Reading: A LOT

Yes, I have been gone for a while. I have been planning a wedding, working insane, crazy hours and watching far too much bad TV. HOWEVER, I have been reading a lot lately.

First up, let's start with March, by Geraldine Brooks. This book follows the journey of Mr. March, the father in the story Little Women, as he leaves Concord, Massachusetts, and ministers to the soldiers in the Civil War For fans of Little Women, you will remember the girl's blind adoration of their father, which most daughters (myself included) can certainly relate to.

Mr. March makes a brief appearance at the end of Little Women, but his letters home are eagerly awaited throughout much of the book. However, this story takes the mystery out of the man. Brooks tells the story of an idealistic and slightly inept minister who foolishly loses the family money before volunteering for the Civil War, where his liberal views are not accepted by the soldiers. March is released from him duties after a semi-romantic friendship with a slave, Grace. Instead of going home to his children and wife and very disillusioned by the horrors of wartime, he becomes a teacher to a plantation of "freed slaves" before being shot trying to defend them in a raid by Confederate soldiers.

The second half of the book is told by his wife Marmee, when March himself lies in a hospital too injured to tell his own story. Again, Brooks provides a deeper look at Alcott's seemingly perfect and generous Marmee. In this story, Marmee is a frustrated, harried mother of four who doesn't understand how and why her husband could willingly leave his home during war time. She is understandably angry and jealous to find her delirious husband being nursed lovingly, in a strange twist of fate, by Grace, the now-freed slave for whom he developed feelings.

This book was probably one of the best books I have read in a long time. I couldn't put it down during Christmas, which I'm not sure my new in-laws appreciated. March is beautifully written, told in first person letters from Mr. March his family at home.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, or books about the Civil War, or fans of Little Women.

More book reviews to come later this week.