I found Elizabeth Seton by Catherine O'Donnell to be a bit slow going. For me, there was too much distance between the speaker and Elizabeth. I didn't feel close enough to Elizabeth to like or dislike her. She vacillated about her religious conviction, which may have been accurate, but it didn't help me know or like Elizabeth. No doubt Elizabeth was constrained by being a woman in a time when women had virtually no rights, but I thought we readers might still have been able to see her personality. I apologize for the review, but I had hoped for a more vigorous introduction to someone who made a solid contribution.

You can tell that this book was well planned and well researched. It was such an interesting look into the life of Elizabeth Seton.

I love this book. The author of "Elizabeth Seaton," Catherine O'Donnell, breaks cardinal writers rules by not starting with the story of her protagonist but far back in the future with Seaton's grandfathers. What she provides is a glimpse of colonial America, New York City specifically, and what it means to be a loyalist during and after the Revolutionary War. She takes us through privations, good stepmothers, poor stepmothers, Doctor's Riots, and the penalties meted out for those on the wars losing side. Through it she provides not only a good biography of the United States first saint, but a biography of a fledgling America.

This book will be reviewed on BookSmartTV.com

A wonderfully interesting look into the life of Elizabeth Seton. O'Donnell seems to have researched Seton's life very well and managed to write it with wonderful detail. I'm glad I got the chance to read this one.

In 1975 Elizabeth Seton was canonized, making her the first native-born citizen of the United States to be proclaimed a saint. Using a wide variety of sources, including journals and letters, the author brings the flesh and blood woman behind the sainthood to life, meticulously tracing the events which made her who she was and the factors which motivated her. A scholarly biography but one written in an accessible and readable style, and one which I very much enjoyed.

This is a simply marvelouslous biography of Mother Seton! It's great on so many levels. First, it's really well researched, using many, many primary sources and the rich archives of Seton's order.

Second, it's really well-written. In spite of all the research and historic background in the book, you never feel as if it weighs heavily on the reader or that it gets in the way of a really great story.

Finally, and most importantly, the book is objective. Too many books of history and biographies use the subject as a way to advance their own agenda and use a selective approach to their subject to do this. Certainly this has been true of Mother Seton in previous biographies I have read. O'Donnell does not do this. She acknowledges at the very beginning that religion was important to Seton and that it will be important to the book. That was really refreshing and a lovely contrast to the "feminist hero" school of biography the saint has been subjected to.

The author does not ignore the opportunities created by women, both inside Catholic orders of nuns and in the world, but she puts them in a historic context, one that is too often ignored.

I only have one small complaint with the book and that is in its treatment of slavery. O'Donnell shares the current view that slavery is bad and that societies based on slavery are also tainted. I wish she had taken her wonderful objectivity and applied it here as well. It struck a sour note, even if you agree.

I loved this book. Elizabeth Seton is such an inspiration, and Catherine O'Donnell certainly does her justice. I feel now as though I know her all the more. The author did a beautiful job of telling her story, while keeping the book cozy and easy to read. Very enjoyable.