Books I have read with short reviews. Probably useful to no one, but I like to keep track of what I have read and found interesting.
Review:
This is a very well written story. It is sad (maybe poignant is better?) and that makes it hard for me to put it on my highly recommended list. In all honesty, I would like to spend my last day as well as the ferryman does.
Review:
This is an interesting book. It is easy to think of the past as a pure time, but evidence always speaks to reality. This book, based on some historical fact, detailed murder and rape not long after the founding of the United States. The story is engaging and well told and I enjoyed Lawhon's effort to fill in the blanks. The protagonist is surely more modern than the times would have allowed, yet still, somehow, fits within the period. The protagonist is also not perfect and Lawhon does a good job of showing that cleanly and without having to invoke surprising twists or artless descriptions. The use of the fox as a way to show shifts of fortune is clever and pleasurable.
Words for which I sought help:
emendation -- the process of making a revision or a correction to a text.
Review:
I have never read a review of Samuel Adams and, sadly, knew him more for beer. A three term governor of Massachusetts and signer of the Constitution. I know a lot about John Adams, but his older cousin has escaped my notice. This was an interesting biography and I feel like I learned a lot. In point of fact, however, Schiff has little history with which to work as his papers were largely destroyed (by him and others) and his work was, perforce, under the radar. I had no awareness of his involvement (purported or otherwise) in the Boston Tea Party or as the owner of the Boston Gazette.
