The Mansion of Happiness

The Mansion of Happiness (2012) by Jill Lepore. What exactly Lepore was trying to accomplish with this book I was never completely sure of. It's subtitled "A History of Life and Death," and the author systematically traces each of the stages of life, from egg to death, throughout American history, in succeeding chapters of this book. It's a very scholarly work, which I felt worked somewhat against it. It's too scholarly. The book would have been more enjoyable for me if it had been a little more popularized. But then, maybe that's just my laziness of mind at work. It's a good book, but I didn't look forward eagerly to getting back to it each time I read it. There are treasures buried here, but they're a bit hard to get to. Grade: B