Saturday, April 13, 2013

One Glorious Ambition: The Compassionate Crusade of Dorothea Dix

"It was a massive challenge to affect the lives of others while maintaining the private life required of a proper Boston woman. She felt her heart quicken. Howe echoed what Channing had once told her, about every person being our brother's -- or sister's -- keeper.  She gleaned a certainty she hadn't known before.  Here at last might be her glorious ambition." (One Glorious Ambition, pg. 200)

This book is a fictional novel based on a real person, Dorothea Dix, who lived in 1800s America. She always felt she had been created for a purpose, a God-given purpose and was driven to fulfill it. Eventually she realized her "one glorious ambition."  In helping others, she helped herself overcome a life of sadness, loss, and rejection.  In reaching out to the orphaned and dejected, she helped herself cope with being an orphan first in all ways that mattered and then for real, overcoming abandonment and stern criticism from her family. This is an inspiring story of someone who took the pain and loss that could turn a person into a bitter recluse and molded it, with God's help, into a life of great good. From helping her own family to teaching poor children to reaching out to the mentally unstable and rejects of society, Dorothea Dix chose to live a life well spent.

Things I liked about this book: I loved the story line, the main character. It was inspirational.

Things I didn't like so much: It seemed to run a little long on some of the details about federal government, house and senate, etc.  Otherwise there's nothing I didn't like.

I would give this book 4/5 stars.

To check out the author's website, visit Jane Kirkpatrick here.

Thank you to Blogging for Books for a complimentary copy of this book in order to procure my honest review. Please note that all opinions expressed are my own. You can purchase your own copy of this book from several retailers, including Amazon by clicking here. You can also find other reviews for this book and the author's page this way.  If you'd care to rate my review, please visit Blogging for Books and search for Rachel Rudin under Bloggers by clicking here

No comments:

Post a Comment