The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Welcome to Book Beginnings on Fridays, where participants share the opening sentence (or so) of the books they are reading this week. Please share yours! You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it this week.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Seated in the dark, freezing bomb bay of a heavily gunned U.S. Navy bomber, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt finally arrived on Guadalcanal in the South Pacific in 1943.

-- from The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt.

This new book about Eleanor Roosevelt's personal involvement WWII reads like the most entertaining historical fiction but is a nonfiction biography. Author Shannon McKenna Schmidt did her research. The book comes to life through the primary sources she dug up and weaves throughout the text. The First Lady of World War II is an engaging and inspiring book about a little-known piece of American history.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post below. If you share on social media, please sue the hashtag #bookbeginnings.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The First Lady of World War II:

“They have the most miserable Red Cross headquarters,” Eleanor informed agency head Norman Davis in a nine-page report she submitted to him after the trip. Badly needed was a building for sailors who went ashore and had no place to sleep for the night.

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In August 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt journeyed to the Pacific Theater, where the United States was at war with Japan. A goodwill tour, diplomatic mission, and fact-finding foray, the 25,000-mile trip was further, longer, and more dangerous than any previously undertaken by the well-traveled First Lady.

​The First Lady of World War II follows Eleanor on this daring trek, taken under arduous conditions in a theater of war that sprawled over vast ocean distances. The trip, which demonstrated how dramatically she had transformed the role of First Lady, still stands — in the words of a reporter at the time — as "the most remarkable journey any president’s wife has ever made."

A Roundup of Reviews -- Six Book Reviews to Spring Clean My Blog

A ROUNDUP OF REVIEWS

I’ve gotten behind on my book reviews here on Rose City Reader. So in a bout of spring cleaning, here is a roundup of a half a dozen reviews to make a dent my backlog and my To Do list:



📘Coco at the Ritz: A Novel by Gioia Diliberto (2021, Pegasus Books)

Coco Chanel is remembered today as a fashion icon and strong businesswoman, who redefined feminine chic and built a world-famous design brand. But Chanel was a complex character with a darker side.

Gioia Diliberto’s new novel is based on the true story of Chanel's war-time romance with a German spy and how that affair led to her arrest for treason following the Liberation of Paris. The story is fascinating in how it neither glorifies nor demonizes Chanel, but portrays her honestly, as a 60-year-old woman desperate to preserve a semblance of her pre-war life even if it meant deceiving herself and lying to her friends – and her interrogators.

Coco at the Ritz is historical fiction at its page-turning best. It went straight onto my list of French Connections books.



📘Under The Orange Blossoms: An Inspirational Story of Bravery and Strength by Cindy Benezra (2021, Cindytalks)

Cindy Benezra was abused as a child by her father. She struggled with the ongoing trauma of her abuse, especially the shame and self-blame she carried with her. After much work brought her own healing and peace, Benezra wanted to write her memoir to share her story. In her book, she also grapples with her mother’s death, her own divorce, and her son’s ongoing health problems.

Benezra’s strength and bravery are an inspiration particularly for abuse survivors. But the story she tells in Under the Orange Blossoms can be a comfort to anyone who has faced trauma and helpful for anyone supporting trauma survivors.



📘One Night, New York by Lara Thompson (2021, Pegasus Books)

One Night, New York is Lara Thompson’s terrific debut novel. The story takes place on one December night in 1932, when two young women plot to get revenge on a man who has wronged them by pushing him off the top of the Empire State Building.

Frances ran away from her life in Depression-wracked Kansas for the fast life of the big city. There, she fell in love with Agnes, a photographer’s apprentice, and they both fell in with a bad crowd. It is a story of romance, corruption, art, Greenwich Village bohemians, nightclubs, and skyscrapers. This fast-paced historical fiction glimmers with the edgy glamor of old New York, right up to the nail-biting culmination.



📘The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization by Paul Strathern (2021, Pegasus Books)

Paul Strathern offers a masterful history of 400 years of Florentine culture. He argues that the ideas that flourished between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 -- ideas expressed in the art and architecture of Florence -- led to the emergence of humanism as the driving philosophy of the Western world.

By providing a cross-section of Renaissance society, Strathern shows how science, art, architecture, literature, finance, business, and economics all connected in Florence. Readers see how the Florentine leaders’ interactions – public and private – fomented the ideas that lead Florence, and eventually Europe, out of the Dark Ages and into the modern Renaissance.



📘Princes of the Renaissance: The Hidden Power Behind an Artistic Revolution by Mary Hollingsworth (2021, Pegasus Books)

Mary Hollingsworth's latest book tells the history of the patrons of the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance, during the tumultuous period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is an excellent introduction for readers looking to learn about the famous Renaissance families of Italy whose names ring bells but details are sketchy, like Medici, Borgia, d’Este, Farnese, Visconti, Sforza, and Gritti.

Princes of the Renaissance is the kind of well-written “popular” history backed by substantive research that is a delight to read. It is also a beautiful book, filled with photographs and color prints of the of the places and art described. 

(Princes of the Renaissance and The Florentines make a perfect companion set. Good idea for Father's Day if your dad is a history buff!)



📘A Few Words about Words: A Common-Sense Look at Writing and Grammar by Joseph J. Diorio (2021, Beaufort Books)

I love any and all grammar books and A Few Words About Words is a first-rate addition to my collection. Joe Diorio is the author of a popular newsletter of the same name that has been around for 30 years. He built this book around those columns, organized by subject and theme, trimmed or expanded as needed, and connected by personal anecdotes for continuity. The end result is a lighthearted and engaging guide to English grammar and a wholehearted apologia for using it correctly.

NOTES

Have you read any of these? What do you think? Do any of them look good to you?

My thanks to the publishers, authors, and publicists who gave me review copies! With apologies for my tardy reviews. 

The Double Life of Katharine Clark by Katherine Gregorio -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Greeting from Omaha, Nebraska, my Book Beginnings friends! I'm on the road this week, helping my mom and sister move from Oregon back to our hometown of Omaha. We've lived in Oregon for over 40 years, but the Midwest called them home. I will miss having them close by. Fortunately, it is easy to fly to Omaha, since it is right in the middle!

On to Book Beginnings! Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week, or just a book that caught your fancy and you want to highlight. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

At half past seven on the twenty-fourth of January 1955, Katherine Clark shivered as she left the dark, run-down lobby of the old, central district courthouse and stepped outside onto its front steps. 

-- from Chapter One, "Belgrade" in The Double Life of Katharine Clark: The Untold Story of the Fearless Journalist Who Risked Her Life for Truth and Justice by Katherine Gregorio.

The Double Life of Katharine Clark is a thrilling new nonfiction book about an American journalist who smuggled an anti-Communist manuscript out of Yugoslavia during the Cold War. Read the publisher's description below because it sounds amazing! I just got my copy and can't wait to read it. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS 

Please add the link to your Book Beginning post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Another fun Friday event is The Friday 56. Share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your book, or 56% of the way through your e-book or audiobook, on this weekly event hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Double Life of Katharine Clark:

She took a deep breath and turned to Milovan, asking him if he remembered her from the courthouse.

Milovan stared back at her blankly, furrowed lines wrinkling his forehead.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

In 1955, Katharine Clark, the first American woman wire reporter behind the Iron Curtain, saw something none of her male colleagues did. What followed became one of the most unusual adventure stories of the Cold War. While on assignment in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Clark befriended a man who, by many definitions, was her enemy. But she saw something in Milovan Djilas, a high-ranking Communist leader who dared to question the ideology he helped establish, that made her want to work with him. It became the assignment of her life.

Against the backdrop of protests in Poland and a revolution in Hungary, she risked her life to ensure Djilas's work made it past the watchful eye of the Yugoslavian secret police to the West. She single-handedly was responsible for smuggling his scathing anti-Communism manifesto, The New Class, out of Yugoslavia and into the hands of American publishers. The New Class would go on to sell three million copies worldwide, become a New York Times bestseller, be translated into over 60 languages, and be used by the CIA in its covert book program.

Meticulously researched and written by Clark's great-niece, Katharine Gregorio, The Double Life of Katharine Clark illuminates a largely untold chapter of the twentieth century. It shows how a strong-willed, fiercely independent woman with an ardent commitment to truth, justice and freedom put her life on the line to share ideas with the world, ultimately transforming both herself--and history--in the process.

Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, 1871-1918 by Katja Hoyer -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

Greeting from Omaha! My sis and I are in Omaha, Nebraska this week, our hometown. So I am doing my Book Beginnings post from the road. It seems appropriate to feature a book about German history because some of my favorite childhood memories are of the German American Society in Omaha, where we took German language lessons on Saturday mornings.

Please join me to share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. Or you can share the first line of a book you want to highlight. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

From Blood and Iron:

"To My People" was the title of the dramatic and passionate plea of the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1813 to all his subjects to help liberate the German lands from French occupation.

-- from chapter I, "Rise 1815 - 71" in Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire, 1871-1918 by Katja Hoyer, new from Pegasus Books. 

Prior to 1871, Germany was not a unified nation but 39 separate states, including Prussia, Bavaria, and the Rhineland. In her new book, Blood and Iron, German-British historian Katja Hoyer tells the story of how a German Empire, united under Otto von Bismarck, rose to power only to face crippling defeat in the First World War. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please leave the link to your Book Beginnings post in the Linky box below. Use the hashtag #bookbeginnings if you share on social media.

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Blood and Iron:

After Sedan* and successive military victories from September 1870, an intoxicating wave of nationalist sentiment swept through the German lands. Bismarck used this temporary goodwill to bring the leaders of the states together for negotiations about a federal German nation state.

* The Battle of Sedan was a decisive battle during the Franco-Prussian War.

The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood by Tristram Hunt -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

The Radical Potter: The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood by Tristram Hunt (2021, Metropolitan Books)

You probably recognize the iconic chalky blue background with white frosting decorations of Wedgwood’s most famous pottery. But who knew that Josiah Wedgwood himself was an iconoclast of 18^th Century marketing and manufacture? In Tristram Hunt’s new biography, The Radical Potter, he looks deep into The Life and Times of Josiah Wedgwood and it is a fascinating story.

The 1700s was an exciting era for ideas and industry and Wedgwood was in the center of both. He was a leader of the Industrial Revolution, advocating a system of canals for shipping and using advances in chemistry to grow his small, artisan pottery business into the first major English pottery factory. He was a marketing innovator, introducing ideas such as direct mail and illustrated catalogues, money back guarantees, and promotions like free delivery and buy one get one free. Hunt also explores how Wedgwood’s business advancements fit with the economic and political ideas of the times, particularly the ideas of Adam Smith and David Hume.

Probably the most interesting chapter in the book is the one titled “The Subject of Freedom” in which Hunt examines Wedgwood’s support of the American Revolution, the influence of the French Revolution on his thinking, and his strong stance in favor of the abolition of slavery. His factory mass-produced and distributed an anti-slavery medallion with the slogan, “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” that brought great awareness to the abolitionist cause in Britain and America.

Hunt relies on Wedgwood archive materials, including business records and correspondence, to tell the story of Josiah Wedgwood. For readers with an interest in the Industrial Revolution or the history of pottery, The Radical Potter is a must-read biography of the man who profoundly changed how we work and live.

NOTES

Author Tristram Hunt is a historian and the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. His “Epilogue” in The Radical Potter covers the sad decline of the Wedgwood company in the 21^st Century and the faint glimmer of hope for the future.

I got my ARC copy of The Radical Potter from the Early Reviewer program at LibraryThing.

Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort -- BOOK REVIEW

 

BOOK REVIEW

Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort (2021, Pegasus Books)

In Cheyenne Summer, Terry Mort takes a close look at one battle in eastern Colorado during the Indian Wars of the late 1800s. In the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors fought US Army scouts, including two battalions of Black "Buffalo Soldiers."

Although Mort describes the battle as not strategically significant, he concludes that it was culturally and historically important. He uses the battle to frame a discussion about one of the most transformative periods in America's history -- including a discussion of what motivated the white settlers, the Cheyenne, and the US soldiers, both white and Black.

I’m not a big fan of military history. So I appreciated that the bulk of Mort’s 270-page book was not spent describing the actual Battle of Beecher Island. Most of the book provides context for the battle. The first third or more is a detailed account of the Cheyenne, their history, culture, and nomadic tradition. The next third is a brief history of the U.S. Army and civilian settlers during the period of the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and western expansion. This was a perfect introduction for a reader like me to the various players in the Indian Wars, with their conflicting desires and goals.

Having grown up at both ends of the Oregon Trail -- Nebraska as a child and Oregon from a teenager on -- I've picked up some of the sad history of how our country treated the Native Americans during the settlement of the Western frontier. But there is a lot to learn. Terry Mort’s new book was a fine place for me to start.


FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

Evoking the spirit—and danger—of the early American West, this is the story of the Battle of Beecher Island, pitting an outnumbered United States Army patrol against six hundred Native warriors, where heroism on both sides of the conflict captures the vital themes at play on the American frontier.

* * *

Although the battle of Beecher Island was a small incident in the history of western conflict, the story brings together all of the important elements of the Western frontier—most notably the political and economic factors that led to the clash with the Natives and the cultural imperatives that motivated the Cheyenne, the white settlers, and the regular soldiers, both white and black. More fundamentally, it is a story of human heroism exhibited by warriors on both sides of the dramatic conflict.

NOTES

Read the opening sentence and a teaser from Cheyenne Summer here. 

The Normans: The Conquest of Christendom by Trevor Rowley and Labyrinth by Kate Mosse -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

What book are you reading this week? It's time for Book Beginnings on Friday, so please share the opening sentence of the book you are reading or the book that caught your attention. 

I have two books this week. I'm reading Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, a novel set in the 1200s. That made me remember that The Normans, a new history by Trevor Rowley about the same time period, just came out this month. They compliment each other!

MY BOOK BEGINNINGS

From The Normans:

The Duchy of Normandy emerged in the tenth century out of the region known in the post-Roman era as the Breton or Neustrian March, an area which occupied the western edge of the decaying Frankish, or Carolingian, Empire. 

-- from Chapter 1, "Vikings, Norsemen, and Normans," in The Normans: The Conquest of Christendom by Trevor Rowley (August 2021, Pegasus Books). 

This fascinating little book offers a comprehensive history of the Normans, who were a powerful force from the 900s to the mid-1200s. Based in what is now northern France, the Normans conquered England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scotland, and established kingdoms in southern Italy, Sicily, the Holy Land, and North Africa.

From Labyrinth:

A single line of blood trickles down the pale underside of her arm, a red seam on a white sleeve.

-- from the Preface to Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. This Holy Grail adventure goes back and forth between a holy crusade in southern France in the early 1200s and the modern day story of an archeological dig that uncovers the mystery. 

Labyrinth is a lot of fun, especially because the protagonists in the historical and contemporary stories are both women. It's a little long and shaggy, but there's nothing wrong with that in a summer read.

Please link to your Book Beginnings on Fridays post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

 

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From The Normans:

William took full advantage of the situation of which he was in no small part the architect and, when the opportunity arose, he seized the throne of England. It seems probable that only a ruler with the energy, ambition and administrative ability of William's status could have managed to conquer England.

From Labyrinth:

Alaïs turned it over to look.

A labyrinth had been carved into the polished surface of the dark wood. 

Enjoy your summer weekend! Do you have a good book in store?

Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

It's Book Beginnings on Fridays! Time to gather with our fellow book lovers and share the opening sentence (or so) of the books we are reading this week. Or share from a book that is on your mind right now -- whatever catches your fancy. 

MY BOOK BEGINNING

My fancy is caught by Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort (Pegasus Books):

In the summer of 1868 General Phillip Sheridan was commander of the US Army's Department of the Missouri. He was responsible for the vast Plains that were the homelands of some of the most warlike and troublesome of the Native tribes.

-- from the author's Introduction.

The tribe popularly known as Cheyenne called themselves Tsistsistas. The word means, roughly, "people."

-- from Chapter 1, The Cheyenne.  

Cheyenne Summer is a new nonfiction history book about a battle in eastern Colorado during the Indian Wars of the late 1800s. In the Battle of Beecher Island in 1868, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors fought US Army scouts, including two battalions of Black "Buffalo Soldiers." 

Although Mort describes the battle as not strategically significant, he concludes that it was culturally and historically important. He uses the battle to frame a discussion about one of the most transformative periods in America's history -- including a discussion of what motivated the white settlers, the Cheyenne, and the US soldiers, both white and Black.

Having grown up at both ends of the Oregon Trail -- Nebraska as a child and Oregon from a teenager on -- I've picked up some of the sad history of how our country treated the Native Americans during the settlement of the Western frontier. But there is a lot to learn. This new book is an interesting place to start.  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings blog or social media post in the Linky box below. If you share on social media, please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings. 

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

 

THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

From Cheyenne Summer:

Not surprisingly, Texas was a particularly thorny problem -- not only did Texans dislike Reconstruction, but the Comanche and the Kiowa and some Kiowa Apache were continuing their own form of resistance and depredation. . . . On one of his visits General Sheridan once said if he owned both hell and Texas, he'd live in hell and rent out Texas.

Three New History Books -- MAILBOX MONDAY

 

Three New History Books from Pegasus Books

Are you traveling anywhere this summer? 

Now that corona restrictions are easing up, I had hoped to make a few trips to visit family. But it looks like those trips are on hold until after a big trial scheduled to take most of September. I don't mind traveling in the fall though, when the weather is cooler and crowds thinner. 

So it looks like my summer travel will be of the armchair variety. With these three new books from Pegasus Books, I'll travel back in time as well as out of my Pacific Northwest home.

Cheyenne Summer: The Battle of Beecher Island: A History by Terry Mort. The first stop on my history trip will be eastern Colorado during the Indian Wars of the late 1800s. 

Mort's new book (out next week) focusses on one battle, which he describes as not strategically significant but of cultural an historical importance. In 1868, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors fought US Army scouts, including two battalions of Black "Buffalo Soldiers," in the Battle of Beecher Island. Mort uses the battle to write about America's Western frontier and one of the most transformative periods in America's history.

The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization by Paul Strathern (also out on July 6). Next, I'll travel to Florence, the city that gave birth to the Renaissance.

Strathern offers a masterful history of 400 years of Florentine culture. He explores how the ideas that flourished between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 -- ideas expressed in the art and architecture of Florence -- converged as the philosophy of humanism and changed the world.

The Normans: The Conquest of Christendom by Trevor Rowley. This one comes out August 3. I was excited to get an early copy so I can finish my trip backward in time. My last stop is Normandy of the Middle Ages, or more specifically, the early 10th Century to about the middle of the 13th Century.

Trevor Rowley offers a comprehensive history of the Normans in this fascinating little book. The Normans conquered England, Wales, Ireland, and parts of Scotland, and established kingdoms in southern Italy, Sicily, the Holy Land, and North Africa. 

MAILBOX MONDAY

What new books came to your house last week? Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf. They are looking for another co-host, so if you are interested, contact them for details.