Mailbox Monday – 10/25/10

Mailbox Monday is on a blog tour! The popular meme started over at The Printed Page blog is being hosted by She Reads and Reads for the month of October!

Here’s what we received this past week:

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Janice’s Thoughts: I grew up with a monthly visit with Eleanor Roosevelt – via her “If You Ask Me” column in Good Housekeeping magazine. Impressed by her solid intelligence, I was saddened in future years to read of her apparent role as the ugly, unloved duckling in her marriage to the handsome, flamboyant, debonair and any other “wonderful” adjective you might assign the charismatic Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hazel Rowley’s book – Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage – gives a wonderful insight into the lives of two equally vibrant and intelligent persons and their marriage. In a household beset by tragedies of death and infidelities, Franklin and Eleanor nevertheless forged a marriage that allowed them to live triumphant lives and to go down in history as one of the most discussed and inspiring couples ever. Rowley’s assertion through her book that “Eleanor Roosevelt could not have been the woman she was without Franklin, but nor could Franklin Roosevelt have been the man he was without Eleanor” brought a lift to my heart for the woman I so long felt sadness for and a new appreciation for the man who possessed such steely determination to succeed in his ambitions. This is a fascinating read.

Enjoy!