Review of His Family

Let me explain the balls of yarn. This is my rating system. I love to knit and I also love yarn, so naturally this is what I chose to show how much I love a book or don't love a book. The rating will go from one ball of yarn for books I don't really like to five balls of yarn for books I love. And now on to the review!

Although the subject matter of this book is not filled with thrills and chills or even with any sort of suspiciousness, it is an enjoyable book about a man whose wife passed away and left him to raise three girls. This story is set in New York in the early 1900s, and luckily at this time having a housekeeper was fashionable and the only way to live, so he didn't need to worry about cleaning and cooking. Somehow he lives quite comfortably, without too many cares, even though he only seems to be lightly interested in his business of selling newspaper clippings to people who want to see their name in print, which I have to say is a rather odd business, in my opinion.

One thing I really enjoyed was reading his take on each of his girls' personalities. His oldest daughter is pregnant and gives birth to her fifth child. She is very particular about being "old fashioned" and staying home to take care of her kids. She is completely involved in her kids' lives and doesn't seem to have time for anything else. His middle daughter, who this book is mostly about, is overly involved in her career, something that during this time was not done. She is in her 30s and unmarried. Instead she spends her time as a principal at a school for children and immigrants who can't afford private schools. She feels it is her mission to save all of them from any grief or hunger and to open public schools where anybody can go, for free. There is a doctor also serving the same people who wants to marry her, but she is afraid to become like her older sister and become so involved in her own children that she can't fulfill her career. The youngest daughter is very flippant and unconcerned with money or morals. She marries, mostly for money, and her marriage ends and she enters another. She doesn't want children (another thing not looked kindly upon in this time) and loves to spend money.

When tragedy hits and a war begins you can see how this family somehow pulls together and makes the most of the hard times. In the end I began to care about each of them and felt concern and joy over their lives. This book was one of the most enjoyable books I've read. It made me think about my own siblings. I have four sisters and one brother and each of us have basically followed the same path. We are all married and my sisters and I each have children and are stay at home moms; our children are being raised in the best way possible that each of us can do, but they are very different from each other. We each have our ideals and interests, but it's what we do with them that makes a difference for our posterity.

Ernest Poole

Ernest Poole is the author of our first book "His Family". There really isn't much information about him, most places that I found that talked about him all said pretty much the same thing. He was born in Chicago in 1880. He graduated from Princeton University and was a journalist. One thing he was known for was being active in social reforms which included the ending of child labor. In the book "His Family" one of the main characters was very active in social reform herself, she worked diligently to help out the children of immigrants and those less fortunate to get a good education.

He was also a World War I correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post, where he was stationed in Europe. He was also very active in the Russian Revolution and many of his later novels were about Russia and the life there.

During his life he had 24 novels published. He also founded the Foreign Press Service that negotiated for foreign authors with English-language publishers.

Ernest Poole died in New Hampshire in the year 1950.

Next Monday I will post my review of his Pulitzer Prize winning novel "His Family".

source: Wikipedia.org

What Was Happening in 1918?

I have to be honest: I am not a history buff. I am never sure when things happened in history: wars, assassinations, laws passed, you name it and I am unsure when it happened. This new project that I've taken on for myself will hopefully help change that. Now that I'm older, maybe I'll retain more information than I used to. We'll see.

The first book that we will be looking at is obviously the very first Pulitzer Prize winning book ever. It is called "His Family" by Ernest Poole and it was awarded the prize in the year 1918.

This was a huge year for much of Europe, and many amazing things happened. Russia moved their capital from Petrograd to Moscow and also declared separation of church and state. Also, in Russia, the Bolshevik party became the Communist party and severed all diplomatic ties with the United States.

But for this year and this book I really wanted to focus on what happened in the United States during this year. Of course, the US was involved in WWI and many big things happened with the war during this year. Herbert Hoover was the president of the United States and as a result of the war he called for "wheatless and meatless" days to help with the war effort. In June of this year the very first airplane bombing raid by an American took place. It's amazing that it just happened in 1918, but I guess that was 92 years ago.

On a lighter note, here are some interesting facts that happened during 1918. A couple of laws with a HUGE impact on our lives were passed. In January, Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th amendment, don't worry I didn't know which one it was either; it was prohibition. On May 21st the House of Representatives passed an amendment that would allow women to vote. Just 92 years ago, ladies. Also, daylight savings time went into effect this year. Oh, and the first airmail stamp was issued in May of 1918.

There were some tragic events that took place this year. There was a Spanish Flu epidemic that hit the US. The first case happened in March and became a worldwide pandemic. In October, 21,000 people died in one week in the United States and by November it had spread to Western Samoa killing 7,542 people by the end of the year. After being warned of a flu pandemic ourselves this past year, this really hit home to me. Also in NYC (where this book takes place) the worst subway accident happened killing 97 people.

And here are a couple of random animal tragedies to end on. In July, lightning killed 504 sheep in Utah's Wasatch National Forest and I have to put this in, because I'm a birdwatcher, but in February the last captive Caroline Parakeet (the last breed of parrot native to North America) died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Sources: Wikipedia.com, hisdates.com, and historyorb.com

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting my blog! I'm really excited to start this project up. I have often wondered what the Pulitzer (pronounced 'pull it sir') prize winning books are like and decided that I would read them all. Many are books that I've never heard of and amazingly enough are hard to find at my local library. I am not a literary critic (as I mentioned above) I'm just a plain Jane who loves to read and share what I read. My reviews will probably not be deep or analytical, but they will tell you what I think of the book and whether it's worth reading or not.

I will basically try and post a new blog each Monday morning. When I start a new book the first week will be a bit of a history lesson, telling what was happening in the world during the year the book won. The second week, we will learn a little something about the author and the third week I will post my review, by then I should hopefully finish the book. If I didn't finish the book, just know there will be something posted every Monday morning. Also, please leave your comments, I would love to know who is reading this and what you think of my reviews, whether good or bad.

Again, thank you for reading and I hope you stick with me during this journey I am taking.