Rose > Recent Status Updates

Not quite sure whether I liked this book. Until I came to this passage.

"But then a peculiar thing happened. I became extraordinarily affected by the summer afternoons in the laboratory. The august sunlight came streaming in the great dusty fanlights and lay in yellow bars across the room. The old building ticked and creaked in the heat. Outside we could hear the cries of summer students playing touch football."

Skipped the ghetto trash book.

Reading a slow burn of the incompetent generals (Scott being the first) leading the Union army is agonizing, knowing it’s not going to get better until McClellan is gone for good. Makes me appreciate Grant and Sherman much more for their abilities. How many lives were lost due to the pride and arrogance of men like McClellan? Too many to count.

I knew in the first few pages that I was in the hands of a master storyteller. DKG begins with a well-rounded view of all the candidates for the Republican nomination in 1860.

The main event has happened and I had to skim through it because is was directed at reader trauma that didn’t add to the story or the emotional experience … other than being repeatedly annoyed with the over the top drama. I get that losing a child is a terrible experience, yet it didn’t work for me.

The separate storylines are starting to converge which makes for a better reading experience. What’s unique about the book is that Hamnet’s father is never mentioned by name. By far, the most interesting character is Agnes, the mother of Hamnet. She’s an intuitive healer and animal lover and doesn’t give a hoot about what society expects yet cares for her family better than anyone else.