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Summary: What an amazing story!
Review: You are born in the 800's. A time when, you are forbidden to exercise your brain through academic study because you were born female. A time where it is considered a fact, that the size of a woman's brain is inversely proportional to the size of her uterus. Living in a society that promotes the guarantee of childbearing, an expected female act, in the multiples, if the female brain remains underdeveloped. Imagine yourself growing up a girl with an undescriptible desire to acquire knowledge. You want to read, to write and to think for yourself. What would you do under these circumstances? Well if you were born Joan, you'd take the place of your newly dead brother John and enter a monk monastery, where knowledge is revered. You'd learn languages, the work of great thinkers and the study of healing your kind. You are smart and thirsty and therefore, would be so adept and great that you would easily climb the ladder of monk hierarchy swiftly until you became... the new Pope! This book is a great story of a little girl who becomes a man to follow her dream of learning. I had the great privilege of chatting with the author about her book Pope Joan, her writing habits, the writing of the script Pope Joan for the upcoming movie Pope Joan and her future heroine in the 1700's France. Expect to see a new book of hers soon and the Pope Joan movie in theaters in two years.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple but thrilling
Review: Donna W. Cross' novel "Pope Joan" is a very interesting and thrilling manuscript. Language and concepts are rather simple so that one is urged to keep turning the pages. It is well written and can therefore be recommended to the customers of amazon.com. The characters are maybe a bit too one-dimensional (good guys, bad guys) to justify five stars. The story is about the girl Joan growing up in Ingelheim who is very intelligent. In spite of problems to receive an education because of her gender, she learns to read, write, and understand theological scripture, classical ancient texts, and logical reasoning. At the age of fourteen, Joan "escapes" from her pre-arranged wedding and steps in (dressed like a man) for her late brother as a novice in Fulda. Her studies and interests finally lead her to Rome where she becomes (now a priest and still dressed as a man) the physician of the pope. The book would not be entitled "Pope Joan" if there was not another step in her career path... Whether or not the history of Joan is true will probably never be found out. Nonetheless, this book is interesting _fiction_. And maybe - and I add this remark being Catholic myself - it helps us contemplate what the role of the gender is even in our days, especially in our religious communities.
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Summary: Highly entertaining
Review: Rarely do I read novels. I often get bored 100 pages in. However, I found this book highly entertaining. Having an interest in history, I also enjoyed the many historical aspects to this work. Even if you do not believe there is any historical basis for the story of Pope Joan, this book does provide plenty of insights into life during the latter part of the first millenium. This book will not change your views on whether or not you believe that there was a Pope Joan. So, read it as historical fiction or embellished history. Either way, you will enjoy it.
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Summary: Spellbinding narrative of life in the Middle Ages
Review: I couldn't put this book down. From start to finish a compelling read. Fantastic plot with beautiful descriptive detail. Don't miss it.
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Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: This book was chosen by my book group and based on the subject and the cover (I know, never judge a book), I had no interest in reading it. However, once I started, I couldn't put it down. This book received the highest rating by the book club. Everyone loved it and it has become the standard to which we hope to choose books in the future. I loved how the author used historical facts to weave this beautiful love story and show a strong woman character too. I would definitely recommend this to a friend and would love to see it as a movie!!
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Summary: an unexpected gem!!
Review: This book has everything...romance, intrigue, history, action, danger. It is a fantastic story brought to life by a superb story teller. It is the ficionalized fleshing out of an historical figure... Joan is a woman well ahead of her time.... a woman devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. A woman who rises to the top, not because of the men she is associated with, not because she is beautiful, and not because she is willing to give sexual favors...she triumphs because of her devotion to learning, hard work, and compassion.
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Summary: Did she or didn't she...that is the question!
Review: The best advice I can give you is, "Get this book and read it now". Click on the link above and order it from Amazon, or go to the nearest bookstore and buy it, or get your self to the library and hand over that library card, because you are in for a treat. First of all read this book knowing it is a novel and the author had to add a lot to the minimal information that was available about Joan. Donna Cross has put together an entertaining historical piece of fiction about the Dark Ages where a woman changes her identity to become John Anglicus and finally Pope John VIII. Along the way there is romance, intrigue, battles and rescues. There is something for everyone with an ending that left me with my mouth hanging open....well for a little while at least. The author explains how she wrote the book at the end, and tells us about the history that she was able to find during her research. Through out the book you are wondering, did she exist? Personally, when I read that Pope John XX had changed his title to Pope John XXI after he had the matter researched I was sold on her existence. Not one of my friends that have read this book have had a negative thing to say about it....read it for the novel and story it is and you will have a wonderful adventure not soon forgotten....Kelsana
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Summary: What a read!
Review: I love reading historical fiction ~~ actually any kind of history and fiction makes it a lot easier to read than some of those tomes that doesn't instill life in your imagination. Woolfolk sure didn't disappoint here. Words fail to describe the experience I had with this book, so I suggest that you go and find out for yourself what a great novel this is. And while you're reading it, just remember one thing, we women have come a long ways since the Middle Ages, thanks to countless of other women and Joan who dared to follow their dreams ~~ at a great price for them. We the lucky ones shouldn't forget so easily.
Rating:
Summary: Pope Joan
Review: This book is a marvelous example of historical fiction. It is obvious that the writer has researched the topic thoroughly. Due to the fact that some this occurred so long ago and so much has been deliberately and inadvertently lost, the author has supplied her own take on the facts. In that regard it is a bit typical (girl meets boy, falls in love, gets pregnant), however it doesn't detract from the historical basis of the novel. That is, a women are placed in a very low station in life, not exposed to education and essentially have no rights. I highly recommend this book!
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Summary: Enjoyable reading...
Review: Let's start with the only thing I disliked about this book: since many facts WERE unkown about Joan's life, the author made them up, and I just didn't like many of those made up facts: I thought that the concept that Joan got pregnant from a secret love afair was a little too far fetched - the idea that someone found out about her gender and threatened her with it sounds more plausible to me, knowing human nature. But 'that's something I've realized before buying the book. I still bought it because the historical basis of it all sounded fascinating. And I was right about that - I'm still not sure whether Joan existed but learned a lot about lives of people during the 9th century.
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