historical novelist is quite often restricted as a result of needing to comply with the actual events of history! I do wish that the horse storyline had not been reintroduced as it was, but that is a small criticism in the overall scheme of things.

I am glad that I finally got around to reading this novel, and definitely intend to keep on reading more in relation to the life of the Sun King and his contemporaries like Charles II.

I ended up giving this book a rating of 4/5. Now I need to start thinking about what I might post about for the letter H!

January wrap up

How is it that when we were kids a month would take forever to pass? Now, a month is over in a blink of an eye, tomorrow the boy goes back to school after the Christmas holidays, and it is time to do my January reading roundup! Before I get started, I should make a note about the photo I am using for this post. I was searching around on Google for some kind of image to decorate the top of this post, when I had a sudden brainwave! I had a couple of photos on my phone which I took at the beach a couple of weeks ago. The main reason I took them was to be mean to Stephanie who was talking about all the snow she could see out of her window, when I was going to the beach! Luckily we have been friends for a long time!

In my December Reading Roundup, I talked about the fact that I thought my days of reading 18-20 books a month were over, and that I expected that my new normal would probably be closer to 11-13 books per month. So of course, I had to go and make a liar of myself and get through 18 books in January, and that's with only finishing one book in the last week of the month. Who knows what my new normal is, because I really, really don't!

One of the reasons why this month was a bit odd was the fact that I reread 3 books in January. Last year, I reread three books in the whole year. In 2008, I only reread one book, in 2007 I had no rereads and in 2006 there was only one. It's fair to say that I am not much of a rereader, so the fact that there have been three already in the first month of this year is a bit unusual. There was another odd thing as well. At one point this month I had four books on the go (not all that unusual), and not one of them was a library book. I can't remember the last time that happened.

So here is my list of reads for January, along with my rating out of 5:

The Sharing Knife: Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold 4/5
Love at First Bite anthology 4/5
The Awakening by L J Smith 4/5
Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong 4.5/5
Rumour Has It by Jill Mansell 4.5/5
The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien 4.5/5 (reread)
Hunted by P C Cast and Kristin Cast 3.5/5
Bravo Mr William Shakespeare presented by Marcia Williams 4/5
The Laughter of Dead Kings by Elizabeth Peters 3.5/5
Shadowfae by Erica Hayes 3.5/5
The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French 4/5
A Dangerous Love by Sabrina Jeffries 4/5
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 4.5/5 (reread)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford 4/5
Disco Boy by Dominic Knight 4/5
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett 3.5/5 (reread)
Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale 4.5/5

One of the highlights of January blogging wise was Bloggiesta. Some times that bit of encouragement to get things done is exactly what is required. One of the challenges was the commenting challenge that was being hosted by Pam at MotherReader. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it turns out that I didn't have a problem commenting on blogs, but I was surprised to find that in the last three weeks I have commented around about 285 times and that is without going out of the way to do anything out of the ordinary. In fact, if anything I have managed to do less blog hopping in that three weeks that I normally would. I would never have thought that I would have commented anywhere near that many times, but apparently I have. I am going to stop keeping track now, because it is a bit time consuming (and not to mention a bit anal to sit there and record every comment made!) but it was a useful exercise to do as a once off.

One thing I was pleased with in January was that I managed to get quite a few books read for the challenges that I signed up for. Not enough to finish any of them, but a substantial start at least!

Not only did I manage to read for a challenge, I also managed to watch something for a challenge as well! For the Period Drama Challenge, which I have been terrible at participating in, I watched and enjoyed all three parts of the mini-series adaptation of Larry McMurtry's Comanche Moon. I also watched another movie that I haven't quite decided if it qualifies as a period drama or not, and that was the movie Grey Gardens which stars Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange amongst others.  The movie covers the period from the late 20s through to the 60s or 70s, so might qualify. I am going to count it for now!

I also, finally, managed to start the L J Smith reading challenge by reading the first book in the Vampire Diaries series, The Awakening. I currently have the second book out of the library so look forward to more progress on that challenge!

I am pleased with the start that I have made for both the 100+ Reading Challenge and the Support Your Local Library Challenge, with 15 books and 11 books read respectively.

Historical fiction and historical romance are among my favourite type of books to read - anything with a historical setting and I am happy! So, when I looked at my list of reads in January and realised that half way through the month I hadn't read one that qualified for the Year of the Historical Challenge, I was a bit surprised. In the end I had a few books to choose from as the book for this challenge, but I think I will stick with The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French. This book is a YA/time travel/historical fiction novel which was set during one of the most famous and influential events in Australian history - The Eureka Stockade. I do have a post half written about this book, so will hopefully be able to finish that post shortly and post a bit more about the book and the event.

I managed to read three books for the Romance Reading Challenge that is being hosted a Royal Reviews. The most pleasing thing about that is that I was able to read across subgenres. I read Shadowfae by Erica Hayes (paranormal/erotic), A Dangerous Love by Sabrina Jeffries (historical) and Virgin River by Robyn Carr (contemporary).  Given that I very rarely read contemporary romance except by Nora Roberts, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Virgin River, and will be trying to locate the next books in the series. It is kind of strange really. My library has the first book in the series, and then every book from the fourth book on, but not the second and third book. To be honest I am not quite sure how that happens so regularly. Next time I go to the library I am going to try to remember to ask for them. I know that they are available through interlibrary loan if my library isn't prepared to purchase the missing parts of the series.

Another challenge hosted by Royal Reviews is the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. A lot of the books that I read for this book will cross over into a couple of the other challenges I am reading for as well. This month, the books that I read that qualified for this challenge are The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French and The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I am hosting the blog tour for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet over at Historical Tapestry early in February, so I need to hurry up and write the review for the book!


 

The challenge that I made the most pleasing progress on this month (for me personally anyway) is the Aussie Author Challenge. Every year one of my goals is to read more Aussie authors. So far this year, I have managed to read three books by Australian authors - The Night They Stormed Eureka by Jackie French, Disco Boy by Dominic Knight and Shadowfae by Erica Hayes. It is fair to say that that is a pretty eclectic mix.

One challenge that I do every year, but always make a slow start on is the Pub Challenge. This year's is the 2010 Pub Challenge, where the challenge is to read books that are originally published in 2010. The one book that I read in January that qualifies for this challenge is Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale. If you like your romances historical, then this is one to look out for!

I should probably mention that I managed to read some books for my own challenge this month! (Very nearly forgot). After having not read any books for the Terry Pratchett reading challenge in it's first month, this month I managed to read two, and I have the next book in the series requested from the library. I also discovered some of the books that I don't own on my brother-in-law's bookshelf. I think we may have had a conversation about being Pratchett fans many years ago, but I can't remember talking about it any time recently.

You would think from looking at that list that I have more than enough challenges to keep my going, but apparently not! I am therefore going to confirm my sign up to two more challenges today as well. The first is for the French Historical Challenge: Oh-la-la! being hosted by Lucy from Enchanted by Josephine. I am aiming to reach the La Princesse level, by reading three historical books set in France

The last challenge that I have signed up for (so far) is The Michener Challenge, which is being hosted by Michelle from True Book Addict at The Michener Challenge blog. I have really fond memories of reading some of James Michener's epic novels like Mexico and Hawaii, and I would like to revisit some of them as part of the challenge. This is a perpetual challenge, so no levels, or time frames! I am looking forward to finding some books to read for it.

All that remains now for this month's reading round up is to award myself my NaJuReMoNo award! I read twelve books that qualified for NaJuReMoNo this year (rereads don't count, and neither do books that you had started before 1 January):

 

Phew! After finishing this challenge update I am ready to go for a lie down and read. In theory, I am going to write a Sunday Salon post today for the first time. Originally I was planning for this post to be that Sunday Salon post but then I remembered that I actually wanted to post about something else!