Killing Lincoln

Should I be worried that our book club chose books back-to-back about assassinating presidents? Like, should I alert Homeland Security? I was pretty sure we are a benign group of women, but now I'm not so sure.

Just kidding. Our latest "book-chooser" is a government teacher and a lawyer; I think that probably played into the genre a little. :)

Anyway, we read Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly. Observe the cover: does it indict O'Reilly in the assassination? O'Reilly says that there are many complicated conspiracies regarding Lincoln's assassination. . . maybe he was part of one!

Via

I would give this book a B-. First of all, and the rest of the book club disagreed with me, I thought there was too much narrative on the Civil War. It felt like a historian couldn't help himself and went overboard on details of battles and such. Much like if you asked me what a modifier is. . . I could literally go on and on and on. And not everyone would appreciate it.

Second of all, there were actually four historical errors in the book, including a reference to the Oval Office (which wasn't completed until after Lincoln's death).

But there were a lot of interesting details, too. Like how interconnected Lincoln and his assassin were: John Wilkes Booth was secretly engaged to a woman who also spent some time with Lincoln's son. And also, Booth's brother saved Lincoln's son from being run over by a train (or something like that. . . as I am not a historian, I do not feel an obligation to be historically accurate.)

Let me just say that Booth was a psychopath. I truly believe he was deluded into thinking he would be a hero for killing Lincoln. Our book club all agreed that we think fame was his primary motivation and not some righteous political objective. When he was in hiding after the assassination and learned via newspapers that people were calling him a coward and a criminal instead of a hero, he was devastated. Duh, dude. YOU KILLED THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FIVE DAYS AFTER HE WON THE WAR.

As I said, we read this right after we read The Kennedy Detail, and did you know there are some crazy similarities between the two assassinations? It's almost too much to believe, and yet there the proof is.

If you are a fan of O'Reilly or Lincoln but not a fan of big, intense history books, you might like this one. It read pretty quickly (except for the battle stuff, but like I said, I was alone in that) and gave a good overview of who was who during that era of our history.

Our next book is The 19th Wife, and having just finished it, I cannot WAIT to share the details with you. It was crazy fascinating. But we don't meet until the end of the month, so you'll have to wait awhile for the recap. :)

Valentine's Day

I know, I know. This is so late it's not even relevant now, but since I haven't written in FOREVER, I have a lot of catching up to do.

So here is my general philosophy on Valentine's Day: it's awkward. The expectations of connecting with your spouse in a crowded restaurant while you pay an arm and a leg for someone to babysit the fruit of your love (uh, the kids) is just unreasonable.

So, I rebel.

In my opinion (and I thank God I married a man who validates my opinions and is willing to go along with my numerous, strange requests), our wedding anniversary is the date when we celebrate the commitment we have made to each other. Valentine's Day is about love, and I want to include my children in that celebration.

So here's what we do:

We dress up.

We have a nice candlelit dinner (Papa Murphy's heart-shaped pizza, salad, sparkling grape juice) with the kids. At dinner, we talk about how much we love each other and how much we love our girls and how Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate our family's love for each other. (Sorry if that was a little cheesy.)

The kids open the presents.

 We play with the presents.

And we eat a wedding cake. Not the whole cake, obviously. Ryan just orders the cake topper.

I have really loved creating traditions with our family. I know every family does Valentine's Day differently, and I think however you celebrate (or not), that's great. The important thing is to feel loved, to love, and to know that Hallmark (isn't that to whom we are supposed to direct all our snarky comments about Valentine's Day being a commercial holiday, etc?) isn't the one who dictates what you do on that day.

One important detail: at the end of the evening, after I felt we had really driven home the point of Valentine's Day, I asked Coralie what Valentine's Day is all about. She said, "Having a PARTY!!!!!!" So. We're still working on that.