History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

A Right Worthy Woman Author: Ruth P. Watson Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Atria Books Release Date: 2023 Pages: 303 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: In the vein of The Personal Librarian and The House of Eve , a “remarkable and stirring novel” (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author) based on the inspiring true story of Virginia’s Black Wall Street and the indomitable Maggie Lena Walker, the daughter of a formerly enslaved woman who became the first Black woman to establish and preside over a bank in the United States.       Maggie Lena Walker was ambitious and unafraid. Her childhood in 19th-century Virginia helping her mother with her laundry service opened her eyes to the overwhelming discrepancy between the Black residents and her mother’s affluent white clients. She vowed to not only secure the same kind of home and finery for herself, but she would also help others in her community achi...

  Katharine, the Wright Sister Author: Tracey Enerson Wood Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Release Date: September 10, 2024 Pages: 448 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: She helped her brothers soar… but was the flight worth the fall?      It all started with two boys and a bicycle shop. Wilbur and Orville Wright, both unsuited to college and disinclined to leave home, jumped on the popular new fad of bicycle riding and opened a shop in Dayton, Ohio. Repairing and selling soon led to tinkering and building as the brothers offered improved models to their eager customers. Amid their success, a new dream began to take shape. Engineers across the world were puzzling over how to build a powered flying machine―and Wilbur and Orville wanted in on the challenge. But their younger sister, Katharine, knew they couldn't do it without her. The three siblings made a pact: the three of them would so...

What Girls Are Good For by David Blixt Publication Date: November 6, 2018 Creativia Paperback & eBook; 535 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction Source: This book was given to me by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis:  Nellie Bly has the story of a lifetime. But will she survive to tell it?     Enraged by an article entitled ‘What Girls Are Good For’, Elizabeth Cochrane pens an angry letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, never imagining a Victorian newspaper would hire a woman reporter. Taking the name Nellie Bly, she struggles against the male-dominated industry, reporting stories no one else will – the stories of downtrodden women.     Chased out of Mexico for revealing government corruption, her romantic advances rejected by a married colleague, Bly earns the chance to break into the New York’s Newspaper Row if she can nab a major scoop – life inside a madhouse. Feigning madness...

Madame Presidentess by Nicole Evelina Publication Date: July 25, 2016 Lawson Gartner Publishing eBook & Paperback; 400 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction        Source: This book was given to me by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review  Synopsis:  *Winner: U.S. Women’s History category – 2015 Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction      Forty-eight years before women were granted the right to vote, one woman dared to run for President of the United States, yet her name has been virtually written out of the history books.      Rising from the shame of an abusive childhood, Victoria Woodhull, the daughter of a con-man and a religious zealot, vows to follow her destiny, one the spirits say will lead her out of poverty to “become ruler of her people.”      But the road to glory is far from easy. A nightmarish marriage teaches Victoria that women are stronger ...

Emmy Nation Undercover Suffragette by L. Davis Munro Publication Date: 2015 Publisher: CreateSpace Pages: 320 Genre: Historical Fiction Source: This book was given to me by iReads Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Being an independent woman in 1913 London is certainly empowering, but Emmy Nation is tired of the inescapable damp seeping through her worn shoes and the hopeless grumblings of her stomach.      When she receives an offer from Scotland Yard to boost her typist income by spying on the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), Emmy jumps at the chance. But as she grows closer to the WSPU women the lines begin to blur, and when a painful part of her past resurfaces Emmy begins to question her choices. ​     How far are you willing to go to secure your equality?       My Review: Emmy Nation works as a typewriter in the Scotland Yard. When the suffrage  movement is becoming very militant, the Scotland Y...

UNDER THE ALMOND TREES Author: Linda Ulleseit Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: CreateSpace Release Date: 2014 Pages: 426 Source: This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Under the Almond Trees is the story of my family – three ordinary women in California who lived extraordinary lives. It started with a falling tree branch that killed Ellen VanValkenburgh’s husband in 1862, forcing her to assume leadership of his paper mill, something women weren’t allowed to do. Women weren’t allowed to vote yet, either. Ellen decided that had to change, and became a suffragette. In 1901, Emily Williams , Ellen’s daughter-in-law, became an architect – very much against her family’s wishes. No one would hire a woman, but Emily would not be deterred. She and her life partner Lillian set out to build homes themselves. By the 1930’s women enjoyed more freedom, including the vote. Even so, Ellen’s granddaughter Eva VanValkenburgh chose a traditional li...

Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Women Suffrage (Women in American History) Author: Trisha Franzen Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: University of Illinois Press Release Date: March 15th 2014 Pages: 304 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: With this first scholarly biography of Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919), Trisha Franzen sheds new light on an important woman suffrage leader who has too often been overlooked and misunderstood.      An immigrant from a poor family, Shaw grew up in an economic reality that encouraged the adoption of non-traditional gender roles. Challenging traditional gender boundaries throughout her life, she put herself through college, worked as an ordained minister and a doctor, and built a tightly-knit family with her secretary and longtime companion Lucy E. Anthony.      Drawing on unprecedented research, Franzen shows how these circumstances and choices both impacted Shaw's rol...