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! 

Do You Remember

when the United States had a real president?  The United States used to have presidents.  Since the first one, George Washington.  The last US President was President Obama.  Those were the days!  Now we have this.  Actually, we probably would be better off with President Camacho.  At least he is a president.  Now we have a dictator, a despot. 
Becoming is written by the last First Lady.  This is not a comment on the dictator's wife, it's just that he is not a president, so she can't be a First Lady! 
Becoming is an incredible book.  It is so full of hope.  I am not hopeful for the United States any more.  But this book at least makes me want to be hopeful again, someday, maybe. 

Trump Country

What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia was eye-opening for me in some ways.  In other ways it was affirming because I have often questioned a lot of the "Trump Country" rhetoric  and well, I am a suspicious person!  Elizabeth Catte has done an excellent job of addressing the book Hillbilly Elegy.  After reading this I was tempted to go back and rate HE much lower, but then I figured that wasn't fair.  But I just don't know.  How can I give five stars to that one and five stars to this one?  But the thing is, at the time, I didn't have this information and the information I researched independently after reading this.  So at the time, I gave HE the best rating I could with the information I had at the time. 
This is a very important book.  Especially for people who think that racism doesn't exist any more. 

Graphic

Radium Girls:  The Dark Story of America's Shining Women was graphic and hard to read in many places.  These women, how they suffered.  But their deaths and pain were not in vain.  What a story.  So very tragic.  And greed.  The love of money truly is the root of all evil.  You can read more about them here.

Kennedy Connection

My grandfather was a professor at the University of Pittsburgh  and he worked at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind a billion years ago and he started this adaptive physical education program thing for people who are differently abled, physically and/or intellectually.  A billion years ago he received a letter from Eunice Kennedy Shriver, which said really cool things about his work.  Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter was a good book.  I wanted to read it after reading JJAL.  I find myself REALLY not liking Joe or Rose Kennedy at all after reading this book. 
I find myself REALLY liking Eunice and Anthony Shriver after reading this book.  And especially Rosemary herself as, like Anthony said, seems to have been the Kennedy who did the most good in her life.  “The interest [Rosemary] sparked in my family towards people with special needs,” Anthony claims, “will one day go down as the greatest accomplishment that any Kennedy has made on a global basis.”

How I wish

this book were written a LITTLE later and included the words, "Hillary Clinton became the first woman to ever be elected President of the United State. Who is Hilary Clinton?  
This was a very well done book, I thought.  It didn't shy away from the issues that Clinton faced.  It ends Clinton being named the Democratic candidate for the 2016 Presidential election.  It didn't rip on Bernie Sanders, which was unfortunate, in my book!  But what can ya do.