The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Historical, Non-Fiction
Length: Full Length (416 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.

Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.
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Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.

A huge house, a wide landscape and a fairy tale in a real place.

I knew when I picked up this book that I’d be transported and I was. I’ve never seen the Biltmore estate, but through this book, I did.

This book tells the story of the Biltmore through the years, the way it’s changed and just how expensive it can be to keep up the house.

One thing about this book, the author not only discusses the house, but the branch of the Vanderbilt family that created it. I got to learn about the people and the home. I liked learning about the peripheral people as well–who were the movers and shakers at the house, who helped make the house fabulous. I can’t imagine my day to day life having so many fascinating people who are historical figures just being part of it. There are a ton of details and this isn’t an easy read, but it is fascinating.

If you want a book about a place you can just about only dream of, then this might be the book for you.

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Non-Fiction, Historical
Length: Full Length (400 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

AT THE HEIGHT OF WORLD WAR II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians–many of them young women from small towns across the South–were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war–when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed.

Drawing on the voices of the women who lived it–women who are now in their eighties and nineties– The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of American history from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. Combining the grand-scale human drama of The Worst Hard Time with the intimate biography and often troubling science of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Girls of Atomic City is a lasting and important addition to our country’s history.

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I picked this book up because I’d read Radium Girls and I wanted another book in the same vein.  I’m glad I found this book. I learned a lot about the Oak Ridge facility and Tubealloy. I knew some things about the Manhattan Project, but this brought it all home.

Someone had to make the materials for the bomb. These men and women did, but they weren’t allowed to talk about it. I can’t imagine living and working in a situation where you can’t talk about what you do and if you do talk, you can get into a lot of trouble. Craziness.

The author sticks right to the main players and lets the ladies and men of Oak Ridge do the talking. I was sucked right into the story and couldn’t put it down.

Like I said, I learned things I didn’t know–such as women involved with the creating of Tubealloy and mentioning more than once that the bomb, as well as the ingredients, were dangerous. There were women who should’ve been included on the Pulitzer Prize for that event.

If you want a book that will make you think, remind you it’s good not to have to deal with mud and show the possibilities of Americans during the second world war, then this might be the book for you.