Musing Mondays

Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading
If your book group asked you to bring two (2) suggestions for group reads to your next meeting, what two books would you suggest? Why?

I would have to suggest, The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. 
The Red Queen was a book I recently read and I absolutely loved it and thought it portrayed England and it's fight to put Tudor's on the throne really well. 
Pride and Prejudice is a classic and has always been one of my favorite books.  

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

This book follows the life of Margaret Beaufort as she tries to put her son Henry Tudor on the throne of England.

She is treated as your typical 15th century wife. She is there to give birth and raise children and that is all that is expected and wanted from her. Margaret is not your average woman. She longs for more than giving an heir to the House of Lancaster. At a very young age she feels she has a calling placed upon her by God. She feels she has to save England and do something great and follow in the footsteps of Joan of Arc. This calling is to put her son, Henry Tudor, on the throne of England. To do this, she must play houses against each other and overcome many hardships and wars. It takes her many years to put her son on the throne, but she does it by at last overthrowing the Yorks.

This book is very well written and I enjoyed it immensely. It gives you a great look at the struggle for the throne and what went on behind the wars. It also gives you a deep look into the wives of 15th century England, which I thought was very interesting. The way God and religion are twisted to suit people's needs and those of others was one of the driving forces behind the book for me. Margaret is constantly saying what she does is God's will, but it somehow always turns out that God's will is, amazingly, her will as well. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction novel. It is satisfying on many levels.

The Wheel of Time: The Path of Daggers

The weather is right again and Elayne is back in Andor and claiming the Lion Throne. She still believes her mother is dead even though no body has been found.
Perrin is after the prophet in Ghealdan. He is ordered to bring him to Rand so they can stop his destructive path. But along the way, Perrin loses something very dear to his heart.
Egwene and the rebel Aes Sedai are preparing to lay siege at Tar Valon in hopes of unseating the unlawful Amyrlin and reuniting the Aes Sedai.
The Seanchan are back and Rand engages them on Altaran soil. He grows too angry and full of himself and attempts to use Callandor again. He ends up killing many people including his own. Rand also learns of turn coats within his own Asha'man army.

This book is definitely a lot more interesting than the previous one. A lot of things are revealed in this one that the previous book was leading up to. More things click into place. I think this book was out to get the men. Bad things happen to the men in this one and all the good things happen to the women. You start to see Rand's mental and emotional downfall in this book which will play a huge role in the books to come.