Review: Washington’s Lady by Nancy Moser

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Washington’s Lady (Bethany House June 1, 2008) by Nancy Moser. If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nancy Moser is the author of three inspirational humor books and eighteen novels, including Solemnly Swear, Just Jane, and Time Lottery, a Christy Award winner. She is an inspirational speaker, giving seminars around the country. She has earned a degree in architecture; ran a business with her husband; traveled extensively in Europe; and has performed in various theaters, symphonies, and choirs. She and her husband have three grown children and make their home in the Midwest.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Washington’s Lady tells a story every American over the age of twelve ought to find very familiar: The American Revolution, through the eyes of our first First Lady, Martha Washington. Personally, I found this a much more enjoyable way to take my history, with less political machinations than you’d get in public school, and more exploration of the faith of our forefathers–and their mistakes and foibles, such as Martha’s apparent inability to discipline her children. Though I had difficulty believing even the southern aristocracy was as hooked on Nice Things as modern Americans.

My main complaints is I considered the attitude towards Patrick Henry (I could not tell for certain if it was actually Martha’s or simply the author’s) totally uncool as he’s a favorite around my house, as was the author’s repeating centuries old gossip in her historical notes at the end (which, by the way, were generally very cool in my opinion.) That and that what I recieved was most definitely an uncorrected proof. My first clue was finding literal “as you know” dialogue, but I fear that won’t be fixed in the final version. It’s apparently a challenge for historical writers to get in all the history they wish to without resorting to a tactic nearly all readers groan at. In fairness, Moser found some clever ways to do this, too, such as a scene with Jacky executing his sister’s doll, play acting out protests in Boston that he’d heard adults discussing–this incident itself was purely fictional, but a nice touch.

Over all, Washington’s Lady portrays the hardships our forefathers (and foremothers!) faced in a way that will make the reader better appreciate the sacrifices and hardships they faced and challenge us in our own general aversion to such pain.

2 Comments

  1. Thanks for the review, Andrea. The “as you know” phenomenon got me curious, so I went back through my computer files of the edited book and only found one–in Chapter 6, and it had nothing to do with inserting an historical point. So I must have caught the others during the final edit. But now that you pointed it out, I will be mindful of the phrase in future historical books!

  2. Author

    Cool. I would recommend it; untrained eyes have been known to notice that one.

    The sad thing is, you’ll probably notice yourself using it in real life and the basis for not using it is no one tells each other things we already know . . . only sometimes we do. Real life isn’t always realistic (as one finds out when getting critiqued)

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