Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...

Book Review: Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam is a fiction book where Amanda and Clay rent a vacation home in a rural area of New York for them to spend some quality time with their two children for a week. Everything is going well until they receive a knock at the door late one night. It's the owners of the house, and they're there because of a blackout in New York City. Without cell phone service and the cable and internet out, Amanda and Clay don't know what to believe and if they can trust the couple on the doorstep of the rental.

I bought this on impulse because I liked the cover and the synopsis. However, once I started reading Leave The World Behind, I wasn't too sure if I was going to like it or not. Although the book is very well written, I didn't especially care for the style of writing, and certain scenes in the book seemed very clinical when it shouldn't have been. 

Because I don't care for the style of writing, the book seemed much longer than two hundred forty-one pages, and it seemed to take forever to get to the meat of the story. Once it did, the story was more interesting and held my attention a bit more. When I finally finished Leave The World Behind, I was extremely disappointed in the ending or lack thereof. There are so many unanswered questions. I really wanted to like this book but could only give it three out of five stars.

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