Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re all doing well. Thanksgiving is over, I’m wrapping up NaNoWriMo and getting ready to return to the blog. In the meantime, here’s a quick video to talk about my turkey, my new hat and some other stuff.
Thanks for visiting – come back soon!
Hi Everyone,
Please pardon my absence from the blog. Between NaNoWriMo, reading, working and getting ready for Thanksgiving, I’ve been short on time. I will be back on the blog soon, to visit you and with new posts.
Thanks for your patience!
Well Thanksgiving week threw me for a blogging loop and, while I did read a book during that time, I didn’t get on my blog much!
But I had a good November, so here’s a rundown in case you missed anything:
Just three books this month, but sometimes that’s how it goes.
Back of Beyond by C. J. Box – we read this for my mystery book club at the library where I work. Our whole group gave it high ratings. C. J. Box writes a lot of books and he knows what he’s doing!
Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben – I like Harlan Coben’s books, but this one was a little disappointing. Still, I’m sure I’ll read more by him.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer – By far one of the best books I’ve read all year. Less won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017. I highly recommend it.
BC Mom’s Author Update:
Author Roberta Eaton Cheadle announces
publication of Through the Nethergate
I introduced two indie authors this month, Cage Dunn and Chloe Helton. Be sure to visit these posts and say hello:
Who’s That Indie Author? Cage Dunn
Who’s That Indie Author? Chloe Helton
I love thinking about book trends and here’s one I discovered:
Books with commanding titles – a new trend?
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. Here are the top 20 on my list:
Book Club Mom’s top 20 historical fiction books
I’m always thinking about blogging and the news that Instagram has been considering permanently doing away with “likes” got me talking. I’m not an Instagrammer, and I don’t care much about Facebook, but I think WordPress bloggers want to see the likes.
Blog views and other obsessions – followers, views, likes and comments
We all make grammar mistakes, so it’s good to review some of the rules:
Grammar check – past tenses of dream, learn, dive,
loan and lend – what are they?
Just a sentimental memory as we gear up for the holidays:
Thanksgiving Memories When You’re Small
And this post got a lot of discussion. Most of you think the classic editor is the way to go. Someday we will all have to move to the new WordPress block editor. Despite the negative comments, I’m still considering the switch.
Blogging with the new WordPress Editor – are you using the blocks?
That was my month – how was yours?
Thanks for visiting – come back soon!
Mayflower
by
Nathaniel Philbrick
Rating:
Do you think you know all about the Mayflower? Check out Nathaniel Philbrick’s comprehensive and scholarly account that begins with Mayflower’s voyage in 1620 and ends with the conclusion of King Philip’s War in 1676. These 102 Separatists and Non-Separatists struggled to survive when they arrived in Plymouth and did anything they could to keep from starving or freezing to death. Made up of printers and weavers and other tradesmen, women and children, they were woefully unprepared for the desperate conditions that killed nearly half of them in the first year.
I think Philbrick’s goal in this book is to dispel the comfortable myth of the harmonious relationship between settlers and native Americans, happily sitting at a Thanksgiving table. He tells a much more complicated story of the knotty relationships between the original settlers and their neighboring Indian tribes, who had their own dynamics and conflicts between tribal leaders to manage.
The obvious question is just how did it happen that all the Indians’ land was transferred over to the settlers? An ultimately colossal problem and tragedy, it started with a small act, a trade that seemed fair at the time and was agreeable to both sides. Subsequent trading of land for guns and other English goods also seemed fair to the Indians and the English and Philbrick works to explain how that trading system went terribly bad.
There are many players in this time period, most notably William Bradford, William Brewster, Captain Miles Standish, the Winslows, Massasoit and his sons Alexander and Philip, later known as King Philip. I liked reading about the early political and strategic maneuvering between the English settlers and with the native American tribes. The period of relative peace during these early times was the most interesting to me because it showed the progress and development of communities. Being an Easterner, I also liked thinking about what the land and shorelines were like in New England so many years ago.
Philbrick explains in great detail the events leading up to King Philip’s War and the horribly violent acts committed by both armies. It was also interesting reading about the battles during this war, whose English leaders included Benjamin Church, Major William Bradford and James Cudworth. There were many confusing alliances between the English and some “friendly” Indian tribes and there were also forced alliances between some Indian leaders, some of whom were women. Philbrick explains the many superior fighting strategies used by the Indians in the forests and swamps. An ingenious Indian fort built in a Rhode Island swamp shows what shrewd fighters and defenders the Native Americans were during this time.
An excellent and informative read. I started out knowing the basic facts of how America began, and how native Americans taught the settlers how to grown corn and how to use fish as a fertilizer. Now I know more and the story is a lot more complicated!
Thanks for visiting – come back soon!
Check out another interesting book by Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea. Click here to read my review.
Book Club Mom 
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