Audacity

I'm a sucker for anything about the women's suffrage movement, and I enjoy a good verse novel, so I wanted to read this one right away!

Clara Lemlich was born and raised in Russia, but violence and antisemitism force the family to immigrate to New York when Clara is a teenager.  Her orthodox father and brothers have dedicated their lives to studying scripture which may be edifying, but it doesn't pay the bills.  Despite her lack for formal education, Clara quickly realizes the family will be destitute if someone doesn't start working.  Her father is unwilling to change the focus of his life, and Clara and her mother can't take in enough sewing to pay the rent, so Clara decides to get a job.

One of the few jobs available to poor uneducated women was in the sewing factories.  Here women would be locked into hot stuffy rooms and work with dangerous equipment.  The floor managers were often unscrupulous men who took advantage of the girls who had no recourse.  Anyone who complained would be fired and blackballed.  Clara's situation is even worse because even though she is the only one working to support the family, her father shuns her. Her only bright spot is the free education she gets by going to classes at night after working long days in the factory.

As conditions in the factories worsen, Clara feels compelled to do something.  She hears about the labor unions organizing for the men, and she knows the women need this kind of support, too, but not only is she poor and an immigrant, she is a woman.

Melanie Crowder's novel is a powerful story about real life hero for women's rights.  Highly recommended!

The Hired Girl

I LOVED this book!  It gets all the stars!

Joan is pretty certain her life is over.  It's 1911, and she is the only daughter of a poor farmer who sees no need for education and reading.  He sees fourteen year old Joan as a woman to do alone the woman's work of the farm--cooking and cleaning for her brutish father and brothers.

But Joan loves reading and school.  It was her dead mother's fondest wish that her daughter should get an education, become a teacher, and be the master of her own fate.  A smart girl like Joan would not have to marry a family and work herself to death.

When Joan sees an advertisement in the paper for a hired girl in the city, an idea begins to form.  Working for a family of strangers couldn't be any worse than working for her cruel father plus she would earn wages.  This sets off a conflict with her father so terrible Joan knows she must leave or else see all the days of her life as a an unloved servant to her father.

But she has little idea what to do when she actually arrives in Baltimore.  Where will she sleep?  How will she get a job?  A chance encounter in a moment of despair will change her life forever.  Joan, now known as Janet to conceal her identity, finds herself employed in the home of a wealthy Jewish merchant.  This is the first step on her road to progress, but little does she know the growing pains she will have to endure on her way to becoming a lady of refinement.

All these adventures she faithfully records in her diary, a gift from her former school teacher, and reading this book is like a visit with a best friend.  You both keep saying it's time to leave, but the hours continue to slip by while you enjoy one another's company.  Laura Amy Schlitz's new book is my favorite book I read in 2015.  It is just brimming with personality, humor, and voice as well as being an exploration of feminism, religion, education, and love.  Highly recommended!

A Mad, Wicked, Folly

Victoria Darling wants nothing more than to become an artist and make decisions about her own life.  Unfortunately, she lives in England in 1909 where women have almost no rights.

After being sent home in disgrace from her boarding school in France, Vicky's parents are strict about how she will be spending her time, and it doesn't include art.  Her mother is only concerned with rebuilding her tattered reputation and getting Vicky married before she does anything else.  She even has the man picked out.  Her father is only concerned with the disgrace she has brought to her family and to his business.

When Vicky finally meets her fiance, she thinks she sees a way out of her father's stranglehold on her life.  She will marry Edmund and be free to live her own life.  It doesn't really matter that she doesn't love him; she barely knows him.  He's handsome, and he seems to enjoy her personality quirks.

In secret, Vicky begins working on a portfolio to submit to the Royal College of Art.  If she can just get proper training, the art world will take her seriously.  It doesn't matter that the RCA accepts very few women.  Vicky believes she can get in if she can show her best work.  This brings us to her other problem.  Her father has taken all her art supplies, so she'll have to be creative there as well.

In her quest to create new art, she crosses paths with the suffragettes, a group of women who are protesting to demand the vote for women.  At first, she just sees the movement as fertile ground for drawing, but the more time she spends with these women, the more she begins to question her place in society and if she will ever have any freedom.

She also begins spending time with a handsome police officer named Will.  Vicky says it's all about art, but could there be more to it than that?

I really enjoyed Sharon Biggs Waller's book about the suffragette movement in Great Britain.  This is one of my favorite time periods and one I wish it got more attention  People just aren't aware of the struggles those early women's rights activists faced.  This book is a great introduction because the reader can learn along with Vicky as she has her own personal awakening.  Highly recommended.