These are my actual feelings and reactions while I’ve been reading books this week.  It isn’t as formal as a review but a little more structured than live tweeting.

 

  • Whenever the narrator says, “The Jeffersons” I picture George and Weezy, not Thomas and Martha.

george-weezy

  • Ooh, Abigail Adams is not amused that Jefferson didn’t come to London to meet 9 year old Maria on her trip from Virginia.  She also thought Sally Hemmings should be sent back to Virginia because a teenager wasn’t a suitable companion for a 9 year old and what purpose could she serve in the Jefferson household in France.  Well, Abigail, unfortunately he’ll find a use for her.
  • No, girl. Don’t do it. Stay in France, Sally. You’re a free woman there.
  • At least she negotiated her terms before she went back to the U.S. Her kids wouldn’t be farm laborers and they wouldn’t work before age 14. They would be freed at 21. No way she could enforce that though.
  • This book is really sympathetic to Maria Jefferson as a child.  I think she is a horrible spoiled brat who manipulates adults through emotional blackmail.  She’s the type of child who makes me really happy that I never had kids.

 

Caesar's Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France - Journeys Through Roman GaulCaesar’s Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France – Journeys Through Roman Gaul by Bijan Omrani

 

  • I bought this to get a sense of the history of the area of France that we will be going to this fall.  The husband read it and loved, loved, loved this book.  I’m struggling.
  • I dedicated an hour to reading it between a really hard workout and having to go to work.  I kept dozing off and dropping the book on my face.  I mean, I was dozing off and catching the book every 10-15 seconds at times.  I have mad book and face saving skills.
  • This book is all accounts of battles and conquest and I just don’t care.  The husband was an Army fellow so I’m sure that why he was fascinated.
  • This talks about the defeat of Vercingetorix, the Gaul leader.  I read a series about him a long time ago.  After that I’m still heartbroken about his loss.  I just looked it up.  I think it is the Druids series by Morgan Llywelyn.  I didn’t drop that book on my face over and over.  Soon after reading that the TV show ROME came out.  One of the first episodes had Vercingetorix in a cage in Caesar’s triumph parade.  I was horrified.  In my mind he was still the hero of a series of book with a tragic ending.  I wasn’t ready to see him portrayed as a horrible savage.  #TeamVercingetorix