Thursday, May 08, 2014
Traitor
by Jean Fritz
Traitor is a juvenile biography of Benedict Arnold, the general who ironically made American history by switching over to the British side of the war in 1779. The book was an enjoyable read, giving enough detail to not only tell Arnold's life story but also to make me want to read more about the politics and society during the Revolutionary War. Benedict Arnold himself was quite a character. Ms. Fritz portrays him with some sympathy but never really holds him up as anything like a hero.
Check it out.
LibraryThing link
Traitor is a juvenile biography of Benedict Arnold, the general who ironically made American history by switching over to the British side of the war in 1779. The book was an enjoyable read, giving enough detail to not only tell Arnold's life story but also to make me want to read more about the politics and society during the Revolutionary War. Benedict Arnold himself was quite a character. Ms. Fritz portrays him with some sympathy but never really holds him up as anything like a hero.
Check it out.
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut, JeanFritz
Saturday, April 18, 2009
China's Long March
by Jean Fritz
In 1934, the Chinese Communist First Front Army began a strategic retreat from the Chinese Nationalist forces which resulted in a hard, 6,000 mile trek through the countryside of western China. This is known as the Long March and is quite a remarkable story of struggle, perseverance and triumph. If it's true, that is. Having read Jung Chang's Mao, I approached Ms. Fritz's account of the Long March with some skepticism. Her take on it is not so critical, at least to judge it at face value. Sometimes I wonder if she might not have been applying the <sarcasm> tag. But that's a mystery for another time. The book did draw me in, but only because the tale itself is so compelling. I really didn't care for Ms. Fritz's style. Instead of simply reporting the events in third person or telling the tale through the eyes of a fictional character, she tried to report the tale peppered with recollections of the participants she was able to interview. The problem was, sometimes she didn't have any recollections to use, so she resorted to lines like "Perhaps... the survivors of the First Front Army wondered about their comrades in the Fourth." But if you can forgive such transgressions, China's Long March does make a suitable introduction to a memorable event in human history.
Um, check it out, but only if you can't find a better account.
LibraryThing link
In 1934, the Chinese Communist First Front Army began a strategic retreat from the Chinese Nationalist forces which resulted in a hard, 6,000 mile trek through the countryside of western China. This is known as the Long March and is quite a remarkable story of struggle, perseverance and triumph. If it's true, that is. Having read Jung Chang's Mao, I approached Ms. Fritz's account of the Long March with some skepticism. Her take on it is not so critical, at least to judge it at face value. Sometimes I wonder if she might not have been applying the <sarcasm> tag. But that's a mystery for another time. The book did draw me in, but only because the tale itself is so compelling. I really didn't care for Ms. Fritz's style. Instead of simply reporting the events in third person or telling the tale through the eyes of a fictional character, she tried to report the tale peppered with recollections of the participants she was able to interview. The problem was, sometimes she didn't have any recollections to use, so she resorted to lines like "Perhaps... the survivors of the First Front Army wondered about their comrades in the Fourth." But if you can forgive such transgressions, China's Long March does make a suitable introduction to a memorable event in human history.
Um, check it out, but only if you can't find a better account.
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut, JeanFritz
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The Cabin Faced West
by Jean Fritz
This one's another pioneer girl tale. I'm getting tired of pioneer girl tales, so I probably won't rate this as high as it may deserve. I suppose that's the burden I must bear, being the father of daughters and reading their books and all. I suppose I could wish I had sons, but with my luck, they would have taken after their mother and liked baseball. But I digress. We were talking about this little pioneer girl, Anne Hamilton, whose family has moved to the Western frontier. In this case, the frontier is western Pennsylvania, in the 1780s. One unique thing about Anne, as a pioneer girl character is that she doesn't like being a pioneer. She's longing for the good ol' days back in Gettysburg, where she had things like a friend her own age (and gender) and windows in her home. Beyond that, and a surprise at the end of the story, the tale is pretty standard pioneer girl stuff. Overall it's well written with likable characters. Ms. Fritz's writing does draw one into the story. The story is based on a real person, so there is also the nice touch of finding out what eventually happened to the characters after the end of the tale. Anyway, I would rate this one as waiting room material but as I said, I'm kind of biased against the genre, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
LibraryThing link
This one's another pioneer girl tale. I'm getting tired of pioneer girl tales, so I probably won't rate this as high as it may deserve. I suppose that's the burden I must bear, being the father of daughters and reading their books and all. I suppose I could wish I had sons, but with my luck, they would have taken after their mother and liked baseball. But I digress. We were talking about this little pioneer girl, Anne Hamilton, whose family has moved to the Western frontier. In this case, the frontier is western Pennsylvania, in the 1780s. One unique thing about Anne, as a pioneer girl character is that she doesn't like being a pioneer. She's longing for the good ol' days back in Gettysburg, where she had things like a friend her own age (and gender) and windows in her home. Beyond that, and a surprise at the end of the story, the tale is pretty standard pioneer girl stuff. Overall it's well written with likable characters. Ms. Fritz's writing does draw one into the story. The story is based on a real person, so there is also the nice touch of finding out what eventually happened to the characters after the end of the tale. Anyway, I would rate this one as waiting room material but as I said, I'm kind of biased against the genre, so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
LibraryThing link
Labels: JeanFritz, WaitingRoomMaterial
Friday, March 16, 2007
Where was Patrick Henry On the 29th of May?
by Jean Fritz
This is a cute little book recounting the life of Patrick Henry. Since it's a kid's book, it makes for light reading, but it does give a good snapshot of Henry's personality and accomplishments. (Well, at least it matches the few grown up history books I've read about the era.) What really makes the book, though, are the illustrations by Margot Tomes. Her drawings make the bold statement, "Now here is a character!" Even if you don't have kids, it's a book worth checking out for a good fifteen or twenty minutes worth of fun.
LibraryThing link
This is a cute little book recounting the life of Patrick Henry. Since it's a kid's book, it makes for light reading, but it does give a good snapshot of Henry's personality and accomplishments. (Well, at least it matches the few grown up history books I've read about the era.) What really makes the book, though, are the illustrations by Margot Tomes. Her drawings make the bold statement, "Now here is a character!" Even if you don't have kids, it's a book worth checking out for a good fifteen or twenty minutes worth of fun.
LibraryThing link
Labels: CheckItOut, JeanFritz
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
