Archive for the ‘Books and Reading’ Category

T. Rex

All plans are suspended when your little one suddenly falls ill with an earache, I suppose. This happened Friday night, when my youngest’s cough/cold transformed into “my ear hurts.” I should note here that unlike most families I know, mine has eluded ear infections entirely, in both girls. It’s totally unknown to me, so I […]

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Frigate-Me-Not

This book was soooo cool, but almost twenty dollars so I had to pass, after first of course looking through most of the pictures. Very nice to see all those big, bad cannons in photographic form.

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“The Quartet”

I just finished reading “The Quartet” by Joseph Ellis and wanted to give a few thoughts. Overall I really liked the book — it was a short and sweet (220 pages w/o appendices and footnotes) dissertation on the origin and establishment of the United States Constitution, spanning most of the 1780s, but chiefly 1786-89. The […]

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Leeward Isles

Here is something I learned last night while reading Six Frigates: The first real naval battle fought by a United States frigate was engaged off the coast of the tiny island of Nevis, which happens to be Alexander Hamilton’s birthplace, who just happens to be the person who strongly advocated the creation of a Navy […]

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Extortion on the high seas

Something that gives me endless delight is the obvious pleasure historians take in their physical descriptions of Alexander Hamilton. Here is the latest one I have enjoyed: His hair was a sandy, reddish strain of blond; his complexion pale, smooth, and prone to freckling. His eyes were gray-blue and bordered across the top by straight, […]

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Through and through

It is April Fools’ Day, which reminds me of one of my most favorite words: folly. Fun to say, and fun to read. I finished “Affairs of Honor” the other night and actually found the very last pages before the footnotes section some of the most interesting. In the “Note on Method”, she briefly gets […]

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I am nearly done reading Joanne Freeman’s “Affairs of Honor”, which I have been meaning to get to for a couple months now and I wish I hadn’t waited so long because it’s such an impressive and enlightening book. I haven’t time to write out a full review, and really there is far too much […]

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Where I read

Recently rearranged favorite spot in my house. enlarge hither

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tall ships

Today whilst out looking for reading glasses because I have ruined my eyes, I spied these framed posters on the wall of the shop. I do not think they were for sale. enlarge hither I found them quite interesting because I have of late added to my overflowing list a book about the origin of […]

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stop me

I should probably stop acquiring books for a little while, there simply is no way to read them all in a timely way. They will just sit on my night stand… well until I finally get to them. This week: The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America […]

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