What difference does a name make?

What difference does a name make?

What difference does a name make?

Bob Greene, writing for CNN, posted this story that is very telling. Each of us as authors and prospective authors needs to fully understand the implications of what this story tells us.

Publishing is a very fickle busy - we all know that, I hope, but this really brings it home.

Each of us must decide, on our own, what it means to us.

What will you decide?

Happy reading... and writing!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Old Man River

It's Monday, What are You Reading?

Old Man River: The MIssissippi River in North American History

by Paul Schneider

This post is the sixty-fifth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

I received this Advanced Readers copy as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

From the Publisher, on Amazon:

In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America’s rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent’s interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln’s attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi.
In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth.
Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder.





Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Revolutionary Summer

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Revolutionary Summer

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence 

by Joseph J. Ellis

This post is the sixty-fourth entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]


My middle daughter, Allison, got this one for me for my Birthday.
Joseph Ellis wrote 'Founding Brothers" in 2000 which was one the books that really got me started reading about the American Revolutionary period. I have since read, I will guess, 50-60 books, perhaps more, including biographies and other non-fiction works of the period.

From the Publisher, on Amazon:

A distinctive portrait of the crescendo moment in American history from the Pulitzer-winning American historian, Joseph Ellis.

The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other.
Revolutionary Summer tells an old story in a new way, with a freshness at once colorful and compelling.




Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)

It's Monday, What are You Reading? Martha Jefferson Randolph

Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello 

by Cynthia A. Kierner

This post is the sixty-third entry for this meme suggested by Sheila@ One Persons Journey Through A World of Books. [Entries 22-25 in the series were posted at  the Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories]

My oldest daughter, Annette, got this one for me for my Birthday, today (back when we celebrated birthdays and anniversaries in Utah, a couple of weeks ago).

From the Publisher, on Amazon:

As the oldest and favorite daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was extremely well educated, traveled in the circles of presidents and aristocrats, and was known on two continents for her particular grace and sincerity. Yet, as mistress of a large household, she was not spared the tedium, frustration, and great sorrow that most women of her time faced. Though Patsy's name is familiar because of her famous father, Kierner is the first historian to place Patsy at the center of her own story, taking readers into the largely ignored private spaces of the founding era. Randolph's life story reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity and shows that women were able to venture beyond their domestic roles in surprising ways.
Following her mother's death, Patsy lived in Paris with her father and later served as hostess at the President's House and at Monticello. Her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of Congress and governor of Virginia, was often troubled. She and her eleven children lived mostly at Monticello, greeting famous guests and debating issues ranging from a woman's place to slavery, religion, and democracy. And later, after her family's financial ruin, Patsy became a fixture in Washington society during Andrew Jackson's presidency. In this extraordinary biography, Kierner offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.




Happy Reading!

Dr. Bill  ;-)