RART met this morning on Zoom to discuss titles on women’s
history in anticipation of March, Women's History Month! Our next meeting will be Wednesday, April 13th at 9am for a discussion
of young adult fiction. A decision on
whether the meeting will by virtual or hybrid will be made closer to time.
14 people in attendance:
Holley W, O’Neal
Nicole L, Tarrant
Maura D, Trussville
Brooke K, Central
Shawn C, Pinson
Tywanna M, North Birmingham
Holly P, Vestavia
Laura T, Homewood
Samuel R, Springville Road
Michelle H, Irondale
Riana M, Pinson
Martella N, Center Point
Alisha J, Central
Reba W, Titusville
NONFICTION
I
am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
by Malala Yousafzai (also available in a young reader’s adaptation)
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one
girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her
right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she
almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range
while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey
from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in
New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of peaceful protest and the
youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Becoming
by Michelle Obama (also available in a young reader’s adaptation)
In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama
has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First
Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in
that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in
history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and
girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that
families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband
as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way,
she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two
down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
Madame
President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene
Cooper
When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 Liberian presidential
election, she demolished a barrier few thought possible, obliterating centuries
of patriarchal rule to become the first female elected head of state in
Africa’s history. Madame President is the inspiring, often heartbreaking
story of Sirleaf’s evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to
international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a
political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
The
Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and
Women to Medicine by Janice Nimura
Exploring the Blackwell sisters’ allies, enemies, and enduring
partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together,
the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children,
the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and
visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of
women’s rights―or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the
rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography
celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for
women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, "a hundred years hence,
women will not be what they are now."
Caste:
The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The
Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has
shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy
of human divisions.
The
Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
by Walter Isaacson
The bestselling author of Leonardo
da Vinci and Steve
Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how
Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution
that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier
babies.
Broken
Places, Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi
Okorafor
A powerful journey from star athlete to sudden paralysis to
creative awakening, award-winning science-fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor shows
that what we think are our limitations have the potential to become our
greatest strengths.
T’ain’t
Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s (only available on Kanopy)
T'Ain't Nobody's Bizness excavates the hidden sexualities of
Black female entertainers who reigned over the nascent blues recording industry
of the 1920s. Unlike the male-dominated jazz scene, early blues provided a
space for women to take the lead and model an autonomy that was remarkable
for women of any color or sexual orientation.
Radium
Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore (also
available in a young reader’s adaptation)
Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The
Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the
“wonder” substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of
almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to
life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved
hundreds of thousands of lives...
Geisha:
A Life by Mineko Iwasaki
Nicole’s review: “Iwasaki's memoir not only gives a look into the
life of a geisha but also happens to be of the time whereby the profession
began its decline and her insight into why this happened.”
The
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Nicole’s review: “Diagnosed with cervical cancer, Lacks’ cells
were taken and used in medicine long after she herself had passed,
immortalizing her cells.
African
Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus by Rachel Holmes
Nicole’s review: “Sarah Baartman was a sideshow performer in the
early 1800s, and this is honestly a really, really sad read that delves into
what it meant to be a part of a sideshow, how she was treated and what became
of her throughout her 'fame'.”
Hidden
Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch
Our Nation into Space by Margot Lee Shetterly
Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong
walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as human
computers" used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the
numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This audiobook
brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson,
and Christine Darden, four African American women who lived through the Civil
Rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality,
and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.
Love
and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser
Mary Anne’s review: “Louis the Fourteenth of France was one of
those larger than life rulers; even the average person on the street who may
have never read much European history probably has a mental image of “The Sun
King” based on sources like the popular television series Versailles or movies
that vary in historical accuracy (such as every version of The Man in the Iron
Mask ever made). Louis was definitely the center of his own world, but Fraser
contends that the man he became was heavily influenced by the women in his
life.”
In
the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by
Amy Gary (available for speaking
engagements)
Author Amy Gary captures the eccentric and exceptional life of
Margaret Wise Brown, the woman behind the beloved children's classics Goodnight
Moon and The
Runaway Bunny, and draws on newly discovered personal letters and diaries
to reveal an intimate portrait of a creative genius whose unrivaled talent
breathed new life into the literary world.
Vivian
Maier Developed: The Untold Story of the Photographer Nanny by Ann
Marks
The definitive biography that unlocks the remarkable story of
Vivian Maier, the nanny who lived secretly as a world-class photographer,
featuring nearly 400 of her images, many never seen before, placed for the
first time in the context of her life.
Tacky:
Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King
An irreverent and charming collection of deeply personal essays
about the joys of low pop culture and bad taste, exploring coming of
age in the 2000s in the age of Hot Topic, Creed, and frosted lip gloss.
The
Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
With this book, the acclaimed author created an entirely new
form—an exhilarating blend of autobiography and mythology, of world and self,
of hot rage and cool analysis. First published in 1976, it has become a classic
in its innovative portrayal of multiple and intersecting identities—immigrant,
female, Chinese, American.
The
Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her
life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful
reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human
spirit.
Four
Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 edited by Ibram
X. Kendi (The audiobook is particularly exceptional. Essay authors read their own selections.)
Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history
of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have
assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of
that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a
variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes,
and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through
the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people;
through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of
hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse
pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives,
fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a
monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that
have always existed within the community of Blackness.
FICTION
Circe
by Madeline Miller
"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's
story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and
intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the
Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York
Times).
Ariadne
by Jennifer Saint
Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer
Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten
women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a
better world.
Becoming
Mrs. Lewis by Patti Henry
Meet the brilliant writer, fiercely independent mother, and
passionate woman who captured the heart of C.S. Lewis and inspired the books
that still enchant and change us today.
A
Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler
The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her
illustrious family as they rule Gilded-Age New York, written by Therese Anne
Fowler, the New York Times bestselling author of Z:
A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.
The
Alice Network by Kate Quinn
In this enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author
Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in
France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching
for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage
and redemption.
The biographical fiction of Francine
Rivers
New York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers had a
successful writing career in the general market for several years becoming a
born-again Christian; she then wrote Redeeming
Love as her statement of faith. A retelling of the biblical story of
Gomer and Hosea set during the time of the California Gold Rush, Redeeming
Love is now considered by many to be a classic work of Christian fiction
and it continues to be one of the industry’s top-selling titles year after year.
Since Redeeming Love, Francine has published numerous bestselling
novels with Christian themes—including The
Masterpiece, Bridge
to Haven, and A
Voice in the Wind —and she has continued to win both industry acclaim
and reader loyalty around the world.
FILM/TELEVISION
Hidden
Killers
Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in British homes
during different historical periods. Radium is discussed in the "Edwardian
Homes" episode: https://youtu.be/9tJ2rlyRdpA
Radioactive on
Amazon Prime, starring Rosamund Pike
A journey through Marie Curie's (Rosamund Pike) enduring
legacies--her passionate relationships, scientific break-throughs and the
consequences that followed for her and for the world. After meeting fellow
scientist Pierre Currie (Sam Riley), the pair marry and change the face of
science forever by their discovery of two new elements. The ensuing Nobel Prize
propels the couple into the international limelight, but after a tragic
accident Marie continues to advance her work, resulting in revolutionary
discoveries that have dramatic consequences.
Finding
Vivian Maier
Who is Vivian Maier? Now considered one of the 20th century's
greatest street photographers, Vivian Maier was a mysterious nanny who secretly
took over 100,000 photographs that went unseen during her lifetime. Since
buying her work by chance at auction, amateur historian John Maloof has
crusaded to put this prolific photographer in the history books. Maier's
strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen
photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her.
The
Women
Be careful what you say in private. It could become a movie. Some
gossip overheard by Clare Boothe Luce in a nightclub powder room inspired her
Broadway hit that’s wittily adapted for the screen in The Women. George Cukor directs
an all-female cast in this catty tale of battling and bonding that paints its
claws “Jungle Red” and shreds the excesses of pampered Park Avenue princesses.
Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Paulette
Goddard are among the array of husband snatchers, snitches and lovelorn ladies.
Norma Shearer is jilted Mary Haines, who ultimately learns to claw without
ruining her manicure. All the glamming and slamming comes with a shimmery
bauble: a fashion-show sequence in eye-popping Technicolor®.
Mildred
Pierce
Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal
sacrifice from the Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by
Joan Crawford (Johnny Guitar) as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing
her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford s career
comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by
the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the
well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her
materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent s
tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless
recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain s rich psychological novel as a murder
mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition
is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.
The
Women of Brewster Place
Oprah Winfrey, Jackée Harry, Robin Givens, and Cicely Tyson star
in this gripping drama about a group of strong-willed women living in the
rundown housing project of Brewster Place — a street overflowing with tales of
courage and anguish.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Surviving
Savannah by Patti Henry
It was called "The Titanic of the South." The
luxury steamship sank in 1838 with Savannah's elite on board; through time,
their fates were forgotten--until the wreck was found, and now their story is
finally being told in this breathtaking novel from the New York
Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
The book I was trying to remember is Dava Sobel’s The
Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of
the Stars. However, I could find no
women of color noted among them.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory
began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the
observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the
outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident
astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's
colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice
of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured
nightly on glass photographic plates.
Who
Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
In a far future, post-nuclear-holocaust Africa, genocide plagues
one region. The aggressors, the Nuru, have decided to follow the Great Book and
exterminate the Okeke. But when the only surviving member of a slain Okeke
village is brutally raped, she manages to escape, wandering farther into the
desert. She gives birth to a baby girl with hair and skin the color of sand and
instinctively knows that her daughter is different. She names her daughter
Onyesonwu, which means "Who Fears Death?" in an ancient African
tongue. Reared under the tutelage of a mysterious and traditional shaman,
Onyesonwu discovers her magical destiny - to end the genocide of her people.
The journey to fulfill her destiny will force her to grapple with nature,
tradition, history, true love, the spiritual mysteries of her culture - and
eventually death itself.
The
Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever
to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher
learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place
in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her
ways or respect her customs.
The Crash
Course webinars from NoveList (NL also has a Youtube channel where you
can find archived recordings)
We
Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy
edited by Natalie Baszile
In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings
together essays, poems, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to
examine Black people’s connection to the American land from Emancipation to today.
The
Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship by Jeffrey
Zaslow
As children, they formed a special bond growing up in the
small town of Ames, Iowa. As young women, they moved to eight different states
yet managed to maintain an extraordinary friendship that would carry them
through college and careers, marriage and motherhood, dating and divorce,
the death of a child, and the mysterious death of the eleventh member of their
group. Their remarkable story is a testament to the power of friendship.
