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Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 150 of 512 of The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America
The breadth of Nash's research is incredible. My criticism right now is that his chapters are way too long. If you are breaking your chapters into six or seven subsections, you may want to structure them a bit differently.
Aug 27, 2022 04:24PM Add a comment
The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 265 of 432 of The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory
Earlier, I made the criticism that Checkoway gets some very easy facts incorrect.

There is also some research she does, which is incredible. The depth of interviews and archival research she must have completed is impressive. Swimming is not boxing or football, so details must have been considerably harder to find.

Good on Checkoway for making swimming feel like the center of the universe.
Aug 20, 2022 09:13AM Add a comment
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 166 of 432 of The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory
I want to put this in writing before I get to the end of the book. Checkoway is writing a fascinating sports underdog story, in the vein of Seabiscuit and The Boys in the Boat. But she also is getting some pretty basic facts incorrect about fairly well known topics. Example: Abner Doubleday didn't invent baseball by any stretch of the imagination and that fact has been fairly well known for at least 30 years
Aug 17, 2022 09:09AM Add a comment
The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 90 of 207 of Their Eyes Were Watching God
My high school English teacher had us read this book. I don't think I was mature enough to appreciate it. It is definitely a book where dialogue must be read aloud, or at least whispered to yourself. And when you do that, it makes perfect sense.
Hurston was writing 100 years before her time, and my English teacher was teaching 25 years before her time.

Sorry Dr. Lyons.
Aug 08, 2022 05:30PM Add a comment
Their Eyes Were Watching God

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 90 of 209 of War Dances
At the end of the story "War Dances", here is the final line: I would always feel closest to the man who had most disappointed me.

Get yourself some Sherman Alexie in your life.
Aug 08, 2022 04:54AM Add a comment
War Dances

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 71 of 207 of Their Eyes Were Watching God
There's a passage in Chapter 5, where a group of men (are they the chorus of this story?) are talking. The following comes from a man named Hicks: "Us colored folks is too envious of one 'nother... Us talks about de white man keepin' us down!... Us keeps our own selves down."

Hurston was part of the Harlem Renaissance, from what I recollect. What is she trying to convey with that passage?
Aug 07, 2022 06:38PM Add a comment
Their Eyes Were Watching God

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 24 of 207 of Their Eyes Were Watching God
"Janie's first dream was dead. So she became a woman."
I can't imagine a man ever writing a line like that.
Aug 05, 2022 07:21AM Add a comment
Their Eyes Were Watching God

Matthew McElroy
Matthew McElroy is on page 20 of 207 of Their Eyes Were Watching God
There is a line in Chapter Two where Nanny, the grandmother who raised Janie, the protagonist, says "us colored folks is branches without roots and that makes things come round in queer ways".
Do you think Hurston believes that?
Aug 04, 2022 04:00PM Add a comment
Their Eyes Were Watching God

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