Wow. I’ve been sitting here considering just copy-pasting “wow” two hundred and forty-nine times. I’d give this book six stars if I could. I think North Korea holds a fascination for many of us in the west. Certainly it does for me. I was eight when the Berlin Wall fell; old enough to know that something was happening, but too young to really grasp the significance. North Korea is the only closed country I’ve ever been aware of. Cuba is near enough and porous enough […]
Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Book of Ages was a 2013 National Book Award finalist in the non-fiction category. Historian Jill Lepore pieces together the life of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane and in doing so not only reveals the life of a fascinating “ordinary” 18th-century woman who happened to be the beloved little sister of a Founding Father, but also demonstrates her own prodigious skills as an historian. Lepore’s work is specifically about Jane but more broadly about history and historians, biography and novels, and determining whose lives are worth […]
That’s More Like It, Mary!
I have no idea why the author & book information was left out; it is there in the draft. Anyway, the book is Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach. This is the purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Mary-Roach/dp/0393081575. Ah, this is what a Mary Roach book should be.
The true crime here is lackadaisical proofreading.
Did Lizzie Borden brutally murder her parents with a hatchet? Did anyone bother to proofread this book? What happened to the rest of this post, including the link to my review? We may never know.
Anotterchaos #2: Dollars to Duchesses
Supposedly the book that inspired Julian Fellowes to create the character of Cora, Countess of Grantham, this book explores the late 19th/early 20th century phenomenon of American women taking their fortunes to England to husband-hunt. An interesting, if not riveting, read.
Paris Hilton Should Take Notes
In today’s culture, where the word ‘heiress’ brings to mind someone like Paris Hilton and an alarmingly large percentage of the world’s population would do just about anything to be famous, Huguette Clark seems like a throwback to an era long past despite having only passed away two and a half years ago.