book reviews

My first book reviews of the new year! The final book count for the new year - 109 books on the to-be-read shelf. Hoping to reduce that number significantly this year!

Irene Hunt, No Promises in the Wind. I picked this up on impulse, unusually enough, because it was written by the same author as Across Five Aprils, which is a simple but profoundly moving book about a young boy's experiences growing up during the Civil War. No Promises in the Wind is about a young boy in the Depression, but I felt it was far less simple. The main protagonist was aggressively unsympathetic, which felt as though it was meant to make him seem relatable, but actually just made him seem headstrong and foolish. The experiences seemed overly fortuitous, and the ending failed to pay off emotionally. Quite a disappointment.

Janette Oke, Love's Enduring Promise. This, again, is a simple book. But it's also a lovely book about the growth of a family on the frontier. I've read it many times, and it continues to speak to me.

James L. Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. A very informative and enjoyable book. It contains the clearest and most vivid description of the events surrounding the actual assassination that I've ever seen, and the account of Booth's long-drawn-out escape attempt is suspensefully told. Well worth reading.

Sandra L. Oliver, Food in Colonial and Federal America. This book is an exhaustively detailed look at food and foodways all over America in the colonial and Federal eras. Not just what people at, but how they prepared it and how they got it, as well. For me, the most disappointing part of the book was the abysmally poor proofreading. For a university press book (which had quite the hefty price tag when new), it was remarkably large number of errors. I itched for a red pen!