SEPTEMBER 2025 READING LIST
Antoine Caron. Marriage of Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici, The Dowry, c. 1562. The Art Institute of Chicago
THE RIVAL QUEENS: CATHERINE DE' MEDICI, HER DAUGHTER MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, AND THE BETRAYAL THAT IGNITED A KINGDOM BY NANCY GOLDSTONE
The captivating true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose turbulent relationship shaped their tumultuous, perilous century. Set in splendid Renaissance France, this story follows two extraordinary women—a mother and daughter—who are driven apart by a terrible betrayal that endangers the entire realm.
Catherine de' Medici was a resolute pragmatist and a powerful leader who held the throne for thirty years. Her youngest daughter, Marguerite, famously called the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a lively and passionate woman, the only opponent her mother could neither intimidate nor influence.
Catherine forces Catholic Marguerite to marry her Protestant cousin, Henry of Navarre, despite her objections. She then leverages Marguerite’s extravagant Parisian wedding to draw in his supporters, which results in their deaths. This series of events ignites intense conflict throughout France and creates a formidable rival within her family.
I've had Rival Queens on my bookshelf for ages. But sometimes, if you're lucky, reading the first few pages of a book can truly draw you in and ignite your imagination. I've been fortunate to experience that many times this year, and I hope it continues. What grabbed me was the elegant way Goldstone conveyed historical information. The language and word choice were exquisite, making me feel as if I were immersed in the time period without feeling lost. She also included footnotes that felt more like modern insights or her personal opinions on various points. These footnotes were incredibly refreshing, informative, funny, and eye-opening.
What was most fascinating was how Goldstone depicted Catherine de' Medici. Influenced by art history, TV shows, and other books, I’ve always seen Catherine as a powerhouse—a formidable figure who couldn’t be defeated. In Rival Queens, she is at the heart of the French court but limited in her power. She manipulated, stirred intrigue, and conspired, but not from a position of outright power, but rather from a posture of defense. Her life was constantly threatened, as were those of her children on the French throne.
I also learned about the relationship between Catherine and her children. The book mainly focuses on Catherine’s bond with her daughter, Marguerite. However, it also portrays the lives, personalities, and motives of many members of the Valois dynasty, offering context for the desperate decisions they made. Catherine had to fight just to survive in her marriage, as regent, and to stay relevant in a time when women were often pushed aside or replaced. Catholic Marguerite, forced into an unwanted marriage to a Protestant, found herself needing to align with her husband even at the expense of her own family.
I was so engrossed with Rival Queens that it only took me a few days to finish the book, and I immediately searched for what other books Goldstone had written. To my joy and delight, there are several more books, and all of them focus on the female perspective often lost in historical accounts. I look forward to reading more.
4.5/5 Stars
Richard Adams. View of Buenos Aires, ca. 1832. The National Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina
ON ARGENTINA BY JORGE LUIS BORGES
Argentina offers essential insights for understanding Latin American through Borges's perspective between 1925 and 1930. These essays form a significant intellectual biography of one of Latin America's most influential writers.
I came across On Argentina while searching for writings on nature and travel. Having recently visited the country, I thought it was fitting to read some of his works. After I picked up the book at the library, I did some research to understand Borges's significance and found out he's famous for quoting one of my favorite lines.
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Another line that strongly connects with me is how he mentions his existence and the influences that shaped who he is:
“I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”
Back to the book, there were some parts I found wonderfully descriptive or insightful. In other sections, I missed some of the meaning of his words. My favorite part was his description of Buenos Aires, a lovely, flowing eloquence about the morning, afternoon, and evening in the great city. Having seen the rich blue skies, the lush green vegetation, the steady hum of the street, and the vibrant history of the town, I could easily believe his words.
“Morning is an overwhelming blue, a swift and massive surprise spanning the sky, a crystallizing, a lavish outpouring of sunlight that piles up in squares, smashes mirrors with fictitious stones, and lowers long insinuations of light down wells. The day is a playing field for our endeavors or for our idleness, and there is only room for them on their usual chessboard.”
Another line that pondered long afterward was about how to perceive people:
“History is not the best place to trace the outlines of people’s spiritual face.”
How true it is that we do not only look to the past to understand people. Borjes also discusses Argentinians' infatuation with Germany and their awe of the Third Reich. His words were revelatory and terrifyingly relevant to the world today. He recognized that the people did not love the Germans, but what the Germans had done to reclaim national honor and pride at the expense of truth, literature, and art. He also explains the barbarism of his peers' obsession not with military glory, but with seeing the destruction and suffering of those perceived as an enemy or an “other.” Argentina has a distinctive history of sympathy for early 20th-century Germany, and it was eye-opening to read Borges' take on his country at that time.
3.25/5 Stars
Jean Charles Cazin. October Day, 1890–93. The Art Institute of Chicago
A COUNTRY YEAR: LIVING THE QUESTIONS BY SUE HUBBELL
A country year is comparable to a baker's dozen, as it encompasses an additional season. Hubbell shares her perspective to help readers explore the peninsula between two rivers in the Ozark Mountains, from one spring to the next. Through her eyes, readers gain a fresh and different outlook on their own surroundings. Hubbell elaborates on beekeeping, country life, and solitude in middle age.
In my search for writers who discuss nature, I have come across Mary Oliver, Richard Powers, and many others. I happened to find Country Year, and the synopsis of a woman’s quasi-journal of living in the country seemed just right for what I was looking for. Granted, she wrote the book from an older perspective (she is in her fifties), under different circumstances (her husband has left her, and her son is grown), and in a different setting (she is in the Ozarks), but I still felt connected to her story while just turning forty, still in a season with kids at home sitting a house in San Diego. I felt a longing, a tugging of the heart toward a simpler life.
Hubbell describes her life as a bee farmer, a woman living alone who has to fell a tree for firewood, and the patchwork structure of her home and barn. I loved her slow, winding thoughts on the different realities she had to face. Her writing was informative, reflective, and questioning. Why do things happen in such a way? Why do people act as they do? How does one survive alone selling honey? In a season of feeling smothered by industry and civilization, it was wonderful to escape to the Ozarks and discover a life utterly different from my own.
My favorite part was Hubbell explaining the strange vacancy of older women—once they reach a certain age, society doesn’t really have a plan for them. Though I haven't reached the age Hubbell describes, I’ve thought about what my purpose might be when my kids are grown, and I am no longer considered “young.” She states that there is freedom in age—something young women cannot understand.
“We are past our reproductive years. Men don’t want us; they prefer younger women. It makes good biological sense for males to be attracted to females who are at an earlier point in their breeding years and who still want to build nests, and if that leaves us no longer able to lose ourselves in the pleasures and closeness of pairing, well, we have gained our Selves. We have another valuable thing, too. We have Time, or at least the awareness of it. We have lived long enough and seen enough to understand in a more than intellectual way that we will die, and so we have learned to live as though we are mortal, making our decisions with care and thought because we will not be able to make them again. Time for us will have an end; it is precious, and we have learned its value.”
To gain Self and to know Time is precious is a gift. It does not get much more real than that.
4.5/5 Stars