In honor of 2024's international Woman's Month I decided to devote some reading time to some unsung females and their often heroic contributions to history--even if most of their accomplishments were often shoved "under the rug".

I will admit this book has long moldered away on one of my many TBR stacks waiting for its chance. It finally found its moment. Young, poor, uneducated, black woman has her cancer cells taken for biopsy and used for research without her consent. While Henrietta soon is overcome by her cancer and dies...her harvested cells do not. In fact these cells are still alive today--launching a medical revolution, a multi-million industry, and have been invaluable in the treatment of many diseases--not just cancer. If you haven't read this book you should. While it does leave me on the fence about medical ethics (harvesting cells for research) I am still on soap box in regards that it should not been done without patient consent. This remains an issue even to this day--on both sides. 

In honor of 2024's international Woman's Month I decided to devote some reading time to some unsung females and their often heroic contributions to history--even if most of their accomplishments were often shoved "under the rug".

Once again, Ms. Purnell has done herself proud, serving up a well paced and astute account of the curiously unsung life of Winston Churchill's wife-- Clementine. Until recently she was just a barely mentioned footnote in history. She deserved better and Ms. Purnell serves her cause well. I look forward to reading anything Ms. Purnell writes  (and if I secretly hope she writes about Hedy Lammar--who can blame me)

In honor of 2024's international Woman's Month I decided to devote some reading time to some unsung females and their often heroic contributions to history--even if most of their accomplishments were often shoved "under the rug".

Hedy Lammar, well known as a famous and beautiful 1940's Hollywood starlet. Born in Austria to Jewish parents, she became a scandalous actress, but soon married an Austrian arms dealer with connections to Hitler and the Nazi regime. She escapes to America and Hollywood. However, the truly fascinating part of her story was that born out the fascination with her father's work as an engineer and his tutelage, through study she became a bit of an engineer, herself. With the help of an American scientist she developed technology that would have enabled Allied submarines to locate and target Nazi submarines using a wireless locating device. Of course, as a woman, she wasn't believed, and even after testing that proved it's effiency, it was still discounted and not approved by the Military--because no "respected" man could ever be expected to trust a woman's work in this field. I like reading about these unsung women but wow, the misogeny of the patriarchy is very hard to swallow.

Long after the rights to her patented technology expired another man finally "recongized" it's genious and used the technology towards the creation of modern communication and the internet. This is a fictionalized version of part of Ms. Lammar's life, and maybe I'm biased but I prefer autobiographies and thoroughly fleshed out ones at that. It is because I read this book sandwiched between two Sonia Purnell books--this left me wanting more. 

In honor of 2024's international Woman's Month I decided to devote some reading time to some unsung females and their heroic contributions to history--even if most of their accomplishments were shoved "under the rug". Such is the story of Baltimore socialite, Virgina Hall, an American spy who changed the course of WW2 by lighting the flame of the French Resistance. If you haven't read this book-- I highly recommend that you do--although it is more than a little discouraging to read--how the mysogynistic "old white guy" patriarchy downplayed her accomplishments, considerable knowledge, highly developed skills and bravery---simply because she was a woman who dared to presume she was more than capable of doing "manly" deeds.

Ms. McNamara became obsessed with trying to find the identity of The Golden State Killer. I became obsessed with the author's back story as it's a little infamous in and of itself. She was the wife of the actor Patton Oswald, became obsessed with true crime starting in her teens with the yet unsolved mystery of the death of a young girl in her childhood neighborhood. She became a true crime journalist and managed the website True Crime Diary. Alas Michelle died suddenly while she was writing this book, it was pieced together by members of her research team and published after her death. And yep I did some googling, accidental overdose (too many pills + a heart condition). She never uncovered the identity of the killer but it is thought that her research kept the case alive. The killer was ultimately traced by DNA evidence thanks to the development of website companies such as Ancestory and 23&Me. He is prison.

This is the second book I have read by this author and while I find them speedy reads I find them just okay. Not sure I will spend more reading time with the author. 

The beginning of a series featuring Charlotte Holmes--a womanly take on Sherlock Holmes. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more. In fact I am piling up a "Conspiracy" category in honor of CH#2 A Conspiracy in Belgravia so do stay tuned in for more TBR  stacks.

A category devoted to books with Woman/Women in the their titles. An abundance of such books exist so I am sure to keep adding more books to this category