September book review <3

Happy October!

Even if the forecast today is in the mid-80’s, our house has fall splashes here and there and our menu has shifted to include soups and crock pot dishes so we are just going to ignore the summer like temperatures and carry on. 

One thing is certain, the daylight hours are shrinking which means we are doing more reading. Not that you can’t read in the summer time, but there is just something about the longer evenings that lend to opening a book. 

So here are the two I managed to finish in September. Okay, confession…I am a few pages shy on the second one but plan to finish today. 

The first book I read was The Revolutionary Paul Revere by Joel Miller. It was gifted to me on my birthday LAST year by my friend Peggy, who keeps me in good books. While it took me 13 months to start it, it was a super fast read. Even for a slow-poke reader like me. 

The cover touts this quote by William J. Bennett, “Gallops along with all the drama and intrigue of a great novel.” Truer words were never spoken. While it is not fiction, it is fast paced and keeps your interest throughout. 

The opening chapter is about Paul’s father who was apprenticed as a young boy and sent across the water on a ship by himself. This in itself chilled me. A year older than our Emmet, he left home and country to be an apprentice in America. A lot of this had to do with helping him escape religious persecution.

The book follows young Paul’s own apprenticeship as a silversmith and his entrepreneurial achievements as his skills increased. He faced various degrees of success and failure but overall did well as he raised a large family in Boston. 

Paul was active in Masons, politics, and church life. For the latter, his politics and church blended and he left the church of his childhood for one that met his standards and beliefs in politics. 

The pastors were very vocal from the pulpit politically, I discovered. Also there was a lot of conflict between political and Masonic affiliation that was kind of interesting. It is a point of curiosity to me how much our founding fathers were involved in the Masonic organization.

I was also amazed at how cruel the protests were. The Patriots pulled no punches as they destroyed property of officials who supported the taxes being levied against the colonists. There was more than a fair amount of violence perpetrated against the Tories and anyone who supported them. I must say, the more I read about our history, the more I see we haven’t really changed much.

If you want to read about the history of our country, but get bogged down in heavy dialogue and details – this is a great one to read. It gave me a better understanding of the issues, climate and culture of the birthing of this country. It also gave me a better perspective of how our country has always blended Christianity into politics and other interests.

The second book I have for you is Paris A Literary Anthology by Zachary Seager. As an anthology, it is a collection of many short pieces by a variety of authors that express their thoughts on Paris. 

There is poetry, short stories and articles written by numerous authors that cover centuries of those who have visited or lived in Paris. Some of the pieces are more difficult to read due to the time period of the author and the language used in that era. The section including pieces during the French Revolution are alarming. I am remembering studying this and would like to learn a bit more.

Being an English nerd, I loved the book. Each piece includes a short bio of the author and the dates of their life. It is interesting to read about them first and then read what they wrote. Often the reader is also given the reason for the writing. 

Because these are short pieces, it was easy to pick up and read without having to remember a story line. I enjoyed this form of literature. I actually had forgotten about anthologies but now remember I enjoyed learning from them in various English classes in high school and college. 

This is a fun read. There are some pieces that are not overly interesting but for the most part, I enjoyed it all very much. 

So there you have it…now, tell me what you have been reading.