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Showing posts from June, 2016

Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...

Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

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Who hasn't thought about time travel . . . of going back into time or into the future. With so many books, and movies, on this subject matter, you'd think the subject of time travel would be overdone and predictable. But, Stephen King is anything but predictable and hit the nail on the head with his novel 11/22/63 . Does the date sound familiar to you? It should, but if you've lived under a rock the past fifty plus years, I'll go ahead and refresh your memory. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this particular date in history leaving much of America in bewilderment and shock. In 1971, Stephen King wanted to explore a concept for a novel where a character went back into time to stop the assassination of JFK and the aftermath. However, he felt like he didn't have the time to properly research the subject matter and that it was too close to the actual event to do it justice, so he put it on the back burner. All I can say is that I am extremely ha...