Skip to main content

The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki Book Review

Reasons for Reading This Book:

As a dedicated Readhead I read The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki. What is a ReadHead you ask? The Readheads is a podcast book club that reads a book each month and then puts out a podcast episode where the four hosts discuss, rate, and choose actors for the characters. The episodes are put out the first Thursday of every month. This month's choice was from Jackie O, our historic fiction queen. The last time we read a similar historic fiction book I really liked it so I was excited to read this one too.

Content of This Book:

Marjorie Merriweather Post is the daughter of C.W. Post the founder of Post Cereal Company. After growing up in Battle Creek, Michigan Marjorie made a name for herself through her business, phlanthrophy, entertaining, as a wife, as a mother, and endless high-society and political connections. From hosting presidents’ parties to serving the homeless of the Great Depression Marjorie has lived many lives. Both before and after becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States Marjorie was always striving for more. Could this be the reason for her four marriages? Read to find out about the magnificent and luxurious life of Marjorie Post.

What I Liked About This Book:

I loved the luxury and talk of expensive art collections, jewels, fashion, parties and over the top homes and home decor. I find it so fun to read about a life of luxury and what it's like to have an unlimited amount of money to spend. This is a constant topic of this book, 'I have so much money I don't know how to spend it'. As someone who has always loved learning about connections between celebrities and people with power, I very much enjoyed reading about all the people Marjorie knew and who was in her circle of friends. I watched the HBO series The Gilded Age and loved reading about how Marjorie was friends with some of the people that were highlighted in that show. I was really interested in reading about the business and how it grew from one product to a company that acquired so many other brands. The business side of the story was just as intriguing as her love life. Allison Pataki told a well rounded account of Marjorie Post by detailing all of the things that were important to her. This included her business, her parents, daughters, husbands, philanthropy, and entertaining. As someone who is big into service I fascinated by her interest in philanthropy. I have some more thoughts on it that I will discuss in the disliked section. I loved that this book was so easy to read. It flowed from chapter to chapter effortlessly. The timeframes given were helpful in seeing the jumps in time. I truly feel like this was a well organized and thorough account of Marjorie Post's life. The author did a great job of adding in little updates on say her daughter's when there was a jump in time. The descriptions of this book gave the reader an understanding of just how extravagant her life was, but also told about the not so pretty and depressing times in her life. In that way it really did give a full picture of her life. When it comes to historic fiction I am not the biggest fan of war or war-time books. Allison included the war and its significance into this novel but not in an overpowering way. The amount of time spent on the war was just enough for me to be informed on her involvement and the progression and ending of it without it being the main focus. This is apart of historic fiction that is not a big interest of mine. Allison incorporated it beautifully into the rest of Majorie's life story. 

What I Disliked About This Book:

When it comes to Marjorie's philanthropy efforts I was at first really impressed and dying for more details, but was soon disappointed when she just threw money at projects to fix the problems instead of being in the action helping. This feeling was lessened later in the novel when she did take on a big government responsibility that was very useful to the country. Something that the author chose to focus on and repeatedly bring up was the way Marjorie's father was always praising her. As I reflected on her as a 'character' I realized that this praising led to her having somewhat of an ego that to her, put her above others. This seemed to come out when she was not well received by those of different wealth or place within society. She always fell back on, 'well my father said I am smart and can do this and that', which is true but also led her to push people away that could have done great things for her. If you read the book then you will see this is true for her relationship with the journalist. I also found there to be extensive character development of the people in Marjorie's but only to an extent for Majorie. Upon reflection and the conversation that was had on the podcast episode, we only got her perspective on her divorces and the downfalls of her marriages. We never got a perspective of what she did wrong or caused in the marriage. I find it hard to believe that only the husbands were at fault. 

Would I Recommend This Book?

I have always loved hearing, watching, and reading stories about people's lives and this book hit the mark for me. It was hard for me to put this book down each time I picked it up to read. I devoured it!! Even if you are not the biggest fan of historic fiction, there is something in this book that you will love. I highly recommend it for all readers!!

Check out my book reviews for 2023!!

Check out my book reviews for 2022!!


Check out my book reviews for 2021!!


Check out my book reviews for 2020!!

Check out my book reviews for 2019!!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule

Reasonable Dorm Room Cleaning Schedule After my first semester of college I have developed a cleaning routine that I have been able to keep up with. You can read my previous blog post about What I Learned In My First Semester of College . Over the past few months I have experimented and I am confident in the routine that I have created.  Personalize When it comes to personalizing the schedule you could add or take out the different chores. For example I also wash my retainers weekly and monthly my roommate and I decorate the marker board on the outside of our door. We also only clean our mirrors when needed since we have found that they do not seem to become too dirty regularly. Something that I would make sure you sanitize every week would be the surfaces that you are constantly touching. That means light switches, door handles, and your desk. By doing this I managed to avoid getting sick when my roommate and other floor mates go sick. Another task that you could add to y
87 comments
Read more

Bullet Journal Fitness and Workout Spread Ideas

If you want to purchase some of these spreads you can buy the digital bundle from my Etsy shop: Simply Paperless .  I had created six different bullet journal fitness and workout trackers/spreads. These spreads were made in my digital bullet journal using the GoodNotes App.   I highly recommend to use a stylus when using GoodNotes as a digital bullet journal. For this project I used the Adonit Dash 3 Stylus , which I highly recommend. I also recommend the Bargain Depot Stylus 2 Pack  from Amazon. Daily Workout Plan This first spread can be used to plan out what exercises you plan to workout each day of the week. I would recommend this spread for those who are just starting to workout. I did not created the workout that is used as the example for the content of this spread. The workout is from Pintrest Workout Plan .  Workout Tracker This next tracker is in the format of a monthly calendar. In order to track the different workouts accomplished throughout
63 comments
Read more

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Book Review

Reasons For Reading This Book: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was Jackie's choice for the month of October. Jackie is the host of The Readheads Podcast Book Club. This is a monthly podcast book club that I have been apart of since it was established in 2020. I love getting to hear the thoughts of the hosts each month.  Content of the Book: Elizabeth Zott is a chemist but is much more than meets the eye. She is not only beautiful but also extremely smart, confident, strong, and not afraid to beat to her own drum. Elizabeth is one of the only female chemists working at Hastings Research Institute. She is viewed as different by everyone there. It's there that she meet Nobel-Prize nominated chemist Calvin Evans. Calvin who falls in love with Elizabeth is described as a loner, grudge holder, and extremely brilliant. Fast forward a few years and Elizabeth is now a single-mother working as the host of the most watched cooking show, Supper at Six . With Elizabeth's ways of
1 comment
Read more