Western notions of femininity have traditionally been a bit frilly and swoony, with a generous ladle of helplessness thrown in for good measure. The title of my blog today comes from Jane Austen, who famously said, “I hate to hear …
Tag: civil war
from civil war to civil rights…five books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2014
Greetings on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2014. Each year I find more good books than I have space for which share King’s dream of civil rights and illuminate its importance over time. This list of five is packed with …
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a list of…five admiring accounts about Abe
President’s Day arrives next week. Last year I reviewed five books on George Washington which you can read here, and the year before that was a mixture of presidential titles — that’s here. This year I’ve got five fantastic perspectives …
nonfiction nuggets…from slave to statesman, the life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass: A Noble Life, by David A. Adler “Give him a bad master, and he aspires to a good master; give him a good master, and he wishes to become his own master,” wrote Frederick Douglass in his book, …
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fiction favorites…Lincoln and His Boys
Lincoln and His Boys, by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by P.J. Lynch Suddenly a whole bunch of men come up and talk to Father. A year ago, when he was running against Mr. Douglas, these same sort of men were always …
a list of…five monumentally-great books for Presidents’ Day
My local newspaper, the Minneapolis StarTribune, ran a delightful article in honor of Presidents’ Day, in which they interviewed second-graders to hear their thoughts on the presidents. When asked their favorite president, one boy said Abraham Lincoln because “he was the second …
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