I love history that digs into something that was absolutely massive during its day and now is essentially unknown and forgotten. It always makes me wonder what the same things will be from our era. Sarah Horowitz's The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind it All (September 6, Sourcebooks) does... Continue Reading →
Two Mysteries: What Happened to Paula and Atlantis Black
What Happened to Paula: On the Death of an American Girl, by Katherine Dykstra Katherine Dykstra's mother-in-law roped her into the story of Paula Oberbroeckling, an 18-year-old from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who disappeared one summer night in 1970. Her remains were found a few months later but a cause of death was never determined. Instead,... Continue Reading →
The Lives and Loss of Canada’s Indigenous Women and Girls
Book review: Highway of Tears, by Jessica McDiarmid (Amazon / Book Depository) The highway of tears is a lonesome road that runs across a lonesome land. The plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada has increasingly been in the spotlight of late, deservingly so. One relative of a victim quoted in journalist Jessica McDiarmid's Highway... Continue Reading →
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Essays on Women and Islam #WITMonth
Book review: The Caged Virgin, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Amazon / Book Depository) Any Muslim who asks critical questions about Islam is immediately branded a "deserter." A Muslim who advocates the exploration of sources for morality, in addition to those of the Prophet Muhammad, will be threatened with death, and a woman who withdraws from... Continue Reading →
Narrative Biography of a Trailblazing Lawyer Turned Detective, Almost Lost to History
Book review: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, by Brad Ricca (Amazon / Book Depository) Newly told stories of women who have faded into the annals of history despite significant contributions from their life's work are becoming an increasingly popular, welcomed trend. Author Brad Ricca's Mrs. Sherlock Holmes covers one such story - that of Grace Humiston, a... Continue Reading →
Light Essays on Heavier Topics from Roxane Gay
Book review: Bad Feminist, by Roxane Gay (Amazon / Book Depository) These essays are political and they are personal. They are, like feminism, flawed, but they come from a genuine place. I am just one woman trying to make sense of the world we live in. I'm raising my voice to show all the ways we... Continue Reading →
The Rain Began with a Single Drop
Book review: Daring to Drive, by Manal al-Sharif Book Depository It is an amazing contradiction: a society that frowns on a woman going out without a man; that forces you to use separate entrances for universities, banks, restaurants, and mosques; that divides restaurants with partitions so that unrelated males and females cannot sit together; that... Continue Reading →
Brave, Funny Takes on “Cultural Shifts” and Being an Outspoken Feminist Writer
Book review: Shrill, by Lindy West That period—when I was wholly myself, effortlessly certain, my identity still undistorted by the magnetic fields of culture—was so long ago that it’s beyond readily accessible memory. I do not recall being that person. Lindy West has written boldly and bluntly - but not actually shrilly - on all... Continue Reading →
A Crucial, Timely Work of Narrative Reportage on Rape Investigation
Book review: A False Report, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong Amazon / Book Depository It's early, but I'll call it - this will be one of the most important nonfiction titles released this year. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong discovered every reporter's nightmare - they were chasing nearly the same story.... Continue Reading →