Lady Almina And The Real Downton Abbey : The Lost Legacy Of Highclere Castle
by The Countess of Carnarvon

At the age of nineteen, Almina Wombwell married George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1895. The marriage took place on the Earl's twenty-ninth birthday. He had grand estates, magnificent paintings and beautiful furniture. The Earl was born into aristocracy. Almina, on the other hand, was from quite a different background. Her mother was French and her father was Alfred de Rothschild. Almina was illegitimate but her father's wealth protected her and it bought social acceptance and respectability.
After their honeymoon, they moved to Highclere Castle which was the family home of the Earls of Carnarvon.
Having never seen the PBS show, Downton Abbey that people have raved about, I was curious about this book. Parts of it are quite interesting and most of it is not. You don't get a sense of what Almina was really like. Her character was not quite fleshed out. Most of the book centers on World War I.
There's way too much filler and not enough substance.
I did read the entire book but it did nothing for me.

Juliette Gordon Low : The Remarkable Founder Of The Girl Scouts
by Stacy A. Cordery

Juliette Gordon Low was born during the Civil War. She grew up in Savannah where education, culture and duty was stressed. Juliette, known as Daisy, was extremely extroverted and very popular in school. She was quite talented in art: painting, sculpture, illustration, to name a few. Daisy also excelled in shooting, fishing, hiking, building campfires (all of these attributes would be used in her future).
She would marry a man named William Mackay Low (her parents did not like him), an aristocratic Englishman who inherited his father's wealth. He ended up being quite a louse and she planned to divorce him, but he died before that happened.
Daisy could not ever sit still and wanted to do something that had some kind of purpose. When she met Robert Baden-Powell, in Britain (who created the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides), she knew that she had found her calling. Returning to the United States, Daisy would, single-handedly, form the Girl Scouts and led the organization for eight years.
The best part of this book is the first two thirds when you read about Daisy's life, her struggles with her health (she had hearing loss), her personality, her strengths, her joie de vivre. Ironically, as soon as the Girl Scouts materialized, the writing became plodding and boring with too many statistics and names. I thought about not continuing because it was driving me crazy, but finished it anyway. Even the ending is flat.
I had recommended the book to a friend early on before I had hit the uninteresting parts. I almost feel guilty since the latter section is just awful.
The author is a history professor so there's an inordinate amount of details that you have to slough through and that is what drags this book down, which is unfortunate.

Unorthodox : The Scandalous Rejection Of My Hasidic Roots
by Deborah Feldman

Deborah Feldman grew up in a very strict environment within the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism. Her mother abandoned her as a baby and since the father was mentally disabled, he couldn't take care of Deborah either. So, her extremely religious grandparents, Bubby and Zeidy, raised her with tons of rules. As Deborah grew up, she started to think independently and would secretly go off to the public library and read literature that would have been frowned on by her community. She brought these books home and hid them under her mattress.
When Deborah was seventeen, she was married off to a man that she had only met and talked to for thirty minutes before they became engaged. Needless to say, the marriage was fraught with problems and overwhelming anxiety. Two years later, Deborah had a child. Dealing with a baby at so young an age, a husband who was hardly around who didn't really care about his wife, and feeling like she was drowning with no support from anyone in the family, Deborah began to plot her future to leave her oppressive surroundings.
The subtitle of this book is very misleading. Deborah did not reject her Hasidic roots until she left at the age of twenty-three. When she talks about her childhood, she speaks lovingly of her grandparents and how well they treated her. She was happy then.
Although Deborah writes well, there's not much to get excited about. The ending was flat and there's many questions that she left unanswered.
Parts of the book were interesting but she's a contradiction. She couldn't wait to get away from the nosiness and gossip but then she starts a blog and broadcasts everything that happened to her including intimate details.
Photographs are included. The last one is of Deborah sitting on a bench in skin-tight blue jeans smoking a cigarette.
Many people can't wait to get their hands on this book: there are over 80 requests at the library. They should go on the Internet and look up what is being said about what she wrote. Apparently, most of it is lies.

Lost In Shangri-La : A True Story Of Survival, Adventure, And The Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II
by Mitchell Zuckoff

On May 13, 1945, twenty-four American soldiers and WACs (Women's Army Corps) were taking a leisurely flight over the mountains of Dutch New Guinea when it crashed. Twenty-eight people were aboard and three survived. They landed in a jungle known to be swarming with headhunters who had never seen white men before. The two men and one woman who crawled from the burning plane had no idea how they were going to get out of their environs. Two of them were severely injured with horrible burns.
Back at the base camp, a rescue mission was being developed. It was very tricky due to the rough terrain. Eventually, it was decided that paratroopers would be used.
Sound like an exciting story? It was, at first. Unfortunately, there was a lot of repetition and too much filler. The tale could have been oh so very exciting, but it became oh so dry. I certainly was not on the end of my seat as some of the other reviewers have recalled. In better hands, this book could have been tremendous. The author has written several other stories and I bet that they're all equally ho-hum.
If you're a World War II fan and you enjoy reading about plane crashes and survival, you would probably enjoy this book. As for me, it was nothing great and nothing special.

The Women Jefferson Loved
by Virginia Scharff

Thomas Jefferson always preferred to keep his public and private lives separate from peering eyes. His personal life is what has always intrigued the masses mostly because of Sally Hemmings. It seems to be split down the middle with those who believe that he was involved with her and those who do not even though there's credible evidence since he bore children with her.
The women close to him were: Jane Randolph, his mother; Martha, his wife; Sally Hemmings, his slave mistress; his daughters and granddaughters. Even though Jefferson loved the women so much in his family, he was still very traditional and believed that their purpose was to just be domestic and procreate. With the exception of Sally, they were all highly educated and cultured.
What I found interesting was that most of the women abhorred slavery yet without them they could not exist down to the most minutest details. They all intermingled with one another from morning to night. So, they were separated by race but they were related by blood.
At the beginning of the book, there's quite a large family tree which is confusing enough. At the end of the book, the names are grouped by specific families and it's even more mind-boggling.
Author, Virginia Scharff, writes in a very easygoing style and though I don't think it's "brilliantly written" as some reviewers believe, it's definitely palatable.
If you're a Jefferson fan, you would enjoy the read. As for me, not having known the history of what exactly transpired between Jefferson and Hemmings, those parts were fascinating. But there's way too much repetition and conjecture (this is what happens when a historian attempts to compile facts) which ruined it, I thought.
I sum the book up as being okay but nothing special.

A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
by Sally Ryder Brady

Although there were many clues about Upton's sexuality from the time they met and all through their marriage, Sally Ryder either was in denial or was just plain stupid. She thought the world of this man even though he was an alcoholic, had a horrible temper, was a narcissist and was very controlling. Upton Brady became the director of Atlantic Monthly Press and the family lived in high style and most of it wasn't too happy.
After he died (forty-six years of marriage), Sally was SHOCKED to find gay pornography in his bureau. Her reaction is ridiculous since all of the signs were there. I probably should have stopped reading at this point because Sally was extremely irritating but I decided to continue and finish the book, which I did. She writes well and it does keep your interest.
The publisher says that it's a story of great love. Not exactly.
Read it, if you'd like, and see if you agree.