Treacherous Beauty

Author: Stephen Case and Mark Jacob
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2021
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war's most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold.

After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage.

Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O'Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background - with a generous British pension in hand.

Review: Between Valiant Ambition, Finishing Becca, and this book, Treacherous Beauty, I feel like I have a better understanding of the times and the people who lived it. 

We often learn history in a sort of one-dimensional manner, forgetting that these were real people with real feelings. People are complicated and complex, which makes dissecting and understanding history challenging. People didn't just choose a side and stay on it, after a few years of war no doubt people just wanted their lives (normalcy) back. And, as always, many people were in it for themselves, and what would be most advantageous for them. 

Peggy Shippen was certainly an interesting character study and a interesting person. Women were dismissed for way too long in history, and wives have a unique and intimate view and understanding of their husbands, whether famous or not.

Finishing Becca

Author: Ann Rinaldi
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2004
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: An independent-minded young maid tells the story of social-climber Peggy Shippen and how she influenced Benedict Arnold's betrayal of the Patriot forces. Revolutionary Philadelphia is brought to life as Becca seeks to find her "missing pieces" while exploring the complicated issues of the war between the impoverished independence men and decadent British tories.

Review: Peggy Shippen came of interest to me while I was listening to Valiant Ambition. Benedict Arnold is a known traitor, but to hear his wife, Peggy Shippen, was probably the mastermind was fascinating to me.

While this book was written for the 12-17 year olds, I enjoyed it. Finishing Becca created a world and a picture of who Peggy Shippen really was in an easy-to-read format. I'm looking forward to learning more about this woman who managed to keep herself out of the historical spotlight despite almost costing the United States its independence.

Chorus

Author: Rebecca Kauffman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Catapult, 2022
Pages: 272
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turns from the early twentieth century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother's mysterious death and the circumstances of one sister's scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation.

Entangled in a family knot, the Shaw siblings face divorce, drama, and death while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter - the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family's love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur.

Review: I absolutely loved this new release. A character-driven novel that is along the same vein as The Nest and The Immortalists, it was light years better. I could not put it down. 

As the siblings lives played out, their experiences and growth seemed reflected real life. The reader gets to know each sibling, and the back and forth, though not alternating timeframes, kept this interesting. The reader hears a chorus of voices of a family's life through the years.

The story was excellent and its execution spot-on.

Valiant Ambition

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2016
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without, but from within.

Review: I'm back in the office a couple days a week so I'm back to listening to audio books. I could listen to book about history all day long, and the Revolutionary War is quite interesting to me. It's not a war the colonists should have won, but here we are.

I'm definitely more curious about Benedict Arnold now, but especially his wife, Peggy Shippen. You will likely see these names mentioned in a future review.

Just Haven't Met You Yet

Author: Sophie Cousens
Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2021
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend 

Synopsis: Hopeless romantic and lifestyle reporter Laura's business trip to the Channel Islands isn't off to a great start. After an embarrassing encounter with the most attractive man she's ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel and realizes she's grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation is its irresistible contents, each of which intrigues her more and more. The owner of this suitcase is clearly Laura's dream man. Now, all she has to do is find him.

Besides, what are the odds that she'd fine The One on the same island where her parents first met and fell in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their romance? Commissioning surly cab driver Ted to ferry her around seems like her best bet in both tracking down the mystery suitcase owner and retracing her parents' footsteps. But as Laura's mystery man proves difficult to find - and as she uncovers family secrets - she may have to reimagine the life, and love, she always thought she wanted.

Review: In a word, cute! This was a February book club pick and while I didn't read it in time to participate in the discussion, I needed something a little lighter. This is exactly what I expect from this genre and I loved it.

The Last Slave Ship

Author: Ben Raines
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2022
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last slave ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape persecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover on of our nation's most important historical artifacts.

Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ships perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities - the descendants of those transported into slaver, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendant of their African enslavers. This connection bind these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda's journey lived nearby - where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown.

Review: The subject matter is fascinating to me, but sometimes you never know what you're going to get in non-fiction as far as a readability goes. As soon as I read the first few pages, I knew I wasn't going to be able to put this book down. Narrative non-fiction and written by a journalist, the story moves along quickly and logically.

For years, generations even, it seems that Clotilda was "just" a story, and it was widely accepted that The Wanderer was the last slave ship to land in the US. This was an emotional and fascinating journey from Alabama to Africa and back again.

I need to visit Mobile, Alabama now. I am so drawn to and intersted in learning more about this area in the years leading up to and during the Civil War.

Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash

Author: Tammy Pasterick
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: She Writes Press, 2021
Pages: 392
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: It's Pittsburgh, 1910 - the golden age of steel in the land of opportunity. Eastern European immigrants Janos and Karina Kovac should be prospering, but their American dream is fading faster then the colors on the sun-drenched flag of their adopted country. Janos is exhausted from a decade of twelve-hour shifts, seven days per week, at the local mill. Karina, meanwhile, thinks she has found an escape from their run-down ethnic neighborhood in the modern home of the mill manager - until she discovers she is expected to perform duties of both housekeeper and mistress. Though she resents her employer's advances, they are more tolerable than being groped by drunks at the town's boardinghouse.

When Janos witnesses a gruesome incident at his furnace on the same day Karina learns she will lose her job, the Kovac family begins to unravel. Janos learns there are people at the mill who pose a greater risk to his life than the work itself, while Karina - panicked at the thought of returning to work at the boarding house - becomes unhinged and wreaks a path of destruction so wide that her children are swept up in the storm. In the
aftermath, Janos must rebuild his shattered family with the help of an unlikely ally.

Review: In seventh grade I read The Valley of Decision by Marcia Davenport, and I've re-read it at least once in the years since. I keep looking for the next The Valley of Decision. Carnegie's Maid wasn't quite it, and honestly, neither was Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ash. However, this was a really good book. Once I started reading, I could put it down. 

I wish the author would have used more local landmarks and dropped more names of local interest/recognition, but the story itself kept me entertained and turning pages.

I also loved that there was a newly released historical fiction novel that didn't incorporate a dual timeline.