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baronessekatI say "something new" as it was published this year.
Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis Bayard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I finished the book. I can't say I disliked it, but I can't really say I liked it either. When it was done I was rather... meh about it.
What I did like... it was a story of Abraham Lincoln we very rarely see... his twenties, before he married, before becoming more than just a country lawyer who did not see much in putting on aires and dealing with social graces. This book is told from two very distinct points of view... Mary Todd, the young woman who sets her sights on Lincoln and the ordeals she had to endure of his social backwardness and sometimes down right unintentional rudeness; the other Joshua Speed, the man with whom Lincoln forms a close friendship with and helps him navigate proper society.
What I didn't like... there were times that it was just down right boring. There was hint and inuendo of more than friendship between Lincoln and Speed, at least on Speed's side of things. But nothing said. Almost like the author was afraid to say it. Now some research has shown that there is speculation that there was more than a good friendship between the two, but I really disliked the veiled hints and innuendos. The jealousy Speed seems to feel when things become serious between Lincoln and Mary just felt forced because there was nothing straight forward about it.
It was a nice take on history, and the two readers were really good (though if Lincoln was supposed to be in his twenties/thirties, I wish neither of them had done his voice to sound like he was sixty but at least they were consistent between them).
I can't say I'd recommend this book, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it either.
View all my reviews
Courting Mr. Lincoln by Louis BayardMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I finished the book. I can't say I disliked it, but I can't really say I liked it either. When it was done I was rather... meh about it.
What I did like... it was a story of Abraham Lincoln we very rarely see... his twenties, before he married, before becoming more than just a country lawyer who did not see much in putting on aires and dealing with social graces. This book is told from two very distinct points of view... Mary Todd, the young woman who sets her sights on Lincoln and the ordeals she had to endure of his social backwardness and sometimes down right unintentional rudeness; the other Joshua Speed, the man with whom Lincoln forms a close friendship with and helps him navigate proper society.
What I didn't like... there were times that it was just down right boring. There was hint and inuendo of more than friendship between Lincoln and Speed, at least on Speed's side of things. But nothing said. Almost like the author was afraid to say it. Now some research has shown that there is speculation that there was more than a good friendship between the two, but I really disliked the veiled hints and innuendos. The jealousy Speed seems to feel when things become serious between Lincoln and Mary just felt forced because there was nothing straight forward about it.
It was a nice take on history, and the two readers were really good (though if Lincoln was supposed to be in his twenties/thirties, I wish neither of them had done his voice to sound like he was sixty but at least they were consistent between them).
I can't say I'd recommend this book, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it either.
View all my reviews
