ROYAL DIARIES: ANACAONA (1490)

Anacaona is another of those royal figures where we know next to nothing about her. Reading about her in this series was the first I'd ever heard of her. I enjoy learning new things, but I felt there wasn't much that I learned from this book.

The style is very slice of life. She's rather philosophical and a poet. You get some idea of daily life, but honestly, this book reads far more like a real diary than a diary that's meant to be educational historical fiction. There was really only one character that impacted me at all, aside from Anacaona, and that was the girl that killed herself after appearing in one single diary entry. It's also a bit hard to reread, knowing what happened to her after the events of the diary.

This book was the second last Royal Diary published back in April 2005. It sat unread in my book pile for months, because I would pick it up, read a couple entries and put it down. Catherine's diary, published in December 2005, was the last of the series, and I believe that's when I finally made myself finish Anacaona's. Is it important to the series in that it gives even a hint of educational info on a lesser-known historical figure? Sure. But as far as the series goes, it's one of the weakest.