ZAV Estuio Grafico Estuio Grafico থেকে José C. Paz, Buenos Aires, Argentina
I so rarely stop reading mid-book, but I found this one to be so rambling and uninteresting and I'm at a point in life where I feel no obligation to push through such an experience, even (or especially) to please someone who thought for sure they knew what I'd like. The prospect of buying a shambles of a house, no matter where, and restoring it, is a subject that is of tremendous interest to me. Although I'm not "traveled," I can well image that the effort of obtaining a passport, packing, and flying to the other side of the globe would be well worth it if one could buy and restore a home in the hills of Tuscany. I can even appreciate the detailed imagery a good author can summon with romantic descriptions of local flora, cuisine, and ancillary characters. Unfortunately, Mayes was unable or unwilling to craft such an exciting, titillating, adventurous memoir, and instead presents the minutiae of her adventure with over-descriptive drudgery. I found her writing to be less interesting than the plant descriptions on my Sunset Garden Book.
This was a good start in studying the Book of Mormon.
Religion is dangerous. So are teenage girls. This seems to be the main theme of this book. Starkey has gathered myriad sources on the Salem Witch Trials and managed to put together a cohesive account which is neither dry nor dense. Though written in 1949, it is comprehensible to the modern reader and also fascinating. Starkey has taken great care not to fabricate action or dialogue in order to add drama to her tale; she hardly needs to. She has copied entire sections of dialogue from court reports and detailed diaries of eyewitnesses to the trials. Starkey also claims in her introduction that she has tried to apply some 'modern psychology' to the major players in the conflict, but I saw little evidence of that. There was definitely some borderline personality disorder among the 'afflicted girls,' most notably Abigail Williams. Overall, an engaging and informative non-fiction work.