Founding Mothers

Founding Mothers –by Cokie Roberts

Nonfiction/History/Biography

384 pages / 490 KB

Footnotes / Endnotes: Yes (not identified in text)

Illustrations: No

Suitable for eReaders: Yes

4 stars

This was a fun read. It was obvious Cokie Roberts had a good time both researching and writing this book. She brought not only the women alive, but the men they were attached to. Her comments directly to the reader were wonderful, especially her comments about how Congress hasn't changed one bit from the first to now.

Even if you don't particularly care for history, I think you will enjoy this book. The women are the centerpiece, with the men on the periphery. If you've ever wondered what Martha Washington thought and did for George, this is the book to tell you.

I truly wish she had carried the bios out a bit further – what happened to Martha after George died? Sally Hemings is barely mentioned, and yet my understanding is, she had a large bearing on Jefferson after his wife died, she held the keys (literally) to his house, and ran it. As far as this book went, it was a great read, I just would have appreciated more on all these fascinating women.

I read this on my Kindle Fire, and saw no wee tiny blue numbers indicated foot/endnotes. At about 60% of my way through the book, I came upon the Cast of Characters, then a couple recipes (the one for crown soap was how to cut the soap, not actually make it) and then (I'm guessing here, I didn't really check) about 35% of end notes. Most seemed to be bibliography, and though they were by chapter, it was too difficult to find where the original was, so I didn't bother to look. Normally, I read all the notes, but these just weren't worth the trouble to read. (Suggestion for Cokie: See how Laurence Bergreen does his end notes.)

Do I recommend this book? Yes! (Amazon has a Note for Parents that the reading level of this book is Adult. I think any young person who reads beyond text messages or comics, can handle it. Personally, I think children should be encouraged to read above their grade level, but then, I was reading adult books when I was in the fifth grade;-)