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Showing posts from January, 2017

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: The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson

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Let me begin by being upfront . . . I won an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson in Goodreads.com's First Reads Giveaway in exchange for my honest review of the book. Third time is a charm, right? It took me THREE tries to actually read Cynthia Swanson's The Bookseller , but on that third try, it sucked me in, and I couldn't put the book down. Fair warning, there are some minor spoilers below. Autism is a minor theme throughout the book. The way the characters handled and reacted to autistic kids took me by surprise and saddened me. No one seemed how to interact with these kids. What's even more surprising is the doctor said that autism is caused by mothers who don't show their babies enough love and don't hold them enough. I surely hope this wasn't really the way doctors thought in the 1960's. Another interesting point in The Bookseller is Kitty and Freida couldn't get a loan from the bank to open ...