Pope Joan

Rating:
Summary: Pope Joan is an excellent book!
Review: Although I don't usually read books on the lives of popes I found this book to be excellent. The quality of the writing, plotting and character development is superb. I knew, from various histories, that women were treated very badly in those day. This book brings the hardships women faced alive. As a bright, intelligent you girl Joan had to beg her brother to teach her to read and write. If they had been caught she would have been very severely punished. Joan's struggle to over come the prejudices of the day makes a fascinating story. The story is much broader than this one subject. The author has captured all of the aspects of Joan's life from when she was born until she dies. This is an amazing feat! I highly recommend this story.

Rating:
Summary: Pope Joan Makes for Terrific Reading!
Review: The blend of fiction and history is seamless and this is a book that is difficult to put down. Terrific depiction of the courage and strength of faith that Joan had, as well as her deep thirst for knowldege that led her to disguise herself as a man. A sad reminder to us all of darker times when education was truly a gift. I had an opportunity to hear the author speak and that was a treat as well.

Rating:
Summary: Amatuer writing and storytelling
Review: I would have given this one star, but the author does put in a good effort to stay true to the history of the time period. But, Umberto Eco this is not. Unfortunately, the author is an amatuer in her redimentary storytelling and predictable and unrealistic character development.
The story is an interesting premise, but there were just too many predicatable scenes were Joan just happens to solve various problems, from the plague to avoiding the Frank Army attack on Rome, and save the day.
Joan is portrayed as a child intellectual prodigy, who of course is the shame of her overbearing self-righteous father who thinks her more of a witch. She is more intelligent than everyone around her, with medical skills beyond the centuries, and of course, morally and holier than everyone else. This character got pretty annoying after the first couple chapters.
It is also ironic that the one message that Joan lives by, and that the author stresses throughout: "Do not give yourself to any man", igonores the fact that her reliance and dependance on *good* men (her brother Matthew, her first tutor, Gerald, etc) who protected her, who gave her a chance, is what allowed her to grow to become an intelligent independant thinker. Without them, she would have ended up like the rest of the women of her age - unhappy, battered wives, or just an unhappy, battered old maid.


Rating:
Summary: Clan of the Cave Bear goes to Italy
Review: I really wanted to LOVE this book, and had heard it was great. Joan is just like Ayla in "Clan of the Cave Bear" in that she is much much smarter than anyone around her, man or woman (like when she is the first person in history to introduce evidence to into a trial), that it seemed a bit unreal and unlikely. I was very dissapointed. The plus is that it shows the plight of women in the middle ages, but the story is just a bit over the top, and from that standpoint dissapointing.

Rating:
Summary: slsilveira
Review: Excellent book - Being raised a Catholic and not always agreeing with the Church on the treatment or "place" of women, the story of Pope Joan has always interested me. The Church being so powerful is more then capable of hiding or distorting information (think of the many things that we know exist in the Church's hands that they won't release to the public. Why? Maybe Dan Brown does have the answer, at least in part). This is an incredible novel surmising what Pope Joan's life might have been like from birth to death. Her need to educate herself and hide the fact that she is a woman. The better part of the book is her life leading to the Papal chair and the character she had to have had, but also shows the human side of doubt in self and God and attemp to always do "right". This book is well written, and even provides for mini Latin lessons.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely not an easy read
Review: I did not enjoy this book at all. It's not my cup of tea but for those who can appreciate good historical fiction, I think the story is well researched and well told. My personal rating for this would've been "1 STAR" but I didn't want to penalize the author for my lack of appreciation for this genre so that's why I gave it "3 STARS". Since I'm a new reader and still struggling to determine what I like, I was just trying something new. But, to be honest, I spent more time stumbling over the massive amount of historical detail, the hard-to-pronounce names and the words that were foreign to me yet not found in the dictionary. I had read other reviewers stating that it was an easy-read so I took a chance and ordered it. Needless to say, I won't be doing that again. This is a challenging book so you may want to sample the first chapter before committing to it. The story itself is 411 pages long but the typeface is a little on the smallish side so it would probably be about 550 pages if printed in a normal font size. (The 448 pages referenced in the book description above includes the Author's notes and the reader's guide but there is only 411 pages of story).

Rating:
Summary: Why isn't this book on the NY Times bestseller list?
Review: What a fantastic read. This book was chosen as a "community read", and I'm so glad. It has been in print for awhile and I can't believe I haven't heard more about it! Donna Woolfolk Cross visited Seward this past weekend and she gave us such insight and depth into her writing. I would recommend having your book club read this and then sign up to have her talk to your group via speakerphone. She is absolutely delightful. You can find her site on the web. There is a movie in the works, and another historical fiction novel - this time set in 17th century France. Keep your eye on this author - she is going places!

Rating:
Summary: A great book for young women
Review: I first heard about Pope Joan as a result of reading the DaVinci Code. Pope Joan was a book that was recommended by Amazon as a book that a reader that liked Da Vince would also enjoy. I did a little research and actually wanted to read another book about Pope Joan. When I went to the library Donna Cross's was the only one available. What a fortunate situation!

I was enthralled by this book. It was interesting and readable and the sad and tragic part is that a lot of the fews of women have not really changed that much. Readers learn many of the myths that men perpetuated over the centuries.

I would definately recommend this book to young women who feel that they cannot achieve. Joan showed that women a overcome adversity.

At times some of the coincidences were a little far fetched and its sometimes hard to believe that Joan pulled this off, but it was a different world.

This book has encouraged me to read other books on the same subject. It's great!


Rating:
Summary: Surprising wonderful
Review: Someone at my bookclub picked this book for us to read. When I saw the title I groaned. However, this was a surprisingly wonderful book. It showed the history of the struggle of women to be treated as equals. Joan did an awesome job of breaking through the barriers set by society at the time. I am 43, and I enjoyed the book, I passed it on to an 83 year old and she enjoyed it to. It is a book for all ages...women especially.
Thanks to the author for writing it.

Rating:
Summary: Very good historical fiction
Review: An all-time favorite here, this is great historical fiction built on fact. Keep in mind that it is historical fiction and therefore some small parts of the story that may seem questionable must be pardoned. The story is strong and well written and the author's chapter at the end that presents the facts provides and nice closing to an extremely enjoyable book. A great book!