Prepare yourselves for a whole lot of book reviews. I only have three years of reading to eventually recap here. Read last week’s Recent Reads here.
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
This biography highlights the life of Jane Franklin, Ben Franklin’s only surviving sibling. She was an interesting woman and had a front row seat to the major changes in Colonial America during the Revolution. Because of Ben’s work, Jane and Ben wrote tons of letters to each other, and the reader really gets a sense of what their lives were like. I enjoyed this read.
In Bed with the Tudors: The Sex Lives of a Dynasty from Elizabeth of York to Elizabeth I by Amy Licence
The name gives you a good idea what this book is about. It dives into the “behind closed doors” part of the Tudor era. Sadly, shirtless Henry Cavill in The Tudors doesn’t make an appearance. Depending on your comfort level with analysis of sexual relationships and bodily functions, you may or may not find this book interesting. The book mostly focuses on the female world of pregnancy and childbirth with few details spared. Overall, it is a solid history of Tudor childbearing, but it can be a bit much at times.
The Lost Rocks: The Dare Stones and the Unsolved Mystery of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony by David La Vere
I may have a mild obsession with the Lost Colony of Roanoke. This obsession was then fed by a special on the History Channel where two master masons / brothers investigate the legend of the Dare Stones. The original Dare Stone is purported to have been written by Eleanor Dare and details the fate of the Lost Colony. I bought this book while watching the show and zipped through it. It aligns closely with the show because the author worked on the show. The main theory is that the original Dare Stone may be real while the others are absolute fakes. I really want to check out the first Dare Stone at Brenau College here in Georgia. The downside of this book is that it is very poorly edited. Lots of misspelled words and grammatical errors even if the content is fascinating.
Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of the Elite Regiment who Changed the Course of the Revolution by Patrick O’Donnell
I bought this book not realizing that it is a true military history. It traces a unit of Maryland volunteers from the earliest days of the Revolution through the Battle of Yorktown. This book is a very comprehensive military history and provides levels of detail about the Revolution that I had never learned. It also paired nicely with another book I read shortly afterwards. But I’m not overly keen on military history. I prefer the more personal side of history, so I found it a bit too battles and statistics for my taste at times.
Dear Abigail: The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs
One perk of history is phones are a pretty recent invention. We have the luxury of decades of letters written between family and friends to really capture what life was like. Similarly to Book of Ages, this book examines the correspondence of Abigail Adams and her two sisters. I enjoyed this book and the first-hand look into the lives of our second First Lady and her family over the course of their lives.
What have you been reading?
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