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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
Wow, I made it to the end, only because I spent money on it. What a catastrophe - I don’t understand how this made it past an editor. Stacy Schiff’s “style” is unreadable. A strange halting style written in hints and riddles, and as another reviewer notes, dangling modifiers everywhere. I routinely lost track of who or what she was talking about. This flowery prose may work for fiction, but absolutely not for history.
The first chapter reads as if she took a coherent story, put all the sentences in a blender, then put them back in the book in the random order they came out. One sentence has absolutely nothing to do with the rest. This never gets better. In fact, it gets worse.
Strongest recommendation to avoid.
The first chapter reads as if she took a coherent story, put all the sentences in a blender, then put them back in the book in the random order they came out. One sentence has absolutely nothing to do with the rest. This never gets better. In fact, it gets worse.
Strongest recommendation to avoid.
slow-paced
Lost interest and moved on to other books about halfway through, may or may not revisit later
I'm sorry, but I had to DNF this, lol. I wanted to enjoy it so badly that I've been "reading" it for almost 2 years. But omg I just do not care about this time in history, I guess. The writing was good and I felt like I was there, but I just... could not.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
A little review of the revolution part of APUSH. It was interesting to focus on one of the less talked about founding fathers, but the author skimmed over what happened after the Declaration of Independence to make it so.
It seems complete and correct, but I missed those times when an author steps back a moment and makes thoughtful comments on what we have read, such as we get with other writers in this field like Joseph Ellis and Ron Chernow. Instead it feels like we're constantly pelted by only two types of sentences and those in a rapid fire. The warm personal feeling one would want in a biography is just not there.