Play Book Tag discussion
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2021 Activities and Challenges
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Pursue It! Categories -- October
@Anita - using, procuring, checking supply of condoms counts as birth control, right?
Nicole R wrote: "That is an @Anita question."Oops! Fixed! And I had Anita originally, then checked, obviously misread, and changed it!
No worries! Just wanted to make sure the right person saw the question if they were just skimming along.
Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?
John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"Yes, but it is a scavenger hunt and yes, I know I tend to submit more difficult choices. I wanted to put a name up there to highlight one feminist for the tag, and I thought the first female doctor deserved a bit of exposure.
annapi wrote: "John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"Yes, but it is a scavenger hunt and yes, I know I tend to submit more difficult..."
My guess is that this will be one category which will involve few books. If I discover it in my book, I will chuckle and eat my words.
John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"You could always read a book where a charcter is named Elizabeth Blackwell. There is a current fiction author named Elizabeth Blackwell, so a character named that isn't that farfetched.
There is The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine but I read that earlier this year! I do plan to read Leaving Coy's Hill, which is a fictionalized book about Lucy Stone, who married the brother of the Blackwell sisters. But I doubt that will happen in October.
annapi wrote: "John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"Yes, but it is a scavenger hunt and yes, I know I tend to submit more difficult..."
I think she might be casually mentioned in other books on feminism or books on other women in science or medicine.
John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"Yes, although she does pop up now and then in fiction, but I can't remember the fiction book where I saw her name. Yes, she does appear in books about women in medicine, particularly American women in medicine. She achieved a number of firsts for women doctors in the US.
This list is the most limiting so will be the biggest challenge to finish :)!.
Robin P wrote: "There is The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine but I read that earlier this year! ..."Another book about her (if anyone wants to go there) and three other early women doctors is Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine by Olivia Campbell. I'm not sure if it will make my favourites list this year or not, but if not, it will be close.
annapi wrote: "John wrote: "Elizabeth Blackwell? Wow! Doesn't that limit your book selection especially among the fiction choices?"Yes, but it is a scavenger hunt and yes, I know I tend to submit more difficult..."
I think she's an excellent choice and landed many firsts for women doctors.
FYI She was the first openly woman female doctor to get a medical degree in the US--there was an earlier British one disguised as a man who went to medical school in Scotland, etc :) and who was practising medicine before Blackwell was born.
Robin P wrote: "There is The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine but I read that earlier this year! I do plan to read [book:Leaving Coy's H..."Oh, I am so torn--you liked it and my other GR friend who has read it gave it 2 stars!
Theresa wrote: "@Anita - using, procuring, checking supply of condoms counts as birth control, right?"Yes!
Item Collected: birth control (situation)Number Collected: 1/4
Location in Book: p. 212 " So you're not on the pill?... But you are using birth control?"
Book: Poppy Done to Death (Aurora Teagarden Mystery, #8) – Charlaine Harris
Rating: 4 stars
Review: Aurora and her sister-in-law Melanie come across their sister-in-law Poppy's body when they go to check on her after a meeting she didn't show up at. This book was heavily based on infidelity: the victim, her husband, their various lovers and the spouses done wrong, even some peripheral characters. The other plot line involved Aurora's teenage step brother Phillip who shows up unexpectedly. Despite the cheating theme I thought the characters were better developed than the last couple in this series.
LibraryCin wrote: "Robin P wrote: "There is The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine but I read that earlier this year! ..."Another book abou..."
I'm enjoying Women in White Coats so far.
Item: Birth Control (situation)Book: Letters from Skye, p. 229
Situation: Elspeth writes to Davey that she is pregnant. (It is 1916.) He writes her back, saying "This is how you tell a fellow news like this? This wasn't supposed to happen. That's why I brought the French letters." (French Letters are condoms.)
Total Items so far: 1/4
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item:Birth Control (situation)Number Collected: 1/4
Location:p.258, 80%
Book: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Situation: Without a word, he took a box of condoms from the Safeway bag and ripped it open. When he stood, he reached for my hand and pulled me up too. I let him lead me across the sand to the gathering of boulders that formed a cove and we circled back into it, to what passed for private on a public beach
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item: Birth Control (situation)Location: p. 184 - "I actually don't have condoms, he says. It's okay, I'm on the pill."
Number collected: 1/4
Book: Normal People by Sally Rooney
My 2 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: birth control (situation)Location in Book: page 180- "Protective spells are about as reliable as the withdrawal method. Science is much more reliable, but then you have to either invest some of your very limited induction weight allowance to bring in condoms or pills and then use them properly, or get an implant or IUD before you get inducted ..."
Number Collected: 1/4
Book title and review:
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Item Collected: suffrage (exact)Number Collected: 2/4
Location in Book: p.83 "Framed suffrage mementos lined the beige walls..."
Book: Mistress Suffragette – Diana Forbes
Rating: 5 stars
Review: Great picture of the major political issues of 1893: financial crisis, women's restrictions and movements, ruthless side of capitalism and workers movements, and the growth of technology. The central character is a 17 year old girl, Penelope, who's father is facing bankruptcy and plans to use his daughters to carry him financially. The second daughter, Lydia is only 15 and being pushed to a solicitor who claims he can clear the family debts with the right incentives.
Penelope is dumped by her fiance because of her father's situation and pursued by a philandering married man who preys on desperate girls. She flees to Boston and becomes part of the suffragist scene. This is the story of her growing into her own woman by meeting a variety of people with hidden agendas and figuring out their motives, by coming out of a sheltered home life and learning what is going on in the world around her, and by learning to believe in her own worth.
Writing was descriptive and unflinching. Characters well developed. Highly recommend.
Due to the limit on new posts, 3 things posted here from one book the 4th item is in message #53, plus in a spoiler an alternative birth control if you don't like this one.suffrage (exact) - pp 196-197 (used many times, chose this one)
"And I think I should tell you, Glynis, that the others have expressed concern about including a suffrage plank"
1/4
Elizabeth Blackwell (exact) --
page 79 - "Elizabeth Blackwell. She's having a difficult time there; not with the academic work, but the male students are treating her admission as a joke."
2/4
birth control (situation) -- call be any reference to the Pill, IUD, using it, planning for it, getting it from a doctor, etc. -- Anita
I sent a PM to Anita and she thought this was okay :
page 142 There was no reliable way to avoid pregnancy, no safe way to abort one. Glynis knew many women died from self-induced abortions, more in fact than died in childbirth.
3/4
Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo 2.5 stars
I really wanted to like this, but the voice didn't work that well for me personally.
This is set around the time of the Seneca Falls Convention, a key event in American first wave feminism. Glynis is the local librarian who has a romance going with the local sheriff. she is the amateur sleuth in this novel. What I liked is that she has opted to remain single in order to pursue a career and to keep more of her rights. I don't think that people today really understand the Victorian mindsets; we relish reading about all of the ways Victorian people were like us with sex outside of marriage, but forget that it was also considered a virtue to remain celibate (Isaac Newton did this long before Queen Victoria's reign--he put all of that energy into his research). Life before good, readily available birth control was very different for women, not to mention the lack of modern products to use during menstruation, and this is not a book spoiler but (view spoiler). Choosing to maintain virginity shouldn't be shamed today anymore than opting not to should be.
The mystery is fine, the clues fine--there is nothing "wrong" about how that stuff is laid out, I just didn't care for this first book, but it's possible I might like the next one better as this is a debut novel.
Karin wrote: "Due to the limit on new posts, 3 things posted here from one book..."The limit is on creating new THREADS. You can respond to an existing thread with as many posts as you like without limit.
Item Collected: suffrageLocation in Book: page 5, "Gilbert seemed to assume that it had been granted by the university, but in truth her benefactor was the National Society for Women's Suffrage, which she now had to support in their quest for a woman's right to vote."
Number Collected: 2/4
Book title and review:
Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Item: SuffrageLocation: p. 19 - "Glynis had loaned her the 1840s state regulations on suffrage."
Number collected: 2/4
Book: Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo
My 4 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item: Elizabeth BlackwellLocation: p. 89 - "Elizabeth Blackwell. I've heard she's having a difficult time there--not with the academic work, but with the male students who are treating her admission as a joke. She's been barred from the laboratories and classroom demonstrations, and the townspeople apparently think she's either a freak or immoral."
Number collected: 3/4
Book: Seneca Falls Inheritance by Miriam Grace Monfredo
My 4 star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Book Concierge wrote: "Karin wrote: "Due to the limit on new posts, 3 things posted here from one book..."The limit is on creating new THREADS. You can respond to an existing thread with as many posts as you like witho..."
My mistake! It's helpful we always have you around to set us straight when we do so.
Karin wrote: "Book Concierge wrote: "Karin wrote: "Due to the limit on new posts, 3 things posted here from one book..."The limit is on creating new THREADS. You can respond to an existing thread with as many ..."
GR has certainly added to the confusion, not just caused it. At this point I am trying not to do a bunch of reviews at a time, stay on top of them instead, just to avoid red banners of doom.
1/4 Suffrage (page 62)“Then Lillian got fed up with ‘all that ugliness’ and more fully embraced Henry’s set, the German Jews, who might have liked the idea of suffrage if they thoughts it would’nt lead directly to Prohibition.”
Leaving Lucy Pear / Anna Solomon.
3 stars
In 1917, Bea leaves her newborn baby under a pear tree where she knows a family will find the baby. She assumes they will take her in and raise her, and they do. Ten years later, Lucy’s “adopted” mother Emma starts working for Bea, as a nurse to Bea’s uncle.
This was pretty slow. And vague at times as to what exactly was going on. I don’t think I particularly liked any of the characters – oh, I suppose I kind of liked Uncle Ira. I really didn’t care much about the characters, either, maybe because I didn’t like them very much? Initially, I thought I was enjoying the book, but I’m leaning more toward it being ok.
2/4 Birth control (page 50)“She did not even know what the package contained. But she kept it, and opened it, and discovered inside a thing she had not known existed: one Mensinga brand rubber diaphragm and shocking, illustrated instructions for how to deploy it. She had used it, every time, since.”
Leaving Lucy Pear / Anna Solomon.
3 stars
In 1917, Bea leaves her newborn baby under a pear tree where she knows a family will find the baby. She assumes they will take her in and raise her, and they do. Ten years later, Lucy’s “adopted” mother Emma starts working for Bea, as a nurse to Bea’s uncle.
This was pretty slow. And vague at times as to what exactly was going on. I don’t think I particularly liked any of the characters – oh, I suppose I kind of liked Uncle Ira. I really didn’t care much about the characters, either, maybe because I didn’t like them very much? Initially, I thought I was enjoying the book, but I’m leaning more toward it being ok.
2/4 - Elizabeth BlackwellWhen Elizabeth Blackwell decided to become the first woman doctor, in many ways she wasn’t actually the first. Women have delivered healthcare across the globe for centuries as herbalists, healer-priestesses, shamans, apothecaries, healers, wise women, witch doctors, diviners, surgeons, nurses, and midwives.1 But this rich history is largely overlooked, and very few names have weathered the passing of time.Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3/4 0 Suffrage - p.39 - 13%"You are younter than we are, Milly, so you muct attend to getting the vote for women."
When young women get together to imagine a better world and inspire each other to start a revolution and not stop until it's over, incredible things can happen. Seven years later, Milly was asked to join the executive committee of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage.
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item: Suffrage1/4
I have this on Kindle as part of a collection, p 361 - Sowing and Reaping - 1st sentence of Ch XVIII
"Why, Mrs. Gladstone, " said Miss Tabitha, you are as zealous a new convert to the cause of woman suffrage."
Minnie's Sacrifice, Sowing and Reaping, Trial and Triumph: Three Rediscovered Novels by Frances E.W. Harper
My review - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Anita - on birth control - I am reading a sci-fi novel where the hero finds out how earth women manage this on another planet that has 17th century technology?
Item: SuffrageLocation in Book: Page 4: "Juniper's never thought much about voting or suffrage or women's rights, but his tone makes her chin jerk up. "That a crime?""
Number Collected: 1/4
The Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow
5 stars
The Once and Future Witches is the story of three sisters in an alternate history of the late 19th century where women are fighting for equal rights as men. In this book, witchcraft is real but has been wiped out by powerful men worried about the power it gives to women. But some of the knowledge has survived in rhymes and stories and in other marginalized cultures. Three sisters work to find the missing words and ways of witch craft to bring it and the power it represents back to their world.
I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, the three main characters as well as the many supporting characters. I liked how the author incorporated real issues involved in the fight for women's rights and its intersections with workers rights, and civil rights of other marginalized groups. I liked how the author slightly modified well known fairy tales (or witch tales as they are called in the book) to give them a feminist slant. Overall it was an interesting story with good characters that kept me listening (I did the audio book) for hours.
Item Collected: second-wave feminismLocation in Book: page 1, "This book happened just like second-wave feminism did: all at once."
Number Collected: 3/4
Book title and review:
A Politically Incorrect Feminist: Creating a Movement with Bitches, Lunatics, Dykes, Prodigies, Warriors, and Wonder Women by Phyllis Chesler
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Item Collected: Elizabeth Blackwell (exact)Number Collected: 1/4
Location in Book: Prologue, page 4, 1% into the book: "“In this building,” it read, “the first female doctor in America, Elizabeth Blackwell, established the first hospital for, staffed, and run by women.”"
Book: The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: suffrage (exact)
Number Collected: 2/4
Location in Book: Chapter 4, page 74, 19% into the book: "The limited goal of woman suffrage—winning the vote for women who were still enslaved by their own ignorance—was, she believed, woefully premature."
Book: The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: birth control (situation)
Number Collected: 3/4
Location in Book: Chapter 9, page 143, 37% into the book: "In March 1839 a substantial notice ran in the pages of the New York Sun, addressed “TO MARRIED WOMEN,” and laying out the argument for birth control forty years before Margaret Sanger was born."
Alternate example: Chapter 9, page 143, 38% into the book: "FEMALE PILLS.—MRS. RESTELL, Female Physician, informs the ladies that her pills are an infallible regulator of ******. They must not be used when ********. Prepared and sold only by herself. The unprintable words were menses and pregnant, but the implication was unmistakable."
Book: The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: second wave feminism/feminist (exact)Number Collected: 4/4
Location in Book: Chapter Spheres of No Influence, page 53, 26% into the book: "Eventually a backlash movement developed called Second Wave Feminism, which tried to get the women back out into the world and not just be wives and mothers and dependent on men."
Book: Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Item Collected: suffrage (exact)Location in Book: Chapter 3
For example, that all men may not be created equal, that universal suffrage may not necessarily add to the general happiness of mankind, that the tyrannies of the left aren't noticeably more liberal or supportable than the trannies of the right, that black men killing black men is small improvement on white men killing black men in so far as the victims are concerned and that capitalism may not be responsible for all the ills that flesh is heir to from drug addiction to poor syntax.Number Collected: 1/4
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James
My review
Item Collected: Elizabeth BlackwellNumber Collected: 2/4
Location in Book: Page 329: "We was afeared she would turn out like t'other one. The lady doctor that was borned here in the town." "Elizabeth Blackwell?" "That one. Violet readen a book on her."
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
4 1/2 stars
The Lacuna is the story of Harrison Shepherd, a young man whose mother was Mexican and father was American. Throughout the early 20th century, Harrison met some of the best and worst people of the era. He worked for famous artists and political leaders, he helped save important artwork during World War II and eventually became caught up in Mccarthyism. I really enjoyed reading this book. Kingsolver really made Mexico City and Asheville, NC come alive in my mind. I felt like I learned a lot about the early 20th century and famous people that before reading this book were simply names associated with the time. I liked all of the characters int he book, both those who were historical figures and those that were purely fictional. There were times, especially in the beginning when Harrison was a child, where the book moved a bit slow for me but eventually I started to take off and kept me reading for hours at a time.
Item Collected: birth controlNumber Collected: 3/4
Location in Book: page 35: "She'd promised to stop taking birth control pills a year after they were married, and she did on the night of their anniversary without reminding him."
My Soul to Keep - Tananarive Due
4 stars
My Soul to Keep is an examination of the consequences of immortality on an individual's psyche wrapped up in a paranormal thriller story. I really enjoyed both sides to this story. David was a complicated hero/villain and Jessica is a strong female character. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of what it would mean to live forever and what that would do to a person and how that drove the actions of David, our protagonist. It also was a a suspenseful thriller as Jessica, David's wife, comes to the realization that she does not truly know her husband and the danger he and her daughter are in because of him. Overall I a glad I finally read this book and I am looking forward to reading more of the African Immortal series and other books by Due.
Item Collected: Birth control - situationLocation in Book: Page 50 - "Of course, there was no birth control, or even sex education in school."
Number Collected: 1/4
Book title and review:
In the Frame – Helen Mirren – 3***
Subtitle: My Life in Words and Pictures. I don’t read many “celebrity” memoirs, but I love Helen Mirren, so was interested in reading her autobiography. Looking at her as a young woman, leading a rather nomadic lifestyle with a theatre troupe in Africa and across the USA, as well as in the UK, gives me a completely different perspective on her as a woman. What a free spirit! What tenacity and courage and drive! Brava!
My full review HERE
====================================
But I just have to share THIS quote, which caught my eye - from The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea ... pg 59 - "Sinners buy ten million condoms for Mardi Gras every year!"
Item Collected: birth control (situation)Location in Book: Part 1, Nick Dunne chapter, 71% of ebook
Months after the wedding, I had a strange moment in front of the medicine cabinet, floss between my teeth, when I thought: She wants kids, right? I should ask. Of course, I should ask. When I posed the question – roundabout, vague – she said, Of course, of course, someday, but every morning she still perched in front of the sink and swallowed her pill.Number Collected: 2/4
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My review
Item Collected: Suffrage (exact)Location in Book: Page 3 - "I ask you, what about woman suffrage?"
Number Collected: 2/4
Book title and review:
The Women’s March – Jennifer Chiaverini – 4****
The novel focuses on the women who risked their liberty, and their lives, to win the vote for women, including women of color. Chiaverini focuses on three of the most important suffragists of the day: Alice Paul, Maud Malone, and Ida B Wells-Barnett, to tell the story. The chapters alternate between these three central figures, showing how each approached the issue and the unique challenges each faced. The scenes of the march itself, and the near disaster it became are harrowing. While the novel itself is interesting and engaging, I really enjoyed the author’s notes, where Chiaverini gives more details on what happened after the march. The Equal Rights Amendment is not yet ratified.
My full review HERE
📍Item Collected - Suffrage"In 1914, Perlemutter wrote an essay in the Toledo Blade arguing: I believe in woman suffrage because I believe the perfect equality of men and women is founded on Divine Wisdom...without distinction of race, creed, color or sex"
📍Number Collected - 1/4
📍Location - 103-104
Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life - Winifred Conkling - 3.5 Stars
Link to Review
📍Item Collected - Elizabeth Blackwell"I finally attended medical school in Geneva, New York, where Elizabeth Blackwell got her degree"
📍Number Collected - 2/4
📍Location - Page 82
The Touch of Fire - Linda Howard - 2.5 Stars
Review:
The story begins in 1871 with Rafe McCay on the run from bounty hunters. At this point we don't know why he's on the run. When he is shot by one of his pursuers, he makes his way to the doctor's office and discovers the doctor is a woman. Dr. Annie Parker tells him his wounds will need medical care for three days, so he kidnaps her to keep her with him while on the run.
Annie is supposed to be smart and independent, but often acts rather foolishly. She’s clearly infatuated with the hero from the beginning and forgives his rudeness, abruptness and cruelty. It's a standard erotic historical romance where the man kidnaps woman, woman tries to escape, but eventually falls in love with him and helps him clear his name.
As the story progresses the hero becomes !ess of a scurvey dog/potential rapist and we can see how Annie had no choice but to follow her heart. I used to love these types of books when I was younger but not so much any more.
📍Item Collected - Birth Control"When she was seeing Chotzinoff, Gloria had convinced a doctor to provide her with a diaphragm for birth control.
📍Number Collected - 3/4
📍Location - 529-530
Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life - Winifred Conkling - 3.5 Stars
Link to Review
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Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
We Are Not From Here (other topics)Dead Man's Land (other topics)
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (other topics)
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (other topics)
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jenny Torres Sanchez (other topics)Laura Buzo (other topics)
Penny Reid (other topics)
Olivia Campbell (other topics)
Penny Reid (other topics)
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suffrage (exact) -- Cindy
Elizabeth Blackwell (exact) -- Anna
birth control (situation) -- call be any reference to the Pill, IUD, using it, planning for it, getting it from a doctor, etc. -- Anita
second-wave feminism (or second-wave feminist) (exact) -- Nicole
This will also be the reporting thread once October starts! When you report, please post:
Item Collected: name the item that you found
Location in Book: describe where you found the item. Either a page/location/etc number for exact words, or a really brief description if it is a situation.
Number Collected: E.g., 1/4, 2/4, etc. This just helps me as I score to be sure I didn't miss anything!
Book title and review (or link to review): the standard stuff
Wanna see the scoring for past months? The spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (the upper left excel cell tells you to what point the scoring is complete)