Thorsday Book Review

This is a book I bought as a gift, but I had to read it myself before sending it on to the recipient.  Come on, are you really surprised?

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SECRET SIX
by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yeager

This is the story of a spy ring which was based on Long Island during the Revolutionary War.  I first learned of this book from the relative in Denver, who was fascinated by its premise.  Central to the book is Abraham Woodhull, a farmer from Long Island.  As a supplier to the British army, he was able to travel to New York City and obtain information from contacts there, which he then passed on via a series of other contacts.  This was an extremely dangerous thing to do, because the British, who were there as an army of occupation against its own colony, considered any action which aided the Rebels to be treasonous, and Rebel sympathizers were sent to prison ships in New York Harbor, where conditions were harsh and prisoners died.

Evidently, some of the information in this book comes from papers kept by the Woodhull family for in excess of 200 years.  I find that astonishing.  In my own research, I discovered that my grandmother's grandfather's grandfather was a "Rebel" soldier during the American Revolution, and yet this information was not passed down as oral tradition through the family.  Indeed, all of that grandmother's ancestors appear to have been here before the first American census, yet it was never mentioned once.  So the records the authors found amaze me.

This book is the basis for AMC's new show Turn.  The show is somewhat more entertaining than the book, because, of course, they have to show interpersonal action and dialogue, but it does convey the spirit of the book.

We're going into Memorial Day weekend here in the US.  While we traditionally think of this as the start of summer, a weekend for fun and picnics, it's also the day when we remember our war dead.  This book (and the TV show) are appropriate for this weekend.  4/5.

This week's Thorsday Book Review is hosted by Winston, who is visiting while his People are on their honeymoon.

Winston wants you to know that he's ignoring all of us.  Indeed, if we don't pay attention to the fact that he is ignoring us, he head butts us.  And then he ignores us a while longer.

Happy Thorsday, everyone!