Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII

Deep, fascinating and lush history of a woman I knew shamefully little of despite being so familiar with her story. She was married to Henry VIII for almost 20 years, and fought his efforts to divorce her every step of the way, with cunning and skill that flummoxed him to madness. The book, like most biographies of medieva women (or possibly life in general, which is too depressing to contemplate at length) suffers from a less than thrilling conclusion, but that's a function of the sadness of Catherine's situation at her passing, and not a failing of the writer. Overall, wonderful, and wonderfully sympathetic.