More Winter Reads
In this next ‘installment’ of Winter Reads I feature two memoirs and one biography. These are all very differnt books, and each one has something to offer. Two of them will not be published until February so keep an eye out or preorder.
Whiskey Tender: A Memoir, by Deborah Jackson Taffa will be available on February 27. Taffa was raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico and spent a large part of her childhood on the reservation. Her grandparents had been educated at one of the notorious Indian boarding schools. Her parents, eager to persue jobs off the reservation, urged her to leave her Indian heritage behind and assimilate into mainstream America. Taffa, however, wasn’t sure that she was willing to give up her beloved culture and heritage to achieve what was only a promise of “the American dream.” This memoir takes a hard look at what it means to be a part of our country’s history that has either been ignored or dishonored.
This next book is one that fans of The Golden Girls will want to get their hands on as soon as it comes out in Mid February. The book is The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore, by Stan Zimmerman. Zimmerman is a highly successful writer, producer and director, working on shows such as The Golden Girls and Gilmore Girls. If you liked either of these two shows and are interested in hearing inside stories about the myriad of women who starred in these and other TV programs, make a note to self. Reviews from readers of early releases of the book enjoyed Zimmerman’s humor and fun as well as his more serious exposure of sexism and homophobia in the entertainment industry.
The last book I mention here is entitled Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish, by Francesca Peacock. Who was Margaret Cavendish and why was her life revolutionary? Margaret Cavendish was a wealthy English aristocrat who married a wealthy English aristocrat and just happened to be the author of one of the earliest science fiction books, The Blazing World, published in 1666. Long forgotten and underappreciated, Peacock brings this fascinating and controversial woman out in the open for all to see. And what is revolutionary about her? You will just have to read the book to find out! Alexandra Jacobs, in the New York Times Book Review, writes….”Peacock makes a fresh case for the writer Margaret Cavendish’s place in the feminist canon.”