Crossroads discussion

A request for a new topic.

I just read A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America. I didn't like it much. 1.5 stars rounded to 2.
Short review at book link.

Blueberry wrote: "I just read A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America. I didn't like it much. 1.5 stars rounded to 2.
Short review at book link."

I would have guessed that it was a good book as well. Sorry it didn't turn out that way.

I'm going to put this memoir here if that's okay. It's not really an autobiography nor a biography, and if you'd rather have a memoir thread, I can move this.

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel ★★★★

Haven Kimmel, born in 1965, grew up in Mooreland, Indiana, population 300. Born funny looking, not talking until she was nearly three, she was constantly zipping around the house, thus her nickname, Zippy. She takes us back not just to a different time, but a place not many have grown up in; a very small town, or as Canadians would call it, a village. Growing up a Jarvis, she was not only precocious, but the daughter of a man who was a real character. This is a memoir, so naturally some parts are embellished, but with humour and insightful observations in a way that helps paint a clear picture through the eyes of the child she was at that time rather than including a great deal of re-interpreting from her adult perspective.

This memoir, Kimmel’s debut book, was a New York Times bestseller, and I can see why. I can’t say that I loved everything about her story telling to the point of giving it five stars, but I do have to say that, unlike most memoirs, I really enjoyed it. There was honesty behind it, and while I hardly expect someone to remember their early childhood the way a camera might have recorded it—even adults aren’t capable of that—having grown up in a community so small that everyone knew what I’d done whether I’d actually done it or not, I could relate to that part of it. And her relationship with her friend, Julie, reminded me of that of my dad and his best friend when he grew up in a small town on the Canadian prairies, where one does all the talking for the both of them. I am planning on reading her other memoir.

On my wander through female biographies over history, I've got stranded in the Georgian era. I had my first taste with Kate Williams biography of Emma Hamilton, about whom I knew absolutely nothing aside from the odd mention here and there. It was this book that made me realise that biographies could be every bit as exciting as novels. My second trip to the Georgian age was a biography about Georgiana Spencer, who became the glittering but privately desperate Duchess of Devonshire, ancestor of the late Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Although I haven't finished it yet, as I found it somehat drier, I will get around to it eventually.
caught my interest when I saw the story on TV starring Natalie Dormer. I found the story utterly heartbreaking. This innocent woman goes in to a marriage where her husband encourages her to sleep with other men. When she finally does fall in love with one of the men her husband introduces her too, she has to relinquish the only thing of value a woman may possess in the 18th. century, her reputation, to get out of the marriage. She gets her divorce, has to give up her love child, loses her lover to another and is sent to exile in France at the time of the revolution. She eventually returns triumphant and there is a happy end in store for her when she marries again for love and spends her remaining days secure and happy.
There isn't so much a happy end as a quiet end to the story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, whose fate at the hands of her husband was probably the most viscious of all. In her first marriage she was simply (!) intellectually repressed but her second marriage was so violent that even the courts decided in her favour. She was subjected to constant physical abuse, imprisonment, kidnap and at least one documented attempt on her life. Eventually she escaped and after fighting long and hard she was granted a divorce, had her inheritance returned to her and was eventually able to have contact with her children again. You really have to read to understand how miserable her life must have been but how strong her spirit was. Her fight was worth it, her descendants now live in Buckingham Palace and sit on the throne of England!
Finally, I have just started the story of Georgiana's sister, Harriet who also marries in to the dubious Cavendish family, abeit to a cousin of the Duke of Devonshire. I'm 84 pages in and things are looking quite bleak for her, too. Her husband has turned out to be a selfish...person and resorts to publicly humiliating her. This promises to be every bit as interesting as the others.

This is really a memoir, but thought I'd put it here rather than start a whole new genre, if that's okay.



Elizabeth Smart--most of us are old enough to remember when she was abducted, how her parents kept her in the news and the general story of what happened. This memoir doesn't start with the actual kidnapping; that happens several chapters later, and it doesn't end right at her rescue. If you are looking for graphic details of her abuse and rape, you won't find it, and I for one am glad for her sake and mine. What you will find is what the title says, her story. What I learned most about was her emotions, her thoughts, her reactions. Yes, I learned things I hadn't known about her nine months of hell since I didn't follow the trial.

This was a tough book to rate. On the one hand, at times I felt that the way she reads the audiobook is a bit exaggerated, but on the other I think it really reflects her thoughts and feelings at the ages of 14 and 15. But I have admired how her family handled things after her rescue, how she moved on (and she does explain the things she found therapeutic later, even though it wasn't counselling, and I have to say that both of them can be very therapeutic and I knew about those, not in her life, but in other areas, already). But I really thing it is better than just a like or just average; I'm not sure what it would be like to read it in print. Most of all, I admire her advocacy and work that she's doing now. It is so true that someone who has been through something can understand in a way others can't, although that shouldn't stop others from helping.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

Several years ago, I attended an exhibit in Washington D.C. of the many treasures of Catherine the Great. I came away from that display intrigued by what I had seen, with a desire to learn more about this female pillar of history. Robert K. Massie's thoroughly absorbing biography provided that knowledge and more.

Catherine was born a princess of a minor German noble house. At birth, she was known as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. At the age of fourteen, accompanied by her mother, she journeyed to Russia, where she would reside, and eventually rule, for the rest of her life.

At the age of sixteen, Sophie converted to Russian Orthodoxy, was renamed Catherine, and married the Empress Elizabeth's nephew, Peter. Although Peter was the heir to the Russian empire, he lacked many capacities, both mentally and physically. The future Tsar Peter III played with toy soldiers and could not consummate his marriage to Catherine. This inability began the cycle of "favorites," men who provided Catherine with love, affection, heirs, and an empire.

Overthrowing the incompetent Peter III by a coup d'etat; Catherine became Empress of all the Russias. Thus began an illustrious 34 year reign. Viewing her rule through a 21st century lens would not be appropriate. She is to be appreciated for what she was at the time: Matuschka, the mother of her people; collector of fine art, a follower (although unfortunately not a practitioner, due to political factions) of the Enlightenment, a builder of empire, cities, and military. She was also a foreign born woman who was able to draw her adopted country behind her; overthrow her own husband; bear three children by three fathers while unmarried, later putting one of them on the throne. It is amazing to realize that her rule began before the revolution that formed the United States, which still has not had a female president.

I consider this book to be one of my "Badass Women of History" series. What a woman!!

Interesting. She is the one who promised my ancestors great land and then reneged on it. Those were the German/Prussian Mennonites in the 18th century (shocking, I know, as that was during her life ;) ). They were still speaking a quasi-18th century German (definitely German, but with some older terms still in use) when they escaped in the 1920s, mostly unmixed with the locals.

Karin wrote: "Interesting. She is the one who promised my ancestors great land and then reneged on it. Those were the German/Prussian Mennonites in the 18th century (shocking, I know, as that was during her life..."

That is interesting. Many of the reforms and policies she tried to implement were blocked by the various factions in her court. This included land reform and abolishment of serfdom. I don't recall the Mennonites being mentioned in the text, but it seems very likely that an offer such as this would have been fought by the nobility, who had great interest in maintaining the status quo of keeping the land in their own hands, complete with "built in" workers who they owned like slaves.

Deborah wrote: "Karin wrote: "Interesting. She is the one who promised my ancestors great land and then reneged on it. Those were the German/Prussian Mennonites in the 18th century (shocking, I know, as that was d..."

You are probably correct. Later on, in the next century, the prospering Mennonites were forced to live in certain towns and areas as well. My grandmother was born & raised in a place called New York (not sure what it was in that langauge or what it's current name is, but she was born in 1905).

Deborah wrote: "Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

Several years ago, I attended an exhibit in Washington D.C. of the many treasures of Catherine the Great. I came away from that display int..."

Sounds like a good book. I need to enlarge my TBr

Educated: A Memoir is a crazy sad story of the author's life being raised in a survivalist-type, homeschooling family with mental illness, physical abuse, and denial. It's a good book but as a homeschooler I hate it when people abuse the privilege to homeschool.

Blueberry wrote: "Educated: A Memoir is a crazy sad story of the author's life being raised in a survivalist-type, homeschooling family with mental illness, physical abuse, and denial. It's a good bo..."

I've been interested in this book. Thank you for the review.

Blueberry wrote: "Educated: A Memoir is a crazy sad story of the author's life being raised in a survivalist-type, homeschooling family with mental illness, physical abuse, and denial. It's a good bo..."

Yes, I agree with you on hating it when people abuse the privilege to homeschool! They lead to groups like Homeschoolers Anonymous, etc. I spent 11 years as a homeschooling parent (obviously I am still a parent, just not a homeschooler anymore,).