Jean Bonilla > Recent Status Updates

Interesting description of the efforts to get the British fleet in shape. The other books I have read make it sound like Britain was so strong. This story makes it sound like they struggled. Also interesting to know they wanted to make the French fire first; the opponent has to look guilty of starting the war.

Atkinson’s meticulous research provides tremendous detail in his writing. He concluded his previous book with an introduction to Valley Forge. Here we have descriptions of battles leading up to the choice of the winter refuge and receive more details on their stay there.

How conflict has changed! Burgoyne leaves his wounded behind with a note for Gates - “I recommend them to the protection which I feel I should show an enemy in the same case.” Today we slaughter indiscriminately.

A bloody battle to the northwest of Philadelphia. I expect the British will seize it.

On June 14, 1777 the Congress resolved that the American standard would carry thirteen alternating red and white stripes, with thirteen white stars on a blue field. So that’s why June 14th is Flag Day! Very appropriate.

Particularly valuable and interesting are the descriptions of Parallelism and the differences between proverb and law in Practical Rules for Biblical Interpretation, chapter 4.

I’m actually understanding the little bits of French she’s included!

As with Atkinson’s previous volume, I value the detail and references to personal letters and materials.

Good chapter on the ethics of chocolate growing, harvesting, and manufacturing.

Olson is critical of the Allies who she claims knew about the camps, yet refused to go and free prisoners. She also paints a warm and complimentary picture of De Gaulle - different than other histories I’ve read.

I would like more details. I still feel like I am reading the introduction!

I didn’t realize that chocolate was considered to have so many medicinal properties.

Discussing education and the transition to exam-based hiring.

How interesting to read that Victorians lived with a constant state of starvation, even the upper class. Their skeletons are recorded as three or four inches shorter than 21st Century people.

In virtually every chapter, the author John Maass writes that he won’t describe the details of a battle familiar to all, but will only discuss why it played a pivotal role. I can’t say I am so well-informed, so I would benefit from more information!

Interesting how the author weaves fact and fiction into a convincing narrative.

Intriguing that one of General Howe’s tasks before he arrived for a campaign season in New York was to shorten coats “and otherwise tailor[sic] uniforms for woodland battlefields.” I think past comments from his troops must have resonated. They got caught on trees and had difficulty making their way in the brush.

Arnold shows well at Quebec.

War is indeed an ugly business. We always read Longfellow’s poem and look upon the battles there with misty eyes. We don’t think of men’s hands and heads blown off or of the grieving families.

They’ve been taken away. What horror.

Just starting a chapter called “The Secret Room.” I’ve been crying on and off since the introduction!

A tremendous finish - “Eager for the air” or “Aetheris Avidi”. These women broke barriers that society itself didn’t understand existed.

Interesting stories of a group of women I didn’t know served in WWII.

Sprout speaks of justification. He says that the Reformers had a catch-phrase: “Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.”

Didactic literature is that written primarily to instruct. Sproul cites a humorous summary of the N. T. as the Gospels recording what Jesus did and the Epistles interpreting the significance of what he did.

Went back to refresh my memory!