I suppose this is what you call an embarrassment of riches ... I hope you'll actually like all, or at least most of those 8 books. Good luck squeezing in reading time for the Douglass bio in addition!
Thanks, though at the moment I'm not terribly optimistic. It doesn't help that I'm still slugging my way through a 900-page book that I need to write up a review for, so I can't exactly rush through that one.
Sigh (in sympathy). That's a great thing if you want it for reference purposes (or to add more detail to someone else's more superficial account), but to read cover to cover for review purposes, with other books already lined up ... not a happy situation.
I hope all of this is not killng your interest in the topic as such!
Not in the slightest. I think of it as the literary equivalent of pointillism: all the little details cohere to tell an incredibly dramatic story. The challenge is making sure that I don't miss anything important while retaining what I need to know for the review.
That's a great analogy. How do you meet the challenge -- lots of notes? Or would that be the equivalent of too many close-ups on individual points and not enough distance to see the whole picture?
Usually I don't do notes, but I do use the updates I post on Booklikes to retain observations about the book that I later consult when drafting the review.
I hope all of this is not killng your interest in the topic as such!