Short and Sweet

 Struggling to focus. Reading short books. Under 200 pages. Why don't magazines count? 😭😭😭

Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

Mopey wild man. Mopey vampire. Mopey fairies. 

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

Heartbreakingly beautiful. 

Excited for her next book.

157 pages

The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis

Reread, still sad. 

Family history is so important. 

Seniors deserve respect and dignity. 

47 pages

Rage by Stephen King

Controversial, out of print.

Teenage angst, trauma.

Teens also deserve respect and dignity.

Hard to put down, not really scary. 

130 pages

Somebody Give This Heart a Pen by Sophia Thakur

Real, raw writing. 

Love her spoken word poetry.

Give, grieve, grow. 

99 pages 

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Beautiful Asian fantasy world. 

Fierce queer women. 

I want to try black salt. 

NEED the next book. 

(No, I don't want to wait a month)

Read Harder Task #11

121 pages

Missouri's Mad Doctor McDowell by Victoria Cosner

Why rob graves? For science!

Who doesn't want to preserve their family members? 

He could view his wife across the river, how sweet.

Now I have to visit Hannibal.

142 pages

Wicked Women of Missouri

 Wicked Women of Missouri
by Larry Wood
Pages: 144
Rating: 5 out of 5

While male outlaws have a lot of name recognition, not many female outlaws do. Here's a collection of women who were born in or lived in Missouri during their crimes as well as a couple of ladies who didn't do anything illegal just "scandalous." A fun, quick historical read.

Bridging Two Eras: The Autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877-1951, Edited by Virginia Laas

Bridging Two Eras: The Autobiography of Emily Newell Blair, 1877-1951, Edited by Virginia Laas

Emily Newell Blair, having lived through the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth, viewed herself as a bridge builder. A dedicated feminist who successfully managed to be both a Midwestern housewife and an outspoken suffragist on the national scale, Emily wanted to give others a glimpse into life during the upheaval of transition. Emily's autobiography, written in 1939 and published in 1999, provides insight into her life in southwest Missouri, her career as a writer, and her progression through American politics.

382 pages. 

Extraordinary Black Missourians: Pioneers, Leaders, Performers, Athletes, and Other Notables Who've Made History by John A. Wright, Sr. and Sylvia Wright

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Missouri TV personalities such as Julius Hunter, news anchor, journalist, and author, musicians W.C. Handy and Count Basie, and politician Freeman Bosley, Jr. are some of the black Missourians who are in this wonderful book.  240 pages.

The Life of Helen Stephens: The Fulton Flash by Sharon Kinney Hanson

Helen Stephens set a world record when she won the gold medal for 100 meter sprint at the 1936 Berlin Olympics set in Nazi Germany. The Great Depression and World War II prevented her from returning to the Olympics. However, Stephens enjoyed an incredible athletic career which spanned into her golden years. Among other things, she was the first woman to manage a professional basketball team.  She championed women in the pursuit of gaining equal athletic opportunities. Her biography is fascinating because it captures the drama of Stephen’s own personal journey beginning in rural Fulton, MO, alongside the development of the modern Olympics, implementation of Title IX, and evolution of US gender perceptions. After her Olympic win, Stephens was accused of being a man – prompting random gender testing for athletes.   She was later frequently consulted on this topic.

Helen Stephens held a 3o year career as a librarian at the Defense Mapping Agency Aerospace Center in St. Louis – a fact that I, as a librarian myself, very much appreciate. Pam Miner, a professional archivist at the Missouri State Archives assisted in compiling Stephen’s enormous collection of correspondence, newspaper articles, and ephemera which were accessed in researching this biography. Many of these materials are now part of the University of Missouri’s Historic Manuscripts collection. Sharon Kinney Hanson portrays Stephens as warm, witty, dependable, and as an international diplomat for women in sports. Helen Stephens passed away in 1994 having led an fantastically full life.

262 pages