Some participants do not have blogs of their own, but we like to give them an opportunity to express their opinions about the books they read for the reading challenges.
Reva read Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard for the U.S. Civil War Reading Challenge. Here is her review.
Killing Lincoln: The Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This history reads like a thriller with heart, regret and national mourning as relevant today as 150 years ago. I never realized President Lincoln was murdered only days after the surrender or that most assassinations do occur in the last gasp of war. No money was set aside for protecting the president, so the ONE person who sometimes performed that service was actually being paid for preventing vandalism to the White House. This person was off drinking in the pub next door when John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln that fateful night, but was not held responsible in any way for his dereliction to duty. Also, the public had free run of the White House around the clock with no oversight. People would sleep in the hallways, seeking whatever Lincoln could offer them. The president, himself, didn’t worry about his safety. It was not uncommon to see him watching a battle from a nearby hill or riding among the people. He was a real man of the people.
John Wilkes Booth got his worst punishment before he was shot in that barn. He found out that his fellow Southerners did not praise, laud or uphold his killing the president. He had thought his actions would cause the South to rise again and cause such consternation in the North as to give the South a shot at winning in the end. Booth’s spirit was broken before his body as everything he held dear slipped away.
If you go to Amazon, you’ll notice that all reviews are either 1 or 5 stars. That’s because liberals are sabotaging the ratings system. If you read their ratings, you’ll realize they didn’t read the book. Rather than scare me off, I bought, read and loved this book and hope to further my research by reading more of Lincoln’s life and messages to and for America, land of the free.
**Attention participants: Remember to email us a link to your reviews, and we’ll post them here so we can see what everyone is reading!**
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