Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Details the lives of the March sisters as they navigate the passage from adolescence to womanhood.

Parts 1 and 2. 777 pages.

Breakthrough: The Making of America's First Woman President by Nancy L. Cohen

Nancy Cohen interviewed dozens of women politicians from both parties, political consultants, and voters. She takes us through the history of women's involvement in the public square, starting with the fight to win voting rights. The book was written during Hillary Clinton's campaign for president,  but deals with the path she followed to get there, not whether or not she would win (which of course, she did not.

Focusing on the struggle to get women elected, she examines attitudes about women in this country, and the way young women are breaking through the barriers erected to hold them back, especially in politics, but also in many other areas.

I think this is an important book for everyone to read, but especially women. We need to understand our own biases toward ambitious women, and why it is important to have their leavening influence on society.


338 pages

Eleanor and Hick The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickok enjoyed an intimate relationship for over three decades. In this well-researched account, based on the letters exchanged between the two women, their contributions to the history of the times in which they lived are well documented.

 The two women were completely different. Hick grew up very poor in an abusive home, and was put out to survive on her own at age 14. She was a servant, working her way up to become a respected journalist. She met Roosevelt when she was a campaign reporter following FDR’s career.  Roosevelt was an aristocrat from a wealthy family, educated abroad, who was raised to be a prim and proper lady.

 They encouraged and empowered one another, playing significant roles in the turbulent decades of the Depression, and World War II.

A very interesting look at the private life of a major public person, who had a huge impact on our country.

 

 

416 pages

The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

Lyddie Berry lives on Cape Cod just before the Revolutionary War. Her husband Edward is a whaler, gone on fishing expeditions for months at a time. Lyddie is used to being in charge of her own life, keeping her home and household running smoothly and efficiently and used to being alone. She and her husband have a loving, mutual relationship.

But when he is killed at sea, she finds that he has left her son-in-law in charge of her and all that she thought she owned. However, at that time women could not own property, so she inherits a widow's third of the homestead, and use of the cow. She has only one daughter, so her son-in-law, as the only male relative inherits the rest. She moves into her daughter's home, but chafes under the restrictions placed on her by her son-in-law.

When he finds a buyer for her home and insists she sign the deed, she rebels, and moves back into her third of the house. Her son-in-law makes her life a living hell, but she perseveres, and manages to keep her independence.

336 pages

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Penny will save all women from being controlled by billionaire C. Linus Maxwell.  She imparts the knowledge that family is important and love is paramount.  Very explicit book.

Audio:  7 hrs. 45 min.
Print:  224 pages

"Bossypants" by Tina Fey

The best parts of this memoir, in my opinion and in no particular order, are:

1. learning how Fey got that scar on her jaw.
2. her stories of working at Second City and Saturday Night Live, including her appearances as a certain vice presidential candidate.
3. her observations on the treatment of women in comedy and show business.

I would call this a light memoir since large parts of her life are omitted.  She admitted to a lot of shortcomings and praised many of her former coworkers, which I liked.  I still think she and Amy Poehler are the best anchors that "Weekend Update" has ever had.

Audio:  5.5 hours
Print:  272 pages

Liar, Temptress, Soldier Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

During the U. S. Civil War, women played much more of a role than history would lead us to believe. Here, Karen Abbott writes of four women, 2 Confederate and 2 Union, who did their part for their respective sides.

Belle Boyd was a southern belle who became a courier and spy, seducing men on both sides along the way.  Emma Edmonds was a young Canadian woman who posed a man, joining the Union army. Rose Greenhow was a well-connected Washington, D. C. socialite who had affairs with influential Northern Politicians to gather intelligence for the South. Elizabeth Van Lew, a wealthy Richmond abolitionist with Northern roots,  orchestrated an espionage ring right under the noses of suspicious rebel detectives.

Using primary source materials, the author alternates chapters between the lives of these fascinating women.

533 pages

Red 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach

Posted for Paul Mathews

The man she married was to turns from crime writer to killer.  He has named himself the Big Bad Wolf. The three female victims he labels Red 1-2-3  fight back and turn the table on him.

Audio:  13 hrs. 59 min.
Print:   400 pages

American Jezebel by Eva LaPlante

This biography of Anne Hutchison focuses on her trial for heresy and sedition. She was a forty-six-year-  midwife and pregnant with her 16^th child. In 1637, she was tried before judges of the Massachusetts General Court.

At that time, women could not vote or hold public office. They also could not be ministers, and Anne held meetings at her home in which she dared to teach both women and men her interpretation of the scriptures. In that Puritan society, the judges considered her a threat to the stability and well-being of the colony. They excommunicated and banished her for behaving in a manner “not comely for her sex.”

Many historians consider her quest, and that of her followers, at the core of the origins of our modern concepts of religious freedom, equal rights, and free speech.

346 pages

The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell by William Klaber

One day in 1855, Lucy Lobdell cut her hair, donned her brother's clothes, and went off to live her life as a man.  Her husband had left her pregnant and penniless, leaving her to move back in with her family, who treated her as if she was the reprobate, not him.

Lucy lived at a time when women did not commonly travel unescorted, carry a rifle, sit down in bars, or have romantic liaisons with other women. She wanted to wear what she wanted, work and be paid what men were, and love whomever she chose.

She was found eventually found out, arrested and tried for the crime of wearing men's clothes. This is a fictionalized account of her story.


308 pages

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

When Sonia Sotomayor was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 8, she realized that if she was to be able to function in a world in which the adults around her were unreliable, she would have to learn to give herself the insulin shots she needed every day.


That determination and focus would lead her to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton, law school at Yale, and eventually to the Supreme Court of the United States as the first Hispanic and third woman member.

Born in New York into a large Puerto Rican family, she was surrounded by a large and loving family. But her father was alcoholic and her mother's emotional response kept their family in turmoil until her father died when she was 9.  The family was very poor, living in housing projects in the Bronx. Her mother stressed education as the way to improve their lives and give them the skills they needed to make a better life.

And the rest, as they say, is history.


353 pages