1 comments about Smart Girls, Gifted Women.

1. I was given this book in the fourth grade by my mother. As it was written for adults, I couldn't quite handle it yet, and didn't read it thoroughly until the sixth grade. It sparked my interest in intelligence, education, and particularly gifted education, which I still carry with me. I am now a student at MIT and hope to soon be doing research on the effect gifted education has had on college students' lives. Everyone who has any reason to be interested in gifted education or education of girls should read this book!

4 comments about To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells.

1. And one of the ten most impressive people I've ever read about, period. I can't say too much about how awed I am of the life of Ida B. Wells. Had I been her contemporary I would have worn out my knees trying to propose to her until she married me. McMurry's book shows how this woman has been short changed by history due to her uncompromising belief in African American equal rights and self-respect. She and people like another African American who doesn't get his due, Monroe Trotter, have been marginalized merely because in their day they demanded the same degree of self-respect and political and educational rights that Caucasians of every stripe took for granted. They were considered "radical" and "militant" for not compromising the way virtually all other African American leaders did during their era. Their marginalization goes a long way in explaining why the African American persona has never featured the degree of chutzpah and daring it has needed for us to advance farther than we have. Instead, all of us have been too heavily influenced by leaders promoted over Wells-Barnett and Trotter, who instilled caution within us as a people, virtually as second nature. Not even W.E.B. Du Bois conducted himself with the degree of pride and fortitude that people like Wells-Barnett and Trotter did. McMurry's book deserves a place on all reading lists in American history classes so that everyone can truly understand the troubling forces that made this country what it is today, and the manner in which people like Wells-Barnett were purposely silenced as part of a plan to keep African Americans oppressed.



2. This book is interesting and easy to read, but hard to take. Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a complex person: incredibly smart, brave and strong, but at the same time, prickly and ultra sensative.The book also puts America's current racial and gender problems into perspective, showing us that we haven't come very far from the late 19th century's attitudes toward and treatment of African-Americans and women. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about a great American or wants to face and learn more about America's shameful history. That said, the author's style makes it easy to read. Amazingly enough for a scholarly biography, I would often find myself reading late into the night because I couldn't put it down.



3. McMurray's biography of Ida B. Wells-Barnett is a rare triumph. Wells-Barnett was a courageous American whose valor is depicted in full color. All too frequently, when there is a discussion of the impact of race, there is a mistaken assumption that black males comprise the affected population. Similarly, when gender is raised as an issue, the false assumption is that white women are the only ones to be affected. Wells-Barnett was an American woman of African descent who fought the societally-mandated strictures of race and sex until her death. I am emboldened by her deeds since too many of the same strictures still exist. I applaud McMurray for her scholarship in this biography's portrayal of the life of Wells-Barnett. This book is definitely recommended.



4. I came away from this book with new respect for Wells, and her courage. I was overwhelmed with sadness after reading some of the details of the lynchings and the effect on the survivors. The book contains an excellent analysis of the real reason for many lynchings:economic competition.

2 comments about The Hornes.

1. An absorbing trip through American history, courtesy of a family of vivid dreamers and high achievers. Gail Lumet Buckley had access to a remarkable family archive of scrapbooks, photographs and journals and does great justice to it, crafting a multigenerational portrait that is enlightening and highly readable. Although Buckley's mother, Lena Horne, is the most famous member of the family, the book makes it clear that she was only one of its noteworthy success stories. For anyone wanting to know more about what America was like for middle-class blacks in the Reconstruction and beyond, "The Hornes" is a wonderful place to begin.



2. Fabulous insight into a family with ties to every important event in US History.

3 comments about Women Aren't Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon.

1. Dr. Hall's memoir made me laugh at places, and curse all idiots who automatically think women are incompetent simply because they are women (or vice-versa). Despite that, she succeeded at what she wanted to do, and didn't let it affect her outlook on life. This book reminds me a bit of Richard Feynman's "Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman".



2. Well written, story moves right along, fascinating topic. Loved it. A reminder of how far we've come in just the last few decades.



3. An interesting and entertaining autobiography by a female physician who was unique in her career as an Air Force flight surgeon and a private pilot. The ground-breaking events that culminated in her retirement as a full colonel would be of special interest to those who follow medical and military memorabilia.
   
   Dr. Hall's writing skill and her ability to communicate in a clear and humorous fashion offers a pleasant reading experience for those of us who simply want a behind-the-scenes look at a life that is truly extraordinary.

1 comments about One Woman's Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter.

1. According to Sharon Paiva Stephan, the talents of 19th-century artist, businesswoman and writer Celia Laighton Thaxter will always find readers and viewers. It was her special skills at gardening, turning commonly used objects into works of art, throwing parties, and writing. As ONE WOMAN'S WORK says, Thaxter could, just as well, grow flowers, paint them onto china, put them in vases, or turn them into poetry.

   Other than a semester at Mt Washington Female Seminary in Boston, Thaxter learned what she knew by home schooling and by painting lessons with Boston Impressionist Childe Hassam. Just plain observing nature also had a lot to do with her delicately detailed style. She was often seen carrying magnifying glasses and sketchbooks. The sketches usually showed up later in her book illustrations and her hand-painted china designs of olive branches, poppies, scarlet pimpernel and seaweed.

   Also, Thaxter's sketches probably joggled her memory for writing. AN ISLAND GARDEN ended up among the best autobiographical garden books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. That work alone grouped her with respected women garden writers Helena Rutherford Ely, Mrs Francis King, Anna B Warner, and Louise Beebe Wilder.

   Thaxter moved into gardening and writing naturally, out of admiration for John Audubon. She was an early protector of endangered birds. Because of what she did and wrote, much of the Isles of the Shoals, off coastal Maine, became bird sanctuaries. Specifically, Appledore island, where she ran a successful hotel business, became a summer research spot managed by Cornell and New Hampshire universities.

   Her garden of mainly Burpee and Dreer seeds was destroyed by fire in 1914. Not destroyed was the garden information in Hassam's paintings, many old photographs, and Thaxter's writings. So John M Kingsbury of Cornell University brought back, in time for the United States Bicentennial, the Thaxter garden of asters, hollyhocks, larkspurs, lilies, love-in-a-mist, mignonette, sweet rocket, verbenas, and wildflowers.

   During her life Thaxter's garden kept on going, beyond the sweet pea-covered fence, in one direction up vine-covered walls, into the house. There every spacetop had vases, each with 1-2 blossoms. In another direction poppy seeds were left, unweeded after May, to bloom wildly down the bank right to the sea's edge!

   Late 19th-century dress tended towards colors too. But Celia Laighton Thaxter stood out in blacks, grays or whites. Photographs in the garden often showed her covered up in a white duster. For other such information, and an even more personal portrait, there's Julia Older's ISLAND QUEEN and Rosamond Thaxter's SANDPIPER.

No comments about Charlotte Perriand (Memoire).

5 comments about Lilla's Feast: One Woman's True Story of Love and War in the Orient.

1. "Lilla's Feast" describes a time not so very long ago that seems impossibly distant. The world-wide expansion of European colonialism in the 19th century caused thousands of people, especially British, to seek their fortunes in the colonies and the trading emporiums in the exotic East, especially India and China. Lilla, the great-grandmother of the author was one of them. She was born in Chefoo, China in 1882 and spent most of her life in China or India.
   
   Lilla never did anything of great importance, but she stands for all the Brits born and raised abroad who felt a bit foreign when they returned "home" to England on visits. During the course of her 100-year life Lilla was present during the peak of Western power and prestige in the Orient before 1900 and its rapid decline thereafter culminating in World War II in which Lilla and her family ended up in a Japanese concentration camp.
   
   We follow Lilla through marriages, births,deaths, family troubles in India and China, the hardships of Weihsien internee camp in China during World War II, and finally back to an uneasy old age in England -- the money, power, and prestige of life as a privileged Westener in China now gone. It's a good story to be read about a class of people who saw their pleasant lives and lucrative livelihoods destroyed by war and politics. We don't feel all that sorry for Lilla, nor even that fond of her, but we are interested in her experiences. Along the way we get some fascinating pictures of the life of Brits in China -- and especially the hardships of Weihsien, a concentration camp that has catalyzed a sizeable body of literature. See "The Call" by John Hersey, a novel about a missionary who is interned in Weihsien and "Shantung Compound" by Lawrence Gilkey, a sociological classic about people under the stress of imprisonment.
   
   Smallchief



2. This is one of the most amazing stories that I have recently read. The book is beautifully produced, and the Author has gone to an enormous amount of trouble in collecting photographs and information concerning her Great Grandmother, who defied every hardship she faced. This incredible Lady lived to the age of 100, having survived a Japanese concentration camp in World War 2, preceded by other trials and tribulations. Her story is an object lesson to us all, in how not to give in, how to keep going whatever the circumstances that life brings to us. The early days of her first Marriage tell us how to keep a man happy even though she had a miserable time with him!!!This is a book to be read again and again, a wonderful read and most inspiring.



3. What we have here is a woman's life spanning just over 100 years. Lilla is not a particularly likeable woman, but if you digest the details you can see why (possibly). She is an interesting woman who weathered particularly exhausting situations and managed her life so that she did what was expedient.
   This book has numerous photographs.
   The book isn't well-written or edited. That aside, the details of survival, one way or another, are quite out of the ordinary and at times fascinating. It became even more so when I realized I had actually seen this cookbook when I was lucky enough to come across it several years ago at the Imperial War Museum. It was a nice , unexpected connection. And I have never before read of the Japanese prison camp existence within China. An easy read of eras gone by.



4. The previous review which reviles the colonial bias of this biography has little relevance ... this is the world as it was then and the story is not being told to address the right or wrong of it, but rather to tell the story of the author's great grandmother in the grand sweep of WWII. The woman in this incredible story makes the best of deprivations and a bad marriage and far flung family, circumstances take her from her beloved China to England, India, all of this in that bygone time with none of todays conveniences and she remained a figure of dignity and elegance who also has experiences of sublime beauty and love... I think this little masterpiece will make its way into your heart and stay there, it did with me.



5. But I for one was not. The book is steeped in a bias towards colonialism. The tone of the book encourages the reader to think of the Chinese, Japanese, and Indians as faceless "others" surrounding the more civilised and elegant British and European populations, only to be depicted in elementary-school-textbook-like passages about historical events.
   Although the author's inclination to view her great-grandmother as a victim of nearly everyone and everything (fate as well!)is certainly understandable, it hardly makes for captivating reading. The writing style is a dry mix of "facts" derived from personal effects and sheer speculation.
   This book is based upon a recipe book which was donated to a British museum.... as opposed to the priceless artifacts which Britain so self-righteously helped itself to during it's tyrannical episode of colonization... and still doesn't feel the need to return.
   I suppose it's hardly possible to expect an unbiased view of colonization from the wife of the youngest conservative member of Parliament, but one can hope.

2 comments about Women in the City of the Dead.

1. For all of us with enough money to buy computers and order books over them, this compilation of tales is a lesson in humility. Through translation and loving care the author has illuminated the lives and traditions of women that Westerners would normally never meet. The approach of these Egyptians, who have almost nothing, to life, family, children and friendship is a lesson to those of us who are better off.
   
   How many of us are like the "Foolish Beetle"? We run around in circles, wasting our energy complaining about how hard life is, how hungry we are. We are so busy being miserable that we miss the juicy grubs in our path or the delicious dung heep that would feed our families for a week.
   
   I loved the book. I loved the references to the zar and the Islamic spirit world. I loved the bonds of friendship that existed among these women, who often only had each other for support. I enjoyed how the author told the woman's life story and then followed it by her "tale". But what I loved most was how these women faced such adversity - with hope, compasion and a wonderful sense of humor.



2. This thoughtful and perceptive ethnography of women's lives is one of the best examples of ethnographic experimentation around. It attempts a new style formed around a coherent vision of what anthropology is about

5 comments about Melissa Etheridge: Our Little Secret.

1. This is the most informative and entertaining book about Melissa Etheridge. The book is well written, well organized and has some detailed information on how each CD was made and what the stories were behind them. It's the only book about Melissa Etheridge you will ever need.



2. This was the book both Lifetime's "Intimate Portrait" and VH-1's "Behind the Music" used as a reference for their specials on Melissa. Can't get much more definitive than that!!!



3. im a great fan just want to express my thoughts the web site contains to many commercial thoughts i dig all the cds you have releasded the one that striked home is yes i am #5 that is the greastest tune ever released melissa is cool just a human like me



4. Melissa has always been a favorite artist of mine since my girlfriend and I found a tape of hers on the dollar rack in a Walgreens in CA. We discovered that she had more than one tape, and we immediately went to find the others. Everything us nosy fans wants to know is in this book. That and more! I would most definitly encourage and Melissa fan to read this book and to buy a copy to add to your personal library. It is a must have info book!!!



5. The book, to me, was very good. It was very vivid in the telling of Melissa's life. It wasn't like reading an exam paper like the first book I read about her. All in all, the book was excellent.

5 comments about Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy.

1. Although I am a lover of history (especially medieval and renaissance) and am also a medieval reenactor I found this book to be beyond even my tolerance for detail and minutia and I abandoned it without finishing. Perhaps the title should have been Lucrezia's household inventory or Lucrezia and Giuliana's tedious hair washing routine. Please do yourself a favor, save your money, and find some other book on the lady and her life and times.



2. I found this book very interesting and could not put it down. It is amazing what women had to endure and how they were used as political pawns without any concern for their feelings. Overall Lucrezia's life was quite sad but she certainly was not the ruthless person most people think she is. Some of her other family members certainly were and therefore tarnished her name as well.



3. ok, I admit it, the book is kind of dry. There is a lot of dates, names and references to archives and documentation. It does not read like a novel, nor does it conjure images of a renaissance play...It is not, at least superficially, an entertaining read.
   
   However, if you are into this sort of thing, and somewhat addicted to the history channel, so be it. Knowing the myths and rumor surrounding Lucrezia, this book provides a candid look that is base on solid research. It makes her seem human, although less exotic than we would like. For people who are interested in the "truth" of Lucrezia (at least what we can confirm or speculate from the research), this is worth a read.



4. The prose in this book drags itself from page to page with all the appeal of a wet blanket. I received it as a present - very much looking forward to a 'good read'. Instead, I found the prose dull, the story disappointingly assembled and the insights into the gusto of the Borgia's lives were meagre. The stage is littered with characters with few attempts made to sift them for the reader into categories of importance.
   
   One of the most peculiar experiences, was my difficulty remembering what I had read the previous day when beginning a new section. Too dull and narratively undifferentiated to be worth bothering with in my opinion.



5. If you are desparately searching for the exact fasions and skin care of Renaissance ladies, here's your book. Also good for those of you interested in despots posing as religious leaders.
   
   For anyone wanting to dive into Lucrezia's life and personality, look elsewhere. That woman barely makes an appearance in this book.