Flappers
Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell Sex, Drugs, and Jazz. They drank, smoked, took drugs, had multiple sexual partners, earned their own money, wore short skirts, […]
First: Sandra Day O’Connor
First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas When Justice O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, arrived at the Supreme Court in 1981, one of the first things she did […]
Empresses Of Seventh Avenue
Empresses of Seventh Avenue by Nancy MacDonell American fashion designers are so ubiquitous that it is hard to imagine a time when there was no such creature. But prior to […]
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
Madame Fourcade’s Secret War by Lynne Olson I have read almost all of Lynne Olson’s World War II era nonfiction books. Although I have my favorites, Citizens of London and […]
Empress of the Nile
Empress of the Nile by Lynne Olson I love Lynne Olson’s nonfiction books, Citizens of London, Those Angry Days, Madam Fourcade’s Secret War. Like Madam Fourcade, Olson’s latest book, Empress […]
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi, The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang The daughter of a government worker, Empress Dowager Cixi was not an heir to the throne of China […]
Clementine
Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell When you are married to a legend, you get short shrift in the great one’s biography. And if that legend […]
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie Like many rulers before her, Catherine the Great of Russia muscled her way into the job. A German born princess with no hereditary […]
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians edited by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann with Chris Mooney James Patterson, best known for his prodigious output of thrillers, is also an […]
All In by Billie Jean King
I was inspired to read Billie Jean King’s autobiography, All In, after listening to a terrific interview with eighty-year-old BJK on the Wiser Than Me podcast. Other than the highlights, […]
The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne
As much as I love buying a new book, the chance to “shop my bookshelves” often provides equal joy! Recently a new biography of the British novelist Barbara Pym (1913-1980) […]
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
EARLY YEARS Mrs. Edwin Lee Hall of Baltimore had high hopes for her only daughter Virginia, born April 6, 1906. That her ambitions for her child were limited solely to […]