Book Review: Anne Bradstreet

Recently, I signed up for the BookSneeze program. It's sweet. You request a new book, read it, post a few reviews . . . and keep the book.

Yeah. I'm all about free books.

Booksneeze does not always offer a huge selection of review-able books, but I think it's worthwhile to have an account. It's free, after all. (There I go with that "free" word again. I must be my father's daughter.)

So this is my first BookSneeze review. It's for Anne Bradstreet by D.B. Kellogg, a little volume in the Christian Encounters series put out by Thomas Nelson. I liked this biography, with some caveats.

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I am a fan of Bradstreet's poetry. I thought this book did a good job of setting the stage, so to speak-- peaking interest in people who might not know much about Anne Bradstreet, or about the Mass Bay Colony for that matter. I did wish it had gone into more detail about her life. However, maybe there isn't really that much to know: not everyone leaves a detailed paper trail for future biographers!

I really appreciated that Kellogg didn't give too much credence to her own suppositions. She was careful to say "maybe" and "possibly" when describing events that we have no hard evidence to prove. (For example, that Bradstreet "probably" felt a certain way about Anne Hutchinson . . . not that she definitely "did.")

The writing was pleasant to read overall. Sometimes the transitions felt jerky, mostly between paragraphs, and the chapters didn't really build on one another in a continuous whole. They were related, but seemed to be a collection of snapshots, with the links left up to the reader.

So yes, I'd recommend reading this. It was packed with interesting facts and gave a helpful general outline of Bradstreet's life. It is definitely a BRIEF biography though, so don't expect an in-depth treatment of the inner workings of Anne Bradstreet's mind!