A nation new to its independence dealing with issues internally and external, it’s nascent future hanging by a thread all comes down to 55 men from across its length and breadth to come up with a solution.  In her 1966 historical review of what became known as the Constitutional Convention, Catherine Drinker Bowen chronicles how the future of the young United States was saved by a Miracle at Philadelphia.

 

Though the majority of the book focuses on the four-month long Convention, Bowen begins by setting the stage for why and how the convention came about with the ineffectual government that was the Articles of Confederation and the movement to amend them, which was led by James Madison and endorsed by George Washington by his attendance in Philadelphia.  For those like myself not really versed in nitty gritty details of Convention it was interesting to learn that most of the work was done in ‘Committee of the Whole’ in which Washington while President was seated among the other delegates.  The familiar highlights of the Virginia Plan, New Jersey Plan, and the Great Compromise are covered but in the historical flow of the debates within the Convention and decisions in-between of important elements within the Constitution.  Throughout the Bowen introduces important personages and how their views remained constant or changed throughout the Convention resulting reputations being made or destroyed during and after the process of ratification.  Bowen ends the book with a look at the ratification process, in particular the debates in Massachusetts and Virginia.

 

Covering approximately 310 pages, the book is efficient in covering the events of the Convention overall.  However Bowen completely missed how the Great Compromise was voted in the Constitution, she just mentioned it.  Besides that big miss within the Convention, Bowen spends chuck of the middle of the book covering a “Journey in America” that had nothing to do with the Convention but was just giving a glimpse of the nascent country that felt like filler than anything else.

 

Miracle at Philadelphia is a very good historical review of the Constitutional Convention that does not analyze but just reports history.  Catherine Drinker Bowen does a wonderful job in juggling the various accounts of the Convention by the delegates and the official record to create very readable narrative.  I highly recommend this book for those interested in this closing piece of the American Revolution.

I liked it as much as the others. 

It's a solid series.

 

And I liked the twist with the new entity.

3.5 stars

I loved the whole different take on vampires -- with term like drinkers, as well as the classification of them in the society. This story is written into two parts; first half from Laurence's POV and the second half from Ira's.

I enjoyed Laurence's POV better, maybe because as a reader, I seemed to be with him from the beginning, as he dealt with being a drinker, meeting with Ira, talking in his sessions about what he felt and what he expected to happen.

Ira's part, however, was dramatic but not completely compelling. Maybe because it was caused by something that happened/started years ago; it happened off page and I was being 'told' by Ira rather than experiencing it first hand as a reader. So I didn't empathized with Ira as a character as much as I did Laurence.

All in all, I still thought of this as solid pleasant read.

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

Near the end of March, I got an email from the publisher saying that I was one of the winners of their survey. I didn’t remember taking the survey, nor did I remember there being a giveaway, but I was still very happy. The only thing was that I had no idea what kind of book I’d won, so I was quite surprised when this little book was brought to me.

The Legend of the Holy Drinker (or De Legende van de Heilige Drinker, as it’s called in Dutch), is about Andreas who doesn’t have any money and lives under bridges. At the beginning of the story, he gets money from a stranger and decides to spend it immediately. During the story he seems to get/find money everywhere he goes, though he always seems to spend it on alcohol.

What I liked:

I liked that the story was part graphic novel, I don’t read graphic novels often (I would love to though), so this was very nice. The drawings were simple, and they basically told the dialogue, while everything that was written was just the story around it.

What I didn’t like:

After reading it, I had no idea what I’d just read. Because it was translated from German (I think?) into Dutch, the writing was very childish, and I had the feeling I was reading a bedtime story, even though it is a story for ‘grown-ups’. This is one of the reasons I hardly ever read books that are translated into Dutch, because I just think the translated story is so childish though the original story is probably not.

In the end, I didn’t really like the story, not just because it’s not my genre, but because the story just didn’t interest me. I did give it an extra Dalek for the drawings though, because even though they are simple and in black and white, they made the story a bit more awesome.

It's a new world, where humans co-exist with drinkers--people who must drink blood to survive.

 

Drinkers that go rogue, by attacking and turning other humans, are hunted down by the Department of Drinker Control. Laurence Wickes was a member of the DDC, until he was attacked and turned into a drinker. Now he needs to meet with a psychiatrist to determine if he can join society again and under what circumstances.

 

The author built an interesting world with drinkers and humans living together somewhat comfortably with each other. There are a lot of rules for the drinkers to follow, including getting classified in order to determine what rights they'll have. Laurence was a good cop who is now forced to figure out what he's going to do with his life after being turned into a drinker. He develops a crush on his psychiatrist, Dr. Ira Ashdown.

 

Ira has a secret that ends up putting him and Laurence into imminent danger. Although the two of them are locked up together for a few days, they didn't spend that time getting to know each other better. This definitely made the story more of a mystery than a romance. Although both of the characters were likable, I never developed any kind of emotional connection to either of them. If more time had been spent on dialogue, instead of detailed descriptions of clothing and surroundings, it would have worked better for me. In the end, it was an easy read with some new concepts.

 

If you're in the mood for a paranormal mystery, along with a light romance, this is an enjoyable story.

 

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Copy provided by publisher/author in exchange for an honest review.