925-932 (2019 #52-59). August 2019

1776 by David McCullough - narrative nonfiction - I think what I liked best about this book - which discusses the Revolutionary War almost solely during the year of 1776 - were the lifelike paintings by Charles Willson Peale of such participants as George Washington and his top lieutenants, Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox.  It's a good followup to American Spring, which covers December 1774 through June 1775 (Battle of Bunker Hill).  The book is just under 300 pages, followed by 47 pages of source notes, 22 pages of bibliography, and a 14-page index.

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon - Jane Collingwood and Sian Thomas narrated the audiobook, with Collingwood voicing Anna’s chapters and Thomas taking on Anastasia’s storyline. They do a marvelous job. I particularly liked the youth and innocence of Thomas’s voice as the teenaged Anastasia.

The Last Captive by A. C. Greene - In May 1870, almost-11-year-old Herman Lehmann and his 8 year old brother, Willie, were captured by an Apache raiding party outside the home of his German immigrant mother and stepfather in rural Mason County, Texas.  While Willie escaped shortly thereafter, Herman spent the next eight years with the Apaches and later the Comanches.  His story was originally told by others (because Herman was mostly illiterate), first in the 1899 misnamed A Condensed History of the Apache and Comanche Indian Tribes for Amusements and General Knowledge [aka Indianology] by Jonathan H. Jones, and the second (also misnamed) in 1927 by J. Marvin Hunter, Nine Years Among the Indians: 1870- 1879 (1927).  Greene combines and edits these narratives, commenting when the versions differ, and adding information from outside sources.  Nevertheless, the book is hard to read, partly because Herman's story is so rambling and repetitious - endless raid after raid.  I find it hard to believe Herman would have actually remembered so much detail from a young age, and I think a lot of his story is made up.

Chevato : The Story of the Apache Warrior Who Captured Herman Lehmann -
Written by William Chebahtah (a great-grandson of Chevato) and Nancy McGown Minor, this is nonfiction about the Lipan Apache who was part of the Mescalero Apache band that kidnapped almost-11-year-old Herman Lehmann outside the home of his German immigrant mother and stepfather in rural Mason County, Texas.  The book really is about Chevato, though, who later (as did Herman) joined the Comanche Indians led by Quanah Parker.  Chevato was friends with my husband's great-grandparents, Tandy Clayton and Nancy Jones Moore, who rented land from him in Indiahoma, Oklahoma in the early 1900s.

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird, read by  Bahni Turpin - historical fiction, audiobook - great story based on an actual former slave.  "A tribute in fiction inspired by the singular decision made by Cathy/Cathay Williams, the first woman to enlist in the peacetime U. S. Army, and the only to ever serve (1866-1868) with the fabled Buffalo Soldiers."  She disappears after 1892.

The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy - hybrid, historical fiction, contemporary realistic fiction

Mozart's Starling by Luanda Lynn Gault, read by Linda Henning - nonfiction, audiobook

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon - historical fiction - sources were Hindenburg: An Illustrated History and www.facesofthehindenburg.blogspot.com

© Amanda Pape - 2019