Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories

The theme for Women’s History Month 2023 is ‘Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories’. The National Women’s History Alliance says throughout 2023, they “will encourage recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts, and more. The timely theme honors women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade”. To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’ve gathered a list of books that we feel fit this theme. The descriptions below have been provided by the publishers. Let us know your favorite books that celebrate women in the comments!

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On This Day She: Putting Women Back into History One Day at a Time by Jo Bell, Tania Hershman, and Ailsa Holland

A fascinating page-a-day collection profiling extraordinary women of all races, eras, and nationalities.

Our past is full of influential women. Whether politicians, troublemakers, explorers, artists, and even the odd murderer, women have shaped society around the globe. But too often, these women have been unfairly confined to the margins of history.

On This Day She: Putting Women Back into History One Day at a Time corrects this imbalance. A day-by-day collection of inspiring stories about incredible women who made history but seldom received the acknowledgement they deserved, this book introduces readers to women of all colors, eras, and nationalities. From Queen Elizabeth I to Beyoncé, Doria Shafik to Lillian Bilocca, this book gives voice both to female icons and to those whom the history books have overlooked.

These women campaigned, cured, and adventured their way through life. They include musicians, painters, scientists, poets, and more. Spanning centuries, On This Day She is a record of human existence at its most authentic.

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The Genius of Jane Austen: her love of theatre and why she works in Hollywood by Paula Byrne

This updated edition features an introduction and a brand new chapter that delves into the long and lucrative history of Austen adaptations. The film world’s love affair with Austen spans decades, from A.A. Milne’s “Elizabeth Bennet,” performed over the radio in 1944 to raise morale, to this year’s Love and Friendship. Austen’s work has proven so abidingly popular that these movies are more easily identifiable by lead actor than by title: the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility, the Carey Mulligan Northanger Abbey, the Laurence Olivier Pride and Prejudice. Byrne even takes a captivating detour into a multitude of successful spin-offs, including the phenomenally brilliant Clueless. And along the way, she overturns the notion of Jane Austen as a genteel, prim country mouse, demonstrating that Jane’s enduring popularity in film, TV, and theater points to a woman of wild comedy and outrageous behavior.

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Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith

A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.

Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley.

Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.

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With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism by Laura L. Lovett

The first biography of Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a trailblazing Black feminist activist whose work made children, race, and welfare rights central to the women’s movement.

Dorothy Pitman Hughes was a transformative community organizer in New York City in the 1970s who shared the stage with Gloria Steinem for 5 years, captivating audiences around the country. After leaving rural Georgia in the 1950s, she moved to New York, determined to fight for civil rights and equality. Historian Laura L. Lovett traces Hughes’s journey as she became a powerhouse activist, responding to the needs of her community and building a platform for its empowerment. She created lasting change by revitalizing her West Side neighborhood, which was subjected to racial discrimination, with nonexistent childcare and substandard housing, where poverty, drug use, a lack of job training, and the effects of the Vietnam War were evident. Hughes created a high-quality childcare center that also offered job training, adult education classes, a Youth Action corps, housing assistance, and food resources.

Hughes’s realization that her neighborhood could be revitalized by actively engaging and including the community was prescient and is startlingly relevant. As her stature grew to a national level, Hughes spent several years traversing the country with Steinem and educating people about feminism, childcare, and race. She moved to Harlem in the 1970s to counter gentrification and bought the franchise to the Miss Greater New York City pageant to demonstrate that Black was beautiful. She also opened an office supply store and became a powerful voice for Black women entrepreneurs and Black-owned businesses. Throughout every phase of her life, Hughes understood the transformative power of activism for Black communities.

With expert research, which includes Hughes’s own accounts of her life, With Her Fist Raised is the necessary biography of a pivotal figure in women’s history and Black feminism whose story will finally be told.

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A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter

An unprecedented literary landmark: the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to the present.

In a narrative of immense scope and fascination, here are more than 250 female writers, including the famous—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, and Toni Morrison, among others—and the little known, from the early American bestselling novelist Catherine Sedgwick to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Susan Glaspell. Showalter integrates women’s contributions into our nation’s literary heritage with brilliance and flair, making the case for the unfairly overlooked and putting the overrated firmly in their place.

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Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean

The ten brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work.

These ten women—Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm—are united by what Dean calls “sharpness,” the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual beau monde of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties at night gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books. It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing in a climate where women were treated with extreme condescension by the male-dominated cultural establishment.

Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world.

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Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas written by Jeanne Walker Harvey; illustrated by Loveis Wise

Meet an incredible woman who broke down barriers throughout her whole life and is now known as one of the most preeminent painters of the 20th century. Told from the point of view of young Alma Thomas, readers can follow along as she grows into her discovery of the life-changing power of art.

As a child in Georgia, Alma Thomas loved to spend time outside, soaking up the colors around her. And her parents filled their home with color and creativity despite the racial injustices they faced. After the family moved to Washington DC, Alma shared her passion for art by teaching children. When she was almost seventy years old, she focused on her own artwork, inspired by nature and space travel.

In this celebration of art and the power of imagination, Jeanne Walker Harvey and Loveis Wise tell the incredible true story of Alma Thomas, the first Black woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York City and to have her work chosen for the White House collection. With her bold and vibrant abstract paintings, Alma set the world ablaze with color.

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The Story: A Reporter’s Journey by Judith Miller

In The Story, Judy Miller turns her journalistic skills on herself and her controversial reporting, which marshaled evidence that led America to invade Iraq. She writes about the mistakes she and others made on the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. She addresses the motives of some of her sources, including the notorious Iraqi Chalabi and the CIA. She describes going to jail to protect her sources in the Scooter Libby investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame and how the Times subsequently abandoned her after twenty-eight years.

Judy Miller grew up near the Nevada atomic proving ground. She got a job at The New York Times after a suit by women employees about discrimination at the paper and went on to cover national politics, head the paper’s bureau in Cairo, and serve as deputy editor in Paris and then deputy at the powerful Washington bureau. She reported on terrorism and the rise of fanatical Islam in the Middle East and on secret biological weapons plants and programs in Iraq, Iran, and Russia. Miller shared a Pulitzer for her reporting. She describes covering terrorism in Lebanon, being embedded in Iraq, and going inside Russia’s secret laboratories where scientists concocted designer germs and killer diseases and watched the failed search for WMDs in Iraq.

The Story vividly describes the real life of a foreign and investigative reporter. It is an account filled with adventure, told with bluntness and wryness.

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Have you read any of these titles? Do you have others you want to recommend? Comment below to share!

‘The Murder of Mr. Wickham’ by Claudia Gray

“How unfortunate for public morals that being unladylike feels so… exciting.”
― Claudia Gray, The Murder of Mr. Wickham

Claudia Gray is the pseudonym of author Amy Vincent. Amy has written multiple young adult novels, including the Firebird trilogy, the Constellation trilogy, and the Evernight series. She has also written several Star Wars novels. Her latest novel written under her pseudonym is the one that has captured my interest: The Murder of Mr. Wickham. This book is Claudia’s debut adult historical mystery. It’s a delightful read full of characters from Jane Austen novels.

Mr. Knightley and Emma are happily married and wanting to throw a house party. They have decided to bring together a group of distant relatives and some new acquaintances: Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Anne and Captain Wentworh, Fanny and Edmund Bertram, and a couple others. Once the company has assembled at the Knightley’s country estate, they are shocked to discover an interloper: Mr. Wickham. He was not invited, but his arrival coincides with a storm that makes his much wished departure delayed. Wickham’s latest financial scheme has earned him a great number of enemies, quite a few of them at the Knightley’s house party. Tempers flare amongst the guests and secrets are revealed. As the party progresses, many people are heard discussing that they wish Wickham would finally be brought to justice.

What none of them expected though was that Wickham would be found murdered on the estate and that the killer would be one of them! Now almost everyone at the party is a suspect, so two of the youngest guests decide to solve the mystery (after all, they know that neither of them committed this crime). Juliet Tilney, the daughter of Catherine and Henry, is at the Knightley’s estate without her parents and eager to explore beyond Northanger Abbey. Jonathan Darcy is the Darcy’s eldest son with an almost militant adherence to propriety which rivals his father’s. Jonathan and Juliet must set aside their feelings for each other and their mediocre first impressions to discover who the guilty party is hiding amongst the guests.

Young Adult Mystery Reads: Jane Austen Murder Mysteries by Tirzah Price

Tirzah Price grew up on a farm in Michigan, where she read every book she could get her hands on and never outgrew her love for YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a former bookseller and librarian. Now, she’s a senior contributing editor at Book Riot, and co-host of the Hey YA podcast. When she’s not writing, reading, or thinking about YA books, she splits her time between experimenting in the kitchen and knitting enough socks to last through winter. She lives in Iowa.

Tirzah is pronounced TEER-zuh. Pronouns are she/her.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a brilliant idea, conceived and executed by a clever young woman, must be claimed by a man.’ – Tirzah Price, Pride and Premeditation

I was introduced to Tirzah Price through her Jane Austen Murder Mysteries. The first book in the series is Pride and Premeditation. What first drew me to this book was honestly the cover – the cover looked cross-stitched (there’s a knife and pistols hidden within the illustrations)! As soon as I started reading, I knew I would enjoy this title (this book reminded me strongly of the Lady Janies series by Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand – check those out if you haven’t yet!).

Ok! Let’s talk about Pride and Premeditation. This is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but with additional murder mystery elements. Lizzie Bennett is an aspiring lawyer who hopes to one day work at her father’s firm. When a murder happens amongst London’s high society, Lizzie believes that solving this case will prove to her father that she should be hired to work with him. After she meets the accused, Lizzie’s hopes are dashed when she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Fitzwillian Darcy, the heir to the prestigious law firm Pemberley Associates. Despite Darcy’s protestations and because of her lack of belief in his defense strategy, Lizzie decides to solve the murder on her own. The more she digs into the case, the more complicated it becomes. The more time she spends with Darcy, the more confused she finds her feelings. Lizzie isn’t sure what to do with either of those things, but she knows that she must find answers for the accused man. She knows he is innocent, but finding the truth may result in her injury or even death.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Jane Austen Murder Mysteries

  1. Pride and Premeditation (2021)
  2. Sense and Second-Degree Murder (2022)
  3. Manslaughter Park (2023)

Online Reading Challenge – Mid-Month Check In

Hello All!

How is your month of 1800s era reading going? Have you found anything particularly wonderful? Please share what you’re reading!

I, sadly, am not faring too well. I’ve tried a couple Victorian-times mysteries and could not get caught up in either one. Admittedly, I usually don’t read mysteries, so it’s not a big surprise that they didn’t work for me. I’m still searching, but I may decide to simply indulge myself a bit and re-watch some favorite Jane Austen movie adaptations. It sounds lovely (to me!).

If you’re still looking, here are a couple more suggestions for the 1800s.

A new book, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Fitzharris Lindsey should be creepily fascinating. Medicine was still pretty primitive in the 1800s. It’s thanks to the efforts of John Lister that many, many more people didn’t die and that medicine advanced to much safer measures. Lister introduced anesthesia for use during surgery, pasteurization and a greater understanding of bacteria and infection. A fascinating, gory look at the history of medicine!

If you are having trouble untangling the manners and customs of Austen and Dickens and the Victorians of England, be sure to pick up a copy of What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Danial Pool. This book is great fun, easy to dip in and out of or read cover to cover. All kinds of subjects are covered including society, fashion and the home. There’s also a handy glossary at the back to explain the more obscure (to us) terms like quadrille (a card game) or camel leopard (a giraffe). This book really helped me to understand primogeniture, a law which prevented the Bennet and Dashwood sisters from inheriting from their father. It also helped explain the restrictions and limitations put on women.

And now over to you – what are you reading this month?

First Impressions

First ImpressionsFirst Impressions by Charlie Lovett is subtitled “a novel of old books, unexpected love, and Jane Austen.” It’s a quick read, quickly alternating between the present day and 1796 when Jane Austen herself is in the midst of writing early drafts of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice (or is she?) There’s some doubt as to whether she or a good friend and fellow author mentored her or whether he actually wrote Pride and Prejudice.

Lovett does a good job of organically integrating historical information about Austen and her books. It doesn’t feel like you’re being fed lessons from high school English, but as if you are really beginning to know Jane and what motivated her to write the stories that she did.

In between chapters about Jane Austen are those that focus on Sophie Collingwood. Her family owns a large estate, as well as an important library of books that contain important clues to the first editions of Pride and Prejudice.  A recent graduate of Oxford and an expert in antiquarian books thanks to her uncle Bertram. Sophie becomes involved in literary intrigue, in which she and others try to untangle the early works of Austen, and those of her friend, Reverend Richard Mansfield.

Suspense builds as Sophie, some shadowy rivals, and two suitors try to solve the mystery. Lovett does a good job of laying the groundwork, so the ending is unexpected yet grounded in the information the reader has been given. For example, subsequent generations of the Mansfield’s and Austen’s publisher are revealed to be active participants in the contemporary mystery.

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron

jane and the 12 days of christmasChristmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.

Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide revelers dies in a tragic accident, which Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane’s fellow snow-bound guests. With clues scattered amidst cleverly crafted charades, dark secrets coming to light during parlor games, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help her discover the truth and stop the killer from striking again? (description from publisher)

Oh Jane! How you continue to amuse me!

Thank goodness authors and actors and artists keep using Jane Austen as a muse to keep us Janeites busy. Here is a list of a few recent Austen-related items I’ve enjoyed:

From Prada or Nada: I have been a fan of actress Camilla Belle since her Disney Channel days, so I checked out this movie for some fun and silliness. My first shock was that despite the girly title and DVD image, this film has more drama than comedy. Then my second shock came at the end of the movie when I realized I had been watching a pretty direct retelling of Sense and Sensibility! (The girls are even named Nora and Mary–I was so embarrassed it took me so long to register the plot.) The movie follows two sisters as they deal with their father’s death and moving from his wealthy home to live with their Mexican Grandmother and extended family in a poor neighborhood in East LA. The film did a fantastic job of keeping true to Austen’s story while also staying accurate to today’s society and the lives of Mexican-Americans.

Austenland by Shannon Hale: Although I tend to love films that do an Austen retelling, I am always hesitant of books that attempt the same. The exception to the rule is those self-aware books where a modern Janeite finds herself living as an Austenian Heroine in her own life. In Austenland, Jane Hayes has been given a trip to stay at Pembrook Park, one of England’s Regency Era resorts that caters to those with Jane Austen fantasies. Although at first she is hesitant to play along with the staff and actors, Jane eventually convinces herself that she will never let go of her Mr. Darcy obsession unless she fully allows herself to participate in the romantic experience. Unfortunately, her love life just gets more complicated as she begins to confuse reality and Austen fantasy. Shannon Hale just wrote a companion book called Midnight in Austenland that sets a murder mystery in Pembrook Park.

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries: This popular youtube series is one of my favorite new things! As you may have gathered from this post (and my other Jane Austen posts), I love Jane Austen with a modern twist, and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries add a twist that I have never seen before: they are telling the story of Pride and Prejudice in real-time! Yup, Jane started her web diaries back in April when she first found out that a young doctor, Bing Lee, bought the mansion near her parents’ home and her mother was becoming insane about it. Her and her bf, Charlotte, (along with occasional help from her sisters, Jane and Lydia, and Bing’s sister, Caroline) produce two videos a week that are usually about 3-5 minutes each. Right now, Lizzie and Jane are staying over with Bing while their mother is remodeling their home (in case they have to sell it). The actors are fantastic, the scripts are fresh, and the whole shebang is produced by youtube superstars Bernie Su and Hank Green. You can catch up on the videos directly from the LBD youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LizzieBennet/ or find out more about the whole project at: http://www.lizziebennet.com/

Emma on DVD

Beautiful, wealthy and secure in her place in society, Emma Woodhouse rules her tiny part of England with a sunny disposition. Emma occupies herself with somewhat clumsy if well-meaning attempts at matchmaking, yet she completely misses seeing her own true love until it is almost too late. The latest adaptation of the beloved Jane Austen novel (first shown on PBS), this version of Emma succeeds in every way.

As you would expect from a BBC production, every detail is exquisite. Costumes, scenery, settings, props all help to bring this version of Emma beautifully to life. The film reflects the bright and sunny personality of the heroine with lush gardens, elegant homes, lively conversation and charming villages. Beautifully adapted and acted, you will not be disappointed.

There are many film versions of all of Austen’s books; one of the great advantages of the mini-series versus a feature film is that there is much more room for the story to grow and develop; side stories that add interest and atmosphere need not be cut and the main characters can shine as they should. All of this comes together here making it a pleasure to slip into the sharp and witty world of Austen.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine

After 48 years of marriage, Joseph has asked Betty for a divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences”. This confuses Betty because of course they have “irreconcilable differences” – what did that have to do with divorce? And thus begins a tale of manners and family ties, heartbreak and second chances.

To save money Betty and her two adult daughters – each facing life changing situations of their own – move into a dilapidated cottage on Long Island, loaned to them by an benevolent cousin. It is here that each woman faces her new future, making connections to their neighbors, town and each other that are both unexpected and comforting.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine is a decidedly modern look at society, inspired by the novels of Jane Austen (you’ll recognize a lot of Sense and Sensibility and a bit of Pride and Prejudice here) Witty, thoughtful, sharply observant, this is a novel of picking up the pieces and starting anew.

I always knew Elizabeth Bennet was tough…

But I had no idea she was a highly trained zombie-killing Ninja!!!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

It appears that Jane Austen may have left a few things out when she was showering her irony, wit and passive social consciousness all over the story of the five Bennet sisters and their adventures in society…for example: ZOMBIES! According to author Seth Grahame-Smith, the militia stationed at Meryton had a very specific reason to be there–to protect the village from a coming Zombie Attack. However, the officers really aren’t necessary because the Bennet sisters, particularly the two eldest, are known all over the countryside for their skills in kicking zombie butts. Other than that, the story strays little from the original Pride and Prejudice plot. Well… except for Mr. Darcy’s knack to crack inappropriate jokes. Yes, the author seems to have loosened up Mr. Darcy quite a bit, although in return Miss Lizzy is a very violent-hearted ice queen.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is more of a parody than a retelling, so those looking to be swept up in Regency romance and wit will not find it. I found myself reading it more to see how Grahame-Smith incorporated zombies into the plot then for the actual story. Expect a little gore and a lot of Jasper Fforde-esque humor.

More of a swamp thing than a zombie person? Check out Seth Grahame-Smith’s Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters!