Hannah Harvey

The Hidden History of the Holidays was... fine. Just fine. As an historian, I was expecting more of a deep dive, but in all fairness, the lecturer warned me right at the beginning of the course that she is a storyteller. For the most part, my experience with the Great Courses has been in purely history (and one science...) courses taught by professors at-or-near the top of their field. This one took a different angle.

Because I do have some knowledge of history, I knew quickly that some of the explanations she gave were extremely oversimplified. For example, in discussing Mardi Gras, she completely breezed past the varied and rich history of Carnival in the Caribbean islands and why Carnival reached there in the first place. In talking about Day of the Dead, she mentioned Viking funerals which are much more pop culture than history. So as far as actual historical accuracy goes... I learned quickly to take this with a grain of salt.

I will say for the completely uninitiated, The Hidden History of the Holidays provides insight into some possible influences and origins of modern American Holidays (and, yes, this is strictly limited to the United States). It's interesting but only scrapes the surface and is told like a story (sound effects and all at times) rather than a deep dive into the origins. It feels like a hearth tale, or campfire history and should be taken loosely as such. Interesting, but definitely lost me in some of the presentation methods and lack of complete accuracy.… (meer)

This is a hard look at the not-so-pretty pressure behind a pageant childhood, which might be fine for some girls but not for Cassidy, who isn't really sure what she wants out of life because no one has ever asked her. Her mother has pushed her into pageants since she was a preschooler, and now, Cassidy doesn't feel like she can tell her mother that she isn't happy with the restraints and expectations of pageant, acting, and modeling life, but her older brother's friend Aiden encourages her to speak up and begin to explore what she wants out of life.

This is a relatively short and to the point story that gets to the heart of what it means to treat girls and young women as objects of beauty rather than as people in their own right, and how easy it is to place a value on their appearance. I was glad to see Cassidy speak up for herself, in spite of how difficult her mother was, and take responsibility for her future rather than let her mother continue to push her around.… (meer)

Books & Sweet Epiphany
www.booksandsweetepiphany.blogspot.com

After Summer is a rollercoaster, you can literally feel the ups and downs of life and you're going through whatever the characters are going through.

That's the beauty of Hannah Harvey's writing.

This book is absolutely beautiful and the story is really touching. I almost cried at some parts because the emotions that the characters portrayed in the book was so strong, you can't help but be swept away by their torrent of emotions.

This book questions everything in life and it'll probably form connections to readers who are reading this.

After Summer talks about the bond of friendship, the ties of a relationship, the aftermath of a funeral and love. It also talks about the decisions we make in life and how a simple decision could affect everybody is a different way.

The beautiful portrayal of the whole story made me question my plans in life because it opened my eyes.

The underlying theme in After Summer for me is, "Your future isn't written in stone."
Some people might expect you to do as you're told but you're the one living this life. You might feel so confused in what you want to be, who you want to become and where you're going to go in the future that you might lose track of your own goal.

After Summer is undeniably beautiful, heart-stopping, a great companion in life and an awesome motivational speaker. Its very pages teaches you about life, love and hate.
The end of the book is absolutely stunning, written perfectly to give a book the end that everybody is craving for.

There is no doubt that Hannah Harvey is awesome. I give this book a million stars if I could.
Bravo!

Sincerely,
Selina.… (meer)