The Wrights

Who Were the Wright Brothers? was a great read for me because while I have been to Kitty Hawk, and saw all of the Wright Brothers stuff there, I didn't know much about them at all.  These were some really, really good guys.  Now I wonder if an adult biography about them would turn up all of these juicy secrets and bad habits that they had, but I have a feeling that this series would have touched upon them, if there were skeletons to be found because of the ways in which the series has handled other famous people with infamous parts to their past.  Good book! 

Every Book

Every book offers its own special something, right? I mean, that's the idea.  Why write a book if it is has all been done and said before, even though some say it all has been said.  The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is something about which I have read a lot.  But Triangle:  The Fire that Changed America taught me a lot about it that I didn't know.   I read this for my nonfiction book club and I was glad I did even though when the group picked it, I thought, oh man, I know about this.  I didn't know a lot of this stuff!  It made me sick of course, again, when I thought about the owners and how they locked in their workers.  And then how the rotten lawyer got them off.
It made me think, why some people who are abused, either as children or in an abusive relationship end up abusing people and why some who are abused don't.  Blanck and Harris were both poor immigrants.  Their evil lawyer, Steuer was also.  They all had toiled in garment factories like those who died in the fire.
Then on the other side, there were wealthy people who fought for the rights of the poor and labor.  Like Florence Harriman and Anne Morgan and Mary Drier?  So what makes someone like Harriman, without a need for money, ever, care about the poor, while a man like Donald Trump (I won't dignify him by including a link.) does not?  Is it a matter of character?  It seems so.
Anyway, very, very good read.

The Worst Cook in America

Terrible Typhoid Mary:  a true story of the deadliest cook in America is the story of the real Mary Mallon, who I knew existed, but nothing else.  It is the latest from the completely fabulous Susan Campbell Bartoletti, who is one of my "can do no wrong" authors.  I do love children's, tween and ya non-fiction, especially when they are about something so interesting.  And Campbell Bartoletti has done another wonderful job of taking the reader right back into the story and giving a lot of information in an easy and interesting way.  Also she doesn't draw conclusions, she leads that up to the reader, did Mary do all of her damage on purpose?  Who knows?  But I want to know!  Great book!

More and More All-of-a-Kind Family!

Yes, so I am in love with the All-of-a-Kind Family.  I am.  I love them so much! And now I have read All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown and More All-of-a-Kind Family and I wish the next one was an audiobook, too.  I will end up reading it, but it would be a joy to listen to the further adventures of this wonderful family!

A Much Better Choice!

All-of-a-Kind Family was fabulous!  As I mentioned before, I saw a recommendation for this book when I was looking at reviews of Meet Rebecca.   This is a lovely, very funny and informative and I am definitely going to read or listen to another one in the series.
This is set in the early 1900s in NYC's Lower East Side and follows a family with five kids, Russian immigrants, like Rebecca's family.  Really good and it gives a much better look at the customs of a faithful family.

Meet Rebecca, not Rachel!

For some reason I always refer to Rebecca Rubin as Rachel Rubin!  I have no idea why!  But this American Girl is featured in the first American Girl book that I have read all the way through!  So now I think I will always remember her name!  Meet Rebecca takes us back to New York City in 1911.  One can learn a lot from this book about what life was like for one Jewish Russian immigrant family.  This is an interesting site that I found that gives a little more information into what NYC was like for the immigrants and also why each group came to America at that time.  Here is some more information about the pogroms in Russia that would have brought families like the Rubins to a new country.
One of the comments on goodreads said that All-of-a-Kind Family is a better book that deals with the same time period.  I am listening to it now!  It is very good!  While Meet Rebecca isn't great, it isn't bad.  And if you already are used to the typical American Girl book, then it won't be a disappointment.