women’s history

The Eights

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The Eights by Joanna Miller

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel set at Oxford University in 1920 and 1921. The Eights are four women entering St. Hugh’s College at Oxford. They are in the first group of women to matriculate at Oxford. Before 1920, women could study at Oxford but weren’t awarded degrees. World War I has been over for almost two years and women over 30 now get to vote in Great Britain.

Eight is the group’s corridor number. Beatrice is very tall, and her mother is a famous suffragist. Beautiful Dora is still mourning her brother and fiancé and struggles a bit with math. Otto (Ottoline) is brilliant at math, wealthy, the youngest of four sisters and doesn’t get on with her mother at all. Otto smokes, drinks, and likes to bend the rules. Marianne is devoted to her father, a rector, and goes home every other weekend to help out with his church work. She needs to do well on her exams to get a scholarship in English, and hopes to become a teacher.

The male Oxford students are not a very welcoming bunch. They tease and play pranks, though some are charmed by Dora and Otto. The reader is immersed into college life along with the Eights, and Oxford is lovingly described along with the many rules the women must follow and the mediocre food. There are a few flashbacks to their lives during the war. This memorable first novel makes me want to reread Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, set at Oxford a decade later, or Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. More, please!

Brenda

The Paris Gown

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The Paris Gown by Christine Wells

This engaging novel is set in Paris in 1956, featuring three women who met at Le Cordon Bleu several years ago. They have lost touch but reconnect in Paris. Parisian Claire is cooking at her father’s brasserie, but has dreams of cooking haute cuisine; especially challenging for a woman at that time. American Gina has broken off her engagement to Hal, an aspiring politician, after her father lost his fortune. She is writing a novel and works part-time at a bookstore.

Margot has returned from Australia, but is now going by Marie. She is working as a shop assistant at The House of Dior, and hasn’t let Claire know she’s back in Paris. Claire is gifted a gorgeous Dior gown, but has no occasion to wear it, so gives Gina the first chance to be fitted for the gown. Gina is invited to a ball where she’ll encounter her former fiancé Hal, who she still loves.

Cooking, fashion, and writing fill their days as the three women slowly reveal their secrets and alternately argue with and then support each other. Life for career women in 1950s Paris is challenging, and they all have decisions to make, as well as the chance for romance. Mid-century Paris is brought to life, making for an absorbing read that is neither lighthearted or too dark. Readalikes include Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah and Jennifer Robson’s The Gown and Coronation Year.

Brenda

Astronauts in Orbit: Two Books

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The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush

The NASA astronaut candidates of 1978 included six women who would all fly in near-earth orbit on the four space shuttles, before the construction of the International Space Station. The lengthy application and testing process is described in detail, along with the long wait to be selected for a space shuttle crew. Sally Ride became famous as the first American woman to orbit the earth, while Judith Resnick was better known for her second, ill-fated flight, on board Challenger in January, 1986. Sally was named to the the committee which investigated the Challenger disaster. Some information about the six was new to me, especially the stories of two women physicians, Anna Fisher and Rhea Seddon, who became pregnant and gave birth while waiting their turn to fly in space, and worked very close to their due dates and returned to work soon after. The six women, faced extra challenges due to their gender in a very male-dominated field, and added pressure from the media. This was great to read alternately with Orbital. Readalikes include The Mercury Thirteen by Martha Ackmann, Handprints on Hubble by Kathy Sullivan, and the novel The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

This beautiful, lyrical novel set a few years from now is a very memorable read, and will likely be nominated for multiple awards. It’s also short, and covers a single twenty-four hour day on the International Space Station. Four astronauts and two cosmonauts, from five countries, are several months into their overlapping nine-month stays on the station. The sixteen daily orbits around the planet reveal the beauty of the planet, the skies, and one massive typhoon heading for the Philippines, where Pietro and his wife met a fisherman and his family on their honeymoon. Chie learns that her mother has died in Japan. Their tedious daily exercise and tightly scripted work days contrast with the absolutely amazing sights including multiple sunrises, shared dreams, and relationships among the crew, their found family. The day described is also notable for another launch into space. Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton is a readalike for this excellent novel.

Brenda