Currently reading
Saints in Art
The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems
Selected Poems
Emily Dickinson
Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Gone with the Wind
Thanksgiving: The True Story
I'm sick in bed and NaNo is over for the year, so I can finally catch up on some book reviewing."Thanksgiving: The True Story" is exactly what it claims to be. Amazingly for a book on the subject of America's most controversial holiday, it keeps an even tone *and* a firm grip on reality.
It begins with what seems like a simple question: what was the first Thanksgiving? Colman explores 12 competing claims. In the course of doing so, she helps us sort out fact from fantasy. She delves into what she calls "the 'pilgrim and Indian' story." She discusses, with obvious admiration but without hero worship, the woman who spent decades trying to get Thanksgiving declared a national holiday. She writes movingly of what Thanksgiving has meant and continues to mean to recent immigrants to America.
My son and I both read this book for a history unit this November. I want to say "I strongly recommend this," but that doesn't go far enough. This book should be required reading for all ages.