I, Mona Lisa - Cruise Reading

Hi All!
I am taking a break from the Alaskan pictures for a day to tell you about this book - I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis. I finished this book while on our Alaskan cruise so I guess it sort of ties into the whole description of my vacation.

This is a very interesting book and for people who like historical novels, I think it is a must read. The whole book is basically a biography of Mona Lisa - the subject of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous portrait. Woven throughout the book is the story of the Medici family and their struggle to rule the city of Florence.

Mona Lisa, a merchant's daughter, becomes entangled with the Medici family and is thrust into the political battles which consume Florence. The famous portrait comes about in the midst of political intrigue, personal tragedies, plague, and famine.

While I have never read any of Jeanne Kalogridis' other novels, I found her writing to be very entertaining and her historical facts to be informative without sounding like a history textbook. In fact, I am tempted to keep an eye out for one of her other works to see if they are as good as I, Mona Lisa.

By the way - the book also explains the Mona part of her name.

Trisha

Voice Update: My voice is a bit weak this morning. I am not sure why but saying goodbye to Hubby was a bit rocky. I did some massage yesterday (and will continue today) and my throat really hurts! I guess that is what I get for not keeping up with my massage during the cruise! I also was doing inhale/exhale matching pitches while I puttered around the house. I also found myself doing that in the post office while waiting for the worker to figure out how much I owed to mail a package. I hope it sounded like humming instead of a crazy person!