Saturday, January 09, 2010

January's Non-Fiction Book: Curse of the Narrows

I'm keeping to my challenge - I just had to finish the book I had been reading first. Even before officially deciding to challenge myself to read a non-fiction book a month, I had already decided on the book I would read first. This is a book that I had given my father-in-law a few years ago, and then I pinched it back when he was done.




My father-in-law loves to read about history, and Curse of the Narrows by Laura M. MacDonald combines some American and Canadian history that is *not* war related (well, at least not war-related between the countries). I'm only about a chapter into the book, and I am finding the author has a very wry sense of humour - at one point she is was discussing the Soldier's Hospital - and then says, "Or, as it was otherwise known, the Venereal Hospital." I snorted with laughter and the other moms watching the 8am swimming lesson started giving me weird looks and inching away...

2 comments:

Batty said...

OK, I have to confess something: My knowledge of medieval history comes from two Ivy League institutions. My knowledge of American history (apart from legal history)? It comes from Rocky and Bullwinkle and a couple of PBS shows. I think I have some reading up to do. It's embarrassing.

The history of the US and Canada is something I know even less about. It's not something you can just pick up in passing. This sounds like an interesting book.

tara said...

I think I heard about this event on NPR. Sounds like a good book.
Did you have a goal challenge last year. Did you spread sheet it again? Gonna share?