What Are You
Reading?
What Are You Reading? A project sponsored by the Friends of the Macomb Public Library District to encourage reading and book discussion in our community. Would you like to share your favorite books with other readers? Please send your name, occupation or grade level, book author and title, and a brief statement about the book and why you liked it to Kate Joswick, [email protected].
Reviewer’s Name: Becky Parker Reviewer’s Occupation: Retired Book Title: The Splendid and the Vile Book’s Author: Erik Larson For those of you who enjoyed Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City,” you will enjoy Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile” about Winston Churchill’s first year as prime minister. Larson excels at personalizing history amidst the data of events. Descriptive details make people and situations come alive. We learn that Churchill’s wife, Clemintine, was a strong willed, independent woman. In 1935 she traveled solo to the Far East and stayed for four months. We learn of Churchill’s sensitivity to criticism and his hatred for whistling. Churchill was totally uninhibited and Larson recounts several times he conducted interviews or dictated letters while bathing in his large bathtub. Everything is well documented and provides insight. For instance, a letter from the king to his mother Queen Mary expresses relief that France had fallen to Germany. Air Marshal Dowding agreed and thought it meant the end of the persistent threat that Churchill, in a rash and generous moment, would send fighters to France. The reader goes through the vote of confidence when Churchill’s leadership was questioned. Undaunted, vigorous, and confident, Churchill proved himself the right leader at the right time even though he knows the war cannot be won without help from the United State.
