[bksvol-discuss] Re: 100 Women Who Shaped World History?
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:45:04 -0700 (PDT)
Thank you for that, Kellie. Taking you up on your
suggestion, I've recently read (just finishing one)
two books, both nonfiction, that are very interesting
but I
just couldn't bring myself to scan. One is called The
Speckled Monster. gthis is written by a historian -- I
think from Harvard, but is very readable (I checked
the reviews before I got it from the library). She
tells the story of Lady Mary Wortley Montague of
England and Dr. Zabdiel Boylston of Boston (I lived on
Boylston St. whenb I was a child and never knew where
the name came from) and their fights to get 18th
century England and Boston to accept smallpox
inoculations or, as their form was known, variolation.
My reading this book came about as the result of a bet
with my husband who didn't think smallpox inoculating
was done until the 19th century, even though I'd read
that John Adams' family was inoculated when he was
busy in Philadelphia working on the Declaration of
Independence. The book is 474 pages, plus bibliography
and notes -- and probably an index, though I don't
remember. The notes are so interesting I continued to
read them after I finished the main part of the book.
The book I'm finishing now is Confessions of a Master
Jewel Thief, by Bill Mason with Lee Gruenfeld. It's
fascinating -- very well-written and tells of his
exploits and also is the best desdription I've read of
what it's like to be a fugitive, and in jail, and what
police do when they want to arrest someone or search
someone's house and don't really have the probable
cause they need. Of course, we see a lot of that in tv
shows, but it sounds worse when it happens to someone
you've come to like. But this book, though very
interesting and readable, is 365 fairly large pages of
fairly small print, and again, I couldn't bring myself
to tackle it. I do need to read something when I'm not
validating, so I pick books that I know I won't scan.
Some that I plan to scan, I put off reading, like Skye
O'Malley -- unless someone else scans it and I can
read it for fun.
I do think both books would be good additions to the
collection and I think anyone who validates them will
enjoy them.
Thanks for making me feel less guilty, Kellie and
Lisa.
Cindy
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