Books I've Read May 2014

So a busy life is not really a way to get a lot of reading done.  I do however now spend at least an hour a day driving in a car to and from work.  So I went to Deseret Book to find a book on CD to listen to in the car.  It worked out great.  I actually ended up listening to the book twice because I would be in the middle of driving when the disc would end so I would just listen to the disc again.  Then after listening to each disc twice, I would change it out for the next one.  I also managed to finish one other book this month, only because we had multiple doctors appointments, so I had some down time sitting in waiting rooms.  I didn't read the book club book yet again this month and couldn't even tell you what it is to be honest.  I have plans to go to the library today to check out a book on CD because they are expensive and I don't have the budget to just buy them.  So here are my May reads.



Joseph and Emma : Their Divine Mission
         by:  Gracia N. Jones


Emma and Joseph: Their Divine Mission, is a careful, sensitive history describing the power sustaining relationship Joseph Smith and his wife Emma Hale Smith shared, and their tremendous mutual loyalty toward each other, throughout their 17-year marriage. The author, Gracia N. Jones, a great-great-grandaughter of Emma and Joseph, offers a new understanding of their shared lives, presenting in the process information about them that has not been readily available in the past.



Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey:  The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
      by: The Countess of Carnarvon

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration and setting for Julian Fellowes's Emmy Award-winning PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters, and photographs, the current Lady Carnarvon has written a transporting story of this fabled home on the brink of war.
    Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart, Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon's ancestral home.  Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.
    This rich tale contrasts the splendor of Edwardian life in a great house against the backdrop of the First World War and offers an inspiring and revealing picture of the woman at the center of the history of Highclere Castle.




I enjoyed both of theses books, each for different reasons.  Joseph and Emma was a great book of early church history.  It also helped me to gain a testimony of Emma Smith.  As a convert I had always not quiet understood how she would choose to not go west with the Saints.  I now have a better understanding of her life, and it was not an easy one.   
Lady Almina was also a great non-fiction historical book.  I learned some new things about WWI.  It was also cool to read about the discovery of King Tut by Lady Almina's husband.  


Maybe these books wouldn't interest you my faithful blog readers but maybe they would.  Either way pick up some sort of book and read!  June is right around the corner and promises to be just as busy as May, but I hope to get at least 2 books read again!