The Great Degeneration

Author: Niall Ferguson
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2013
Pages: 192
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: What causes rich countries to lose their way? Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, increasing inequality, aging populations, antisocial behavior. But what exactly has gone wrong? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues in The Great Degeneration, is that our institutions—the intricate frameworks within which a society can flourish or fail—are degenerating. With characteristic verve and historical insight, Ferguson analyzes the causes of this stagnation and its profound consequences for the future of the West. The Great Degeneration is an incisive indictment of an era of negligence and complacency—and to arrest the breakdown of our civilization, Ferguson warns, will take heroic leadership and radical reform.

Review: I had a hard time staying focused. I just cannot seem to get into economics or finance and that's unfortunate since those fields affect all of us on basic levels.

That said, as a whole this was more interesting than I expecting; the banking crisis explained, the benefits of deregulation, and the obvious stagnation of the US economy. 

The last chapter, The Degeneration of Civil Society, was most interesting. Ferguson discusses the decline in civil participation citing Facebook as one reason people are no longer as involved in their communities. They maintain contact with old friends and neighbors instead of getting out there and meeting new ones.

Volunteerism has also declined as people move away from focusing on what is good for public and focus more on what is good for themselves. This idea has precipitated throughout American culture.

Charitable donations have decreased steadily since the late 1970s, and it's the baby boomers who are donating the most. This doesn't bode well for the future.

Ferguson does have a solution of the civil degeneration, education reform. He believes, and I agree, that a healthy mix of both private and public schools would create positive competition. Allowing parents to choose where their children attend empowers families. Maybe it's because I have school age children (in a private school), but this certainly resonated with me.

Somerset

Author: Leila Meacham
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 610
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: One hundred fifty years of Roses' Tolivers, Warwicks, and DuMonts! We begin in the antebellum South on Plantation Alley in South Carolina, where Silas Toliver, deprived of his inheritance, joins up with his best friend Jeremy Warwick to plan a wagon train expedition to the "black waxy" promise of a new territory called Texas. Slavery, westward expansion, abolition, the Civil War, love, marriage, friendship, tragedy and triumph-all the ingredients (and much more) that made so many love Roses so much-are here in abundance.

Review: I absolutely loved Roses and was waiting for a sequel. A prequel will do.

This isn't a book you read, this is a book you climb right into and live. Meacham is a gifted storyteller and nobody weaves a better family saga in the historical fiction genre.

Somewhere in France

Author: Jennifer Robson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2013
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In the dark and dangerous days of World War I, a daring young woman will risk her life to find her destiny.

Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford wants to travel the world, pursue a career, and marry for love. But in 1914, the stifling restrictions of aristocratic British society and her mother’s rigid expectations forbid Lilly from following her heart. When war breaks out, the spirited young woman seizes her chance for independence. Defying her parents, she moves to London and eventually becomes an ambulance driver in the newly formed Women's Army Auxiliary Corps—an exciting and treacherous job that takes her close to the Western Front.

Assigned to a field hospital in France, Lilly is reunited with Robert Fraser, her dear brother Edward’s best friend. The handsome Scottish surgeon has always encouraged Lilly's dreams. She doesn't care that Robbie grew up in poverty—she yearns for their friendly affection to become something more. Lilly is the most beautiful—and forbidden—woman Robbie has ever known. Fearful for her life, he's determined to keep her safe, even if it means breaking her heart.

In a world divided by class and filled with uncertainty and death, can their hope for love survive...or will it become another casualty of this tragic war?

Review: This was a sweet love story with historical accuracy. The author knew her characters and they stayed true to themselves. Consider it fluff, with substance. Somewhere in France  is an enjoyable read.

My only criticism is that when a novel is set in England, or France, distances should probably be given in terms of kilometers rather than miles. Can we say Editing 101?

Dear Abigail

Author: Diane Jacobs
Genre: History / Biography
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2014
Pages: 528
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Much has been written about the enduring marriage of President John Adams and his wife, Abigail. But few know of the equally strong bond Abigail shared with her sisters, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody, accomplished women in their own right. Now acclaimed biographer Diane Jacobs reveals their moving story, which unfolds against the stunning backdrop of America in its transformative colonial years.
 
Abigail, Mary, and Elizabeth Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the close-knit daughters of a minister and his wife. When the sisters moved away from one another, they relied on near-constant letters—from what John Adams called their “elegant pen”—to buoy them through pregnancies, illnesses, grief, political upheaval, and, for Abigail, life in the White House. Infusing her writing with rich historical perspective and detail, Jacobs offers fascinating insight into these progressive women’s lives: oldest sister Mary, who became de facto mayor of her small village; youngest sister Betsy, an aspiring writer who, along with her husband, founded the second coeducational school in the United States; and middle child Abigail, who years before becoming First Lady ran the family farm while her husband served in the Continental Congress, first in Philadelphia, and was then sent to France and England, where she joined him at last.
 
This engaging narrative traces the sisters’ lives from their childhood sibling rivalries to their eyewitness roles during the American Revolution and their adulthood as outspoken wives and mothers. They were women ahead of their time who believed in intellectual and educational equality between the sexes. Drawing from newly discovered correspondence, never-before-published diaries, and archival research, Dear Abigail is a fascinating front-row seat to history—and to the lives of three exceptional women who were influential during a time when our nation’s democracy was just taking hold.

Review: I really enjoyed this book which was surprising because I had expected the tedium that Book of Ages was. Diane Jacobs brought the Adams sisters to life though, which in fairness was probably easier to do since more is known of them. Not only that Abigail Adams led an interesting life. She wasn't just a wife and mother in a time when being a wife and mother was all that was really expected of women.

This book ties in quite nicely with The Hemingses of Monticello, because Abigail Adams is mentioned a few times in that novel. Early on, the Adamses were good friends of Thomas Jefferson's, meeting and boarding his daughter and Sally Hemings when the two girls arrived in England prior to joining Jefferson in France. This is never mentioned in Dear Abigail. Eventually John Adams and Thomas Jefferson came to have different opinions on the role of government and their relationship became strained.

Also interesting in this novel was the mention of the Barbary pirates and Tripoli. This was the subject of one whole chapter in Miracles and Massacres. I would have read the few paragraphs in this book without much note because the pirates and Tripoli was merely mentioned, not discussed. 

Washington's battles for New York are also mentioned, though not discussed. This ties in Washington's Secret Six. 

I plan to read more novels set in the 18th century. It was a fascinating time.

The Wives of Los Alamos

Author: TaraShea Nesbit
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2014
Pages: 240
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with P.O. box addresses in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.

And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind.

The Wives of Los Alamos is a novel that sheds light onto one of the strangest and most monumental research projects in modern history. It's a testament to a remarkable group of women who carved out a life for themselves, in spite of the chaos of the war and the shroud of intense secrecy.

Review: I loved everything about this book, the author's writing style and the story itself. This was an extremely fast, thoroughly entertaining read.

Strawberry Shortcake Murder

Author: Joanne Fluke
Genre: Fiction / Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation, 2011
Pages: 320
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When the president of Hartland Flour chooses cozy Lake Eden, Minnesota, as the spot for their first annual Dessert Bake-Off, Hannah is thrilled to serve as the head judge. But when a fellow judge, Coach Boyd Watson, is found stone-cold dead, facedown in Hannah's celebrated strawberry shortcake, Lake Eden's sweet ride to fame turns very sour indeed.

Between perfecting her Cheddar Cheese Apple Pie and Chocolate Crunchies, Hannah's snooping into the coach's private life and not coming up short on suspects. And could Watson's harsh criticism during the judging have given one of the contestants a license to kill? The stakes are rising faster than dough, and Hannah will have to be very careful, because somebody is cooking up a recipe for murder. . .with Hannah landing on the "necessary ingredients" list.

Review: I just finished my Hannah Swensen mystery for March. What can I say, it's fun fluff. I solved this one myself though and I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.

The Hemingses of Monticello

Author: Annette Gordon-Reed
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: W. W. & Company, Inc., 2009
Pages: 800
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: The Hemingses of Monticello is Annette Gordon-Reed's "riveting history" of the Hemings family, whose story comes to life in this researched and moving work. Gordon-Reed unearths startling new information about the Hemingses, Jefferson, and his white family. Although the book presents a detailed portrait of Sarah Hemings, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the course of their thirty-eight-year liaison, The Hemingses of Monticello tells more than the story of her life with Jefferson and their children. The Hemingses as a whole take their rightful place in the narrative of the family's extraordinary engagement with one of history's most important figures.

Review: I happened across this book while browsing the audio book section of the library. I put it back initially because it's 31.5 hours long and 25 disks, but the title stayed with me and eventually my curiosity got the better of me. 

The Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings liaison has intrigued me since I first learned of it in high school or college, and this book appeared to have all the juicy details and more. I'm always up for a well-written family saga. I checked it out from the library and couldn't wait to get started.

Some non-fiction reads like fiction, but that is not the case in The Hemingses of Monticello. This audio-book is like sitting in a history lecture class, and I loved it for that. By the same token, I wouldn't even want to try to read the paperback or electronic version. Too long, too cumberson, and just too darn heavy, in the case of a hardback book.

For all of Gordon-Reed's research and information brought forth in The Hemingses of Monticello, she cannot say conclusively what the nature of Jeffferson's and Hemings' relationship was exactly. Was she merely a concubine or paramour, or did they have something more than that. Neither ever said, and historians will forever have this subject to debate.

Gordon-Reed views Jefferson in a critical light, but my own opinion is that Jefferson lived in another time and place. His cheerleaders have him on a pedestal and dissenters have run his name through the mud. Jefferson was a man, flawed as we all are. The truth lies in the middle of what those who love him feel, and what those that hate him feel.

I gave this a "Do Not Recommend. If Gordon-Reed's primary objective was to discuss the Hemingses of Monticello, as the title suggests, in some way she failed the reader. She goes far beyond this scope to discuss the geneology of other families in the area at that time, generalizations about human nature, facts that anyone alive today already understands about the institution of slavery. The material should have been trimmed so as to align more closely with the title, or the book be given a more general title so as not to mislead readers. Ultimately, The Hemingses of Monticello will appeal to a small percentage of readers.

Miracles and Massacres

Author: Glenn Beck
Genre: History
Publisher: Threshold Editions, 2013
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: History as it's supposed to be told: true and thrilling.

History is about so much more than memorizing facts. It is, as more than half of the word suggests, about the story. And, told in the right way, it is the greatest one ever written: Good and evil, triumph and tragedy, despicable acts of barbarism and courageous acts of heroism.

The things you’ve never learned about our past will shock you. The reason why gun control is so important to government elites can be found in a story about Athens that no one dares teach. Not the city in ancient Greece, but the one in 1946 Tennessee. The power of an individual who trusts his gut can be found in the story of the man who stopped the twentieth hijacker from being part of 9/11. And a lesson on what happens when an all-powerful president is in need of positive headlines is revealed in a story about eight saboteurs who invaded America during World War II.

Miracles and Massacres is history as you’ve never heard it told. It’s incredible events that you never knew existed. And it’s stories so important and relevant to today that you won’t have to ask, Why didn’t they teach me this? You will instantly know. If the truth shall set you free, then your freedom begins on page one of this book. By the end, your understanding of the lies and half-truths you’ve been taught may change, but your perception of who we are as Americans and where our country is headed definitely will.

Review: This book should not have taken this long to read, but unfortunately I came down with a really nasty cold and went to bed extremely early multiple nights in an attempt to get over it. That cut into my reading time.

Each chapter highlights a significant, although perhaps little known, event in American History. Beck attempts to discuss history from a how and why perspective, rather than the when and where that we are generally taught in school. 

While it is generally more difficult for me to get into books that are more like a compilation of short stories, I liked this one. I love American history anyway, but the fact that I learned something new in each chapter made it that much more interesting. 

Book of Ages

Author: Jill Lepore
Genre: Historical Biography
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013
Pages: 464
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians, a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister and a history of history itself. Like her brother, Jane Franklin was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Unlike him, she was a mother of twelve.

Benjamin Franklin, who wrote more letters to his sister than he wrote to anyone else, was the original American self-made man; his sister spent her life caring for her children. They left very different traces behind. Making use of an amazing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one woman but an entire world—a world usually lost to history. Lepore’s life of Jane Franklin, with its strikingly original vantage on her remarkable brother, is at once a wholly different account of the founding of the United States and one of the great untold stories of American history and letters: a life unknown.

Review: I sort of expected this book to be the cure for insomnia, but decided to give it a chance anyway. I was excited when the first few chapters were really interesting. It was all downhill from there. There just wasn't enough depth, and I didn't come away with a real sense of who Jane Franklin really was.