We’ve all heard of the war of 1812, but outside of the fact that the capital was burned by the British, we probably don’t know very much about it. This book discusses the issues that led up to the War, the political implications and realities, and also describes the strategy and outcome of the battles. Read More
Author: Julie Crain Miguel
All That She Carried, by Tiya Miles
/ A short description of this book is that it analyzes an heirloom. That is very far from doing it justice, however. The object in question has been dubbed “Ashley’s sack”, and it is owned by Middleton Place Foundation, which is a former plantation turned into a National Historic Landmark and museum. The sack is Read More
Ragtime, by E. L. Doctorow
The story begins in New Rochelle, New York, around 1910, but some of the characters in the book travel the world. The upper-middleclass family (Father owns a small manufacturing company) whose lives are described in the book are never named. They are referred to as Father, Mother, the Little Boy, and Mother’s Younger Brother. They Read More
The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes
As a bibliophile, I appreciate any book about books, or librarians. The setting is the Kentucky coal mining region, at the end of the Depression. The son of the owner of the local mine has married Alice, an English lass, and brought her back to small town Kentucky to live. When the opportunity arises to Read More
The Pioneers, by James Fenimore Cooper
This is part of the “Leatherstocking” series of books written by Cooper, and although it was published first, in 1823, it would actually be fourth of five, if you look at the series in chronological order. The other titles in the series include The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, and The Prairie. Read More
Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini, and Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Lynda Jones
Yes, there are two books with the same title. While they cover much of the same information, they do so in very different ways. If you are interested in this time frame, I would recommend both. The book by Lynda Jones is published by the National Geographic Society, and restricts itself more to the bare Read More
Call Your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera
This book is set in a small town in South Carolina in 1924. It traces three women, of differing races and classes. The author does an excellent job of telling each woman’s story, in her own voice. While the women know each other, and occasionally help one another, they would not consider themselves to be Read More
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
This is probably a very familiar book for many people. If you haven’t read the book, you may have seen one of the movies. If you had an ancestor who lived along the Mississippi, or the Ohio, or maybe even the Missouri river, or was a child in the 1850’s, which is when this was Read More
The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan
You might think a book about the people who lived through the 1930’s in the Dust Bowl would be rather, well, dry (sorry, couldn’t help myself), but Timothy Egan manages to bring the era to life. He tells the story not just through research at local museums and contemporary newspaper articles, but through interviewing people Read More