"How history's greatest artists failed, floundered and made something brilliant anyway." The notion that famous artists were destined for greatness, somehow chosen or fated, and they they lead charmed lives is put under the microscope in this book. What the author explores is a less dramatic and more realistic truth: often artists are famous because …
"The forgotten founding mothers of the Fairy Tale and the stories that they spun". This pretty book sets out to tell us the personal stories and some of the output of Les Conteuses, a group of literary women in the French Upper Classes, who wrote in the era from 1690 to 1709, and who wrote …
Continue reading Women Of The Fairytale Resistance by Jane Harrington
His Majesty's Airship is the latest non-fic from Pulitzer prize finalist SC Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon. The books tells the story of the British Airship R101, which went down a huge blazing crash in 1930, causing more deaths than the Hindenburg disaster 7 years later. At the time, airships had been …
"The untold story of the six women who in programmed the world's first modern computer"When Kathy Kleiman came across photographs of the earliest computers, she saw women posed in the pictures. Told that they were just "refrigerator models", posed there just to make the machine look good, she wasn't convinced. Something about them looked professional …
Belle da Costa Greene was a remarkable woman. Born in 1879, she was a cultured and beautiful woman who discretely had lovers, and was highly respected in her field. She was the personal librarian of JP Morgan, director of one of the most prestigious US libraries, and was the highest paid woman of her era. …
I was so excited when I requested this book, and it did not disappoint. People are basically decent, and the world is not as bad as you think. That's essentially the premise of this book. But it's not a light, fluffy, motivational book, it's actually a well researched and absolutely fascinating read. I came to …
Continue reading Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
I have a few books in my collection now that are about local or Canadian history, and they're all so fascinating. I came across this title, and was really intrigued to learn more. This one was from a small BC press, and I hope to share more of their titles with you in future, because …
Cathedral is set in Hagenberg in the 12th and 13th centuries. It takes in the lives of various characters who live in Hagenberg and who are effected by the building of the cathedral. That's everyone from the clergyman who has to find the money to finance it, the artisans who work on the architecture and …
When I was growing up, I think every girl was given a copy of Little Women, Louisa May Alcotts 1868 book about four sisters coming of age under their Mother or Marmee's care and wisdom during the Civil War. It was a huge best seller in it's own era and remains a classic beloved by …
I used to say that I'm not really a podcast person. I get why a lot of people aren't into them. But I realised that listening to podcasts is a lot like curling up with a cocoa next to the wireless and listening to the Lone Ranger. Some things have a cozy, timeless feel. And …
