I've been reading quite a bit lately, and suddenly realized that I needed to get some thoughts down in writing on what I've been voraciously glomming.
This book, while a little bit predictable, was heartbreaking and quite wonderful. I Shall Be Near to You tells the story of Rosetta, a young woman who marries her sweetheart and then disguises herself as a man to follow her husband to fight in the Civil War. This is a thoroughly researched novel that has fictionalized the all too real story of women who disguised themselves and fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Though a little slow moving at times, McCabe represents the different characteristics of soldiers - those eager, those scared, and ultimately those disillusioned with it all with particular aplomb. I particularly enjoyed Rosetta's continued fight against her fellow soldiers' perceptions of women, and how she was not afraid to speak out against comments made regardless of how it would make her - and her alter ego - appear.
This was such an interesting read for me. My Knight in Shining Armour tells the story of Dougless Montgomery, a woman firmly planted in the contemporary 1980s, who through a series of events suddenly meets Nicholas Stafford, a sixteenth century Earl and - of course - romance ensues. Though it reads as quite dated in terms of modernity - it is partially set in the late 80s after all - this book was interesting to me largely because of its ending. It came through a recommendation made on an episode of the DBSA podcast which thoroughly intrigued me and compelled me to seek it out in the library. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that the ending in question put a pretty interesting spin on what I've come to expect from romance novels in general. And it certainly had me thinking on it for days afterward.
As I noted in my Recently Read post, I've lately made an attempt to get back into reading non-fiction. This book examines the growth of candy and candy-esque foodstuffs throughout twentieth century America. Kawash investigates what exactly candy can be defined as - which, as it turns out, is a lot more difficult to establish than initially thought. Though it was a bit of slog of a read at times, overall this was an interesting read. The book explores the difficulties and competition that the candy industry has encountered over the course of a century, and the different methods they've turned to in order to solve them.
No comments:
Post a Comment