The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A book of letters? Why would I want to read someone's mail? Hey, it's much more fascinating and revealing that you'd first believe. As a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan (since childhood), I was enthralled to learn details of her life "behind the fiction" and how her daughter, journalist Rose Wilder Lane, was perhaps the undisclosed ghostwriter of her classic children's literature. Recommended for all Laura fans and others who are interested in seeing the process behind a writer's goal of creating a book series to preserve American history.
View all my reviews
Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time
by Paul Rogat Loeb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Soul of a Citizen is a must-read for every intelligent person on the planet. I found my copy in a charity book pile and picked it up because of the title. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. It is more relevant and quotable today than it was when it was published in 1999. No kidding--you'll believe Loeb wrote this masterpiece just yesterday so prescient is his vision. It's that timely. Every home should have this book on their shelf for quick and easy reference.
Loeb inspires and motivates us to get off our backsides in Soul of a Citizen and get out into the world and fight for what we believe in. He deftly illustrates his points with examples of everyday people taking action who never believed they could do such a thing. These aren't "professional activists" or superheroes. These are folks who never thought they could make a difference in their community, their state, or the world at large, but who, nevertheless, found the courage to stand up and speak out for what they believed in and ended up making a difference for the better. Sure, times can be rough and not every effort will be met with immediate success, but when we sit back and do nothing we effectively kill off a piece of our soul Loeb warns. And the world is diminished that much more.
So, ignore the "insouciant smirks" or the "snark" (my term) that our society dishes out via the media whenever it tries to convince us that anything one person (or a group united for a good cause) attempts can't possibly make the world better. This snark, smirk or institutionalized cynicism has been perpetuated by the billionaires and millionaires for the past 40 years to keep us in our place. We all have been living under its soul-destroying cloud for so long that we've internalized it and come to believe its falsehoods. Worse yet, these oligarchs enjoy our "learned helplessness"--or should it be called "learned hopelessness"? The masses are lost in the consumer-driven culture and given up, filling their lives with empty bread (Starbucks?) and circuses (smartphones). Ordinary people discouraged and despairing won't take action to fight the wrongs made by greedy corporations and bought-and paid-for-politicians. No, we'll just sit and stare at our computing devices and throw in the towel and not fight back. The billionaires will just stuff more money in their offshore bank accounts as they send our jobs to China and accept their corporate welfare checks from the government...
Sound familiar? Want it to stop? Want to make the world a better place for all of God's creation and not just the 1%? Then get off your backside and find Soul of a Citizen in your local library, bookstore or online. Get it and read it. Today. Because tomorrow is the beginning of a whole new world that we can all be proud of because we worked together to make it happen.
#FeeltheBern
View all my reviews
Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was never a well-liked person, but his assassination (one of many in that day) became a convenient excuse for Kaiser Wilhelm’s war machine to flex its muscle. Hastings details the deliberate machinations of how the Austro-Hungarians are convinced by the Germans that now is the time to regain land they both had lost in previous conflicts. The auspicious start of the war sees outdated tactics such as cavalry charges and drum corps against machine guns, virtually non-existent coordination of forces on both sides, and the Germans’ official sanctioning of killing civilians and burning villages in their wake. This is not the slow trench warfare usually associated with the first world war, but its exceedingly deadly and destructive precursor. Catastrophe 1914 demonstrates how the self-delusional reasoning behind a war for economic gain can change the world forever.
View all my reviews
Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Smith sisters--Abigail Adams, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Peabody--are an American treasure! There's so much to learn about America's early history along with feminist thoughts of the late 18th century from their correspondence. They really were very modern women, expressing an intense desire for more educational opportunities and say-so in their daily lives. But the hardships these women had to endure are heartbreaking. Abigail was separated from her husband, John Adams, throughout most of the Revolution and then John became a diplomat to France and England and left her at home to tend the farm and children... It's unbelievable how they stayed married with such long periods apart, but their letters show that their love and mutual respect ran deep. Repeated sickness, alcoholism, and early deaths took their toll on their loved ones, but somehow these three women survived and blossomed and successfully raised children who would make their mark in the world. Their words show how having a supportive sister can make all the difference.
View all my reviews
Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image by Joshua Zeitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fantastic book for Civil War buffs and armchair historians. We owe a lot to John Hay and John Nicolay for recording the history they witnessed and sharing their insights of the man who made it all happen. A book that should be read by all who would pervert civil liberties and deny rights to those different from themselves whom they don't particularly like... Amazing how things don't change even after 150 years! Lincoln's image as the Great Emancipator may have been a product of Hay and Nicolay's ten volume biography, but America is in need of Lincoln's leadership on moral issues now more than ever.
View all my reviews
Master and God by Lindsey Davis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
There's a reason why I don't put any author's books on an "automatically buy" list. Even if I love their earlier books, I don't necessarily believe I will love their later works. Such is the case (unfortunately) for Master and God. Having enjoyed Davis' Falco detective series, I thought I'd give this story a try--and trying it was.
In the Falco series the Roman history, culture and setting are seamlessly intertwined with fascinating and sympathetic characters, but the same can't be said of this book. The first part is a head-hopping nightmare. The point of view hops from omniscient to one character to the next (even within a paragraph). Then there's a head hop to a fly on the wall. Really! Having to edit and fix head-hopping problems in my own and others' manuscripts (Yes, I'm an evil editor), I don't care to read it in a professionally published book.
The second part of the story is a bit less head-hoppy, and the lovers Flavia Lucilla and Gaius Vinius are worth cheering for, but long "telling/info dumping" passages slow up the love story and cause frustration for both the lovers and the reader alike. It seems as if Davis couldn't figure out if she wanted to write a straight history of the reign of Domitian or a love story set in Rome. I wish she would have stuck with the second choice and edited the head-hopping and info dumping.
If readers could get a feel for Rome in the Falco series without chapter upon chapter of info dumping, surely Lucilla and Vinius' love story could have been written likewise. But if you enjoy Roman history and don't mind the romantic interruptions and head-hopping, Master and God might appeal to you.
View all my reviews
google-site-verification: googlec9fe367ac800d499.html