This Really Happened

For the book list this month, I’m going to go a little out of my comfort zone and talk about nonfiction. I haven’t done a lot of reading in this area, but I know that many people enjoy reading in this genre. I was almost at a loss as to what to do when I remembered a book that some of we law school wives read the first year our husbands were in law school. This put me in mind of a few others that I had read and I believe that I have a few books that will work. They are Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie, and Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof and Stephen Jay Gould.
Founding Mothers is a collection of letters from the wives of the men who had a hand in forming our country. It’s a very interesting perspective of the time of the revolution as it’s written by women who saw things first hand and it shows what sort of influence women had over the forming of our country through their husbands. These were remarkable women who lived during a most interesting period of history.
Nicholas and Alexandra is a biography written about Romanovs, the last royal family of Russia. It a comprehensive look at Nicholas’ childhood including a background look at his father and expectations of his own rule, his marriage and family life and finally the end of his rule and his life during the Russian Revolution. It’s actually a pretty interesting look at how social responsibilities, perceptions of the public and the illness of a child seemed to be a large part of the downfall of the family. Rasputin, an infamous real life villain is, of course, looked at in the book. I have to admit that I first picked up this book because I loved the cartoon Anastasia. What actually happened to the family was not romantic as the movie would have you believe, but it was still quite interesting.
Eight Men Out was written about the 1919 Black Socks Scandal. That was the year that eight men from the Chicago White Socks threw the World Series. The book explains what happened including the trials of the ball players, and also talks about their possible motivation. It goes into the details of the money the players made and what they were offered to throw the games and who orchestrated the deal and what happened to the ball players after the trial. After reading this book, I found myself sympathizing with the ball players, feeling that they had been badly treated and that if people beside the ball players had been less greedy, there would have been no need for them to throw it. Not that I condone cheating, but there is a strong argument for their side.