Freedom - A Thorough Explanation of How the United States Became the United States!

The Oxford dictionary describes "comprehensive" as "including all or nearly all elements of something."  Well, let me tell you that Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution, by Jack D. Warren, Jr., is as comprehensive as it gets.  We get the decades leading up the American Revolution and  right up to the time the Federal Constitution was passed in 1787.  In between we learn how it all happened.  And we learn it in such a way that you don't want to put the book down.  On top of that, we get all kinds of portraits, maps, and other pictures to help us really see how it all happened.  

My goal in this review is to give you a just a few facts that I know you will find interesting.  It will make you crave to know much more about how we became an independent country.  You will NOT be bored!

1.  More than 50% of all British citizens who came to the colonies were indentured slaves.  They were either guilty of a crime or weren't able to pay off debts.  When they came to America, many of them were able to become free citizens after they performed several years of servitude.

2.  African slaves were brought to America as early as 1639.  And by 1740, there were 150,000 of them here.

3.  At the beginning of the war, Blacks made up 5-10% of the soldiers. And by the end of the war, that number jumped to 15-20%.  You will want to know why.

4.  The initial goal of the colonies was not to become an independent country but, rather, to become independent within the British Empire.

5.  Hundreds of women traveled with the army.  They cooked, cleaned, sewed, and tended to the wounded.

Does that whet your appetite?  It certainly should.  I suspect you will be fascinated, as I was, to learn a lot about George Washington in the early years...and to find out how the colonies became independent states...and what happened to the loyalists who supported the British Army throughout the war...and on and on.  Freedom makes the history books that we all had to read in school seem like abridged versions of abridged versions.  Get your copy of Freedom right away.  You will be very glad you did!

Kristin Harmel Does It Again!

By now I think you all know that I'm a big Kristin Harmel fan.  Like any author, I've liked some more than others, but they are all very good. Her latest, The Paris Daughter, is right up there among her best.  It initially takes place in Paris in the late '30s and early '40s.  Since it's historical fiction, the actual events depicted in the book are real.  And it's always interesting to see her different storylines about Paris during WWII.

The Paris Daughter focuses on a couple that own a bookstore and have 3 children and the wife of an artist who has 1 daughter.  There is also a 3rd protagonist who is Jewish and has 2 children.  How they all interact and the things they do during the German occupation will keep you riveted.  It's always a treat to learn from Kristin's books, even when some of the events are hard to read...and you WILL read them.

If you haven't picked this one up yet, get it!  And if you haven't read Kristin Harmel yet, what are you waiting for?  If you are in the latter group, I would start with The Sweetness of Forgetting.  Even though all of Kristin's books are terrific, TWoF is one of my all-time favorite books.