REVIEW:

I have the honor of introducing you to a wonderful new novel. It is Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip by Gail Ward Olmsted. I found this book delightful and enjoyed my travels with Katharine. Her full name is Katharine Prescott Wormeley. If you read Landscape of a Marriage, you will remember she is a close friend of Frederick Law Olmsted. She was an independent woman who never married and accomplished many things in her lifetime. Don’t forget to read the synopsis because it will tell you all of the interesting things that she accomplished in her life. She was quite a woman. 

In 1907 Katharine decided to drive on her own in her new car from her home in Newport, Rhode Island to her home in Jackson, New Hampshire. It is 300 miles and it took her 6 days! Her average speed was 10 miles per hour. Can you imagine? She met a lot of interesting people along the way and stayed with a different friend most nights. She was well off but she was a very generous woman. She believed in helping others.

It was fun to go that far back in time to understand what it was really like. Again, we get to learn about that time period in our own country. The gas prices that she thought were outrageous and the cost of food along the way. The way she dressed while she was driving. She wore driving gloves! Her car was an open top car, what we might call a convertible today.

The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking what a wonderful friend Katharine would have made and how much fun it would have been to be on that trip with her. We would make that trip today in a few hours and miss all the adventures she had. Think of that next time you take a road trip. Make it remarkable.

If you love history, travel and learning about our country back when our ancestors grew up and were living their lives then this is a book you will want to read. It was a fun book full of things to make you stop and think. Maybe we will have bigger hearts after reading all about Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip. Gail Ward Olmsted thank you for your enjoyable look into the past and a glimpse of a truly remarkable woman.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I was not required to write a review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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SYNOPSIS:

“Kate makes me want to take a road trip. She’s lovable and charming, and her voice… SO GOOD.” -Kerry Chaput, author of the Defying the Crown series

“An uplifting and heartwarming tale of resilience, friendship, and the pursuit of a life brimming with adventure and purpose.” –Booklist

If you loved Landscape of a Marriage by Gail Ward Olmsted, you’ll absolutely adore Katharine’s Remarkable Road Trip.

In the fall of 1907, Katharine decides to drive from Newport, Rhode Island to her new home in Jackson, New Hampshire. Despite the concerns of her family and friends that at the age of 77 she lacks the stamina for the nearly 300-mile journey, Katharine sets out alone. Over the next six days, she receives a marriage proposal, pulls an all-nighter, saves a life or two, crashes a high-society event, meets a kindred spirit, faces a former rival, makes a new friend, takes a stroll with a future movie mogul, advises a troubled newlywed, and reflects upon a life well lived: her own!

Join her as she embarks upon her remarkable road trip.

Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908) was born into affluence in England and emigrated to the U. S. at the age of eighteen. Fiercely independent and never married, Kate volunteered as a nurse on a medical ship during the Civil War, before founding a vocational school for underprivileged girls. She was a philanthropist, a hospital administrator, and the author of The Other Side of War: 1862, as well as the noted translator of dozens of novels written by French authors, including Moliere and Balzac. She is included in History’s Women: The Unsung Heroines; History of American Women: Civil War Women; Who’s Who in America 1908-09; Notable American Women: 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary; and A Woman of the (19th) Century: Leading American Women in All Walks of Life and figures prominently in With Courage and Delicacy: Civil War on the Peninsula by Nancy Scripture Garrison.