Scrappy Shawl Done and "The First Conspiracy"

     I'm totally done with my Scrappy Shawl, it's just waiting for the ends to be tucked and blocked.

     I'm listening to "Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence" and I have a hardback copy of the tome I got used through Amazon.  It's the recommended book on "THE 100 BEST AMERICAN REVOLUTION BOOKS OF ALL TIME" and is focused on minute details of the battles of the Revolution.  It's surprisingly very interesting and I like hearing the details.  Since I've either read or predominantly listened to several other books on the war I find this book fills in details missed or gives a slightly different view.  For instance Gates, the American general in the Battle of Saratoga is characterized in "Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution" by Nathaniel Philbrick as lazy and unengaged with the battle while remaining in the officer's tent having a languid lunch at one point.  In "Almost a Miracle" the same general Gates is described glowingly and says he remained in the headquarter's tent as Washington sometimes did to oversee the myriad details from a distance.  I'm thinking the negative view of Gates in "Valiant Ambition" was purposefully angled to reflect what Benedict Arnold would have been thinking because the author is skillfully working up to why Arnold defected.  The incredible anger he harbored.

     

     I restarted reading ""The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington" by Brad Meltzer.  The reading is interesting and very detailed.  I've already covered this ground time-wise several times in other history books yet Meltzer brings up details I was unaware of.  Other books refer to the conspiracy to kill or abduct Washington through one of Washington's trusted guards turning traitor by one sentence.  Meltzer saw this when reading some books of the period and decide to exhaustively research it.  After the history books, this makes for some very interesting reading.  As a matter of fact, I keep trying to successfully find a book of fiction, something light to read before bed, but this book keeps drawing me back because it captured my interest and all others seem pale in comparison.  My reasoning was it can't be good to always read about war, especially before sleep.  So, finally I did find a good read before bed - "A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin" by Joseph Plumb Martin.  A private who left his grandparents at 15 to join the war and was in most of the major battles till the end.  He is often mentioned in the history books.  But he is writing it many years later when he is in his 70's and his language is quite interesting and funny at times.  For instance, his recounting his first time in NYC and how the victuals were not as good as his grandpa and grandma's table and cellar was an example of how he chided his younger self for joining the army.

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