Look What I Bought!

Today I went to Dymock’s Bookshop in the city to spend some of my $70 gift voucher given to me by my friends Gaye and Robin. These days I prefer to buy non fiction for my print collection, usually history, which I can use for research, and keep my fiction in ebook. 

I kind of miss my shopping trips there as a teacher librarian, and even more so as I encountered one of the staff who knows me from those days as I browsed the children’s shelves for another day(I still have $25.00 left and I just might get one novel...). But I’ve kept up my tradition of rewarding myself for my book buying with afternoon tea at Ganache afterwards, so I’m here, enjoying a pot of tea and three delicious chocolates(walnut, Cointreau and Irish Cream), and drooling over my purchases before writing my final Yuletide cards for the year. They will come late, but my friends will know they aren’t forgotten. 

Now my problem is...which of these do I read on Christmas Eve, in honour of Jolabokaflod? I’ve been after Black Tudors for some time, but I’m also fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials, and have been since I was a teenager performing The Crucible at school. In later years, I was disappointed to find out some truths about the characters in the play, but this book has a cover quote from Hilary Mantel, saying, “Was it like The Crucible? No, it was worse...” 

So, which do I read on Monday night? Any suggestions?