...and we note our place with bookmarkers...

Just wanted to let y'all in on a great book I just read-- I signed up for the reading club at the library the other day, and since have been trying to finish five books so as to qualify for the prize . . . I didn't think it would be hard, but it's amazing how full summer days can be of other things besides reading, and how sleepy one feels when there finally is time to sit down with a nice cup of coffee and attend to such things. But this was my third, and I still have ten days, so I should be successful in the end.

Anyway, it was very good. As you can see by the picture, it was 1776 by David McCullough. I read his John Adams several years ago, and enjoyed it, but this one is better. It begins with sentiment in England at the time, (who ever thinks about what the British were thinking about the war? They all hated Americans, right?) and continues through the end of 1776, describing the movements of the armies, the battles, the political climate, and all. But the best part of all is that he really paints a picture of the people involved, especially the officers, but also of the soldiers and even of their wives back home. And he does it all with constant quotation from their letters and their diaries, showing exactly what they were thinking and feeling at the moment. This is the kind of history that I love. On top of all that, it's well-written and interesting to read, even to a mind all too used to fiction. I learned many things about the war from this book which, (I am ashamed to say, being an American and a History major), I had forgotten or never knew before. Check it out, it's very enjoyable.