I'm more or less through my reading block. Wolf Hall is good—it's interesting and immediate and strange. And I was starting to think that I was learning a fair amount about the Tudors and early 16th century England.

Or I thought I was, until I started talking to Chestnut. It turns out Chestnut has read extensively on the subject. "I'm just very interested in the Tudors," she said, except she pronounced it Two-Doors.

What has she read? Well, this:

And this:

And then this, too:

This last one, she warns, isn't very interesting.

But: what's the whole thing with the Tudors anyway? It's the oddest sensation, having the historical period you're reading about overlap with what your kid is reading about. I mean, normally she stays squarely in Colonial America, where girls were pure and true, or stout-hearted tomboys, etc. And they're just not a whole lot of grownup books about that (though I must take a moment to recommend the crazy One Story piece by Jim Shepard, which is, in fact, a grownup story about this period).

Anyway, it just seemed odd to me. Also humbling. I think the whole "Royal Diaries" phenomenon is a more acceptable to older kids extension of the princess obsession of youth. But maybe there's a whole other side to it? Maybe it's about finding ways in which women had power? But maybe that's what the princess thing is about too, somehow?

I will tell you this: no tween books about Cromwell. YET.