Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch is loosely based on the true story of Katherina Kepler, an elderly woman in accused of witchcraft in early 17th century Württemberg. The book shifts perspectives and styles in conveying the "investigation" and trial of Katherina. We get much of the story from Simon, Katherina's neighbor who is… Continue reading Review: Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Anangokaa by Cameron Alam follows a 14-year-old Scottish girl, Flora MacCallum, newly arrived with her family in the Canadian wilderness in 1804. The novel opens with Flora emerging from a grave illness (I suspect malaria or smallpox) of which her parents and one of her sisters did not survive. Flora, her older brother Hugh, and… Continue reading Review: Anangokaa by Cameron Alam
The War Girls by V. S. Alexander opens at the start of WWII and follows Stefa, a Polish Jew in Warsaw, Janka a Catholic in Warsaw, and Hanna, Stefa's sister who fled her home before the war to live with her aunt in London. There is quite an over saturation of WWII stories, so I… Continue reading Review: The War Girls by V.S. Alexander
The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman is based on the true story of the witch trials of Vardo in northern Norway, in the 17th century. I did not know about these particular witch trials, and the fact that this book took place in Norway drew me in further. Within the Arctic circle, Vardo is… Continue reading Review: The Witches of Vardo by Anya Bergman
In The House Is On Fire, Rachel Beanland recounts the chaotic true story of the 1811 theater fire in Richmond, VA as told from four perspectives. There is Jack, a stage hand who witnesses the inciting event and grapples with doing the right thing. Cecily, an enslaved woman who takes her freedom into her own… Continue reading Review: The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland
Battle Scars by Sam Maggs takes place a few years after the Fallen Order game (I suspect this book might take place around the same time as the Obi-Wan series?) I'm also not sure if this book happens right before the sequel game coming out in April, Jedi Survivor, or a year or two beforehand.… Continue reading Review: battle Scars by Sam Maggs
Daughters of Nantucket by Julie Gerstenblatt follows three women during Nantucket's Great Fire of 1846: Eliza Macy, the once-wealthy but now financially ruined wife of an absent whaling captain. Maria Mitchell, librarian and archivist at Nantucket's Atheneum. Meg Wright, a free black woman who fights for her family's right to own a business on main… Continue reading Review: Daughters of Nantucket by Julie Gerstenblatt
Click the image to read my review of The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley on Journal of the American Revolution.
The Shadow of Perseus follows the women of myth: Danae, Perseus's mother, Medusa the Gorgon, and Andromeda, wife of Perseus. Claire Heywood reframes this myth into a historical, realistic context in which a simple baker is the father of Perseus, not Zeus, Medusa is a real woman of a female-led tribe, and Andromeda was not… Continue reading Review: The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood
The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society by Eleanor Janega, professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at the London School of Economics, explores the roles of women in medieval society in terms of sexuality, beauty standards, occupations, religion, and much more. Dr. Janega writes in an accessible way, so… Continue reading Review: The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega
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