I finished reading Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson.
I have no idea why it took me 10 days or so to read this book. It was very interesting and easy to read...you don't get bogged down in a lot of historical background. You do get historical background, which I really love, but not so much that it detracts from the story of this great woman. It probably just took me so long to read because I've not really been reading a lot.
Anyway, this is really the first biography that is based on very careful research of Tubman's life. And it's more comprehensive than bios in the past. Many of the books published before this have been geared toward kids and have been largely about her work as a conductor on the underground railroad. There have also been many things taken as gospel about Tubman that were never substantiated or corrected. This book takes care of it all.
I never had a clue that Tubman was involved in the woman's suffrage movement. Or that she worked as a spy for the Union army. She also served as a nurse and laundress in the Union army. After a lot of that died down, she spent much of her final years trying to get a home set up for destitute and disabled black people. She also suffered from debilitating headaches and seizures all her life...caused by being struck on the head by a iron weight. She fell asleep alot, and heard voices and saw auras.
This was a great book. Now I'm starting Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Dark Side of Extreme Adventure by Maria Coffey. This is about the addiction to extreme sports and its toll on families and loved ones
7:18:09 AM 
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