For a number of years, I was a historical interpreter at two of Toronto’s oldest and finest houses. While looking at the furniture, paintings, and below-stairs bells and open-hearth cooking in these upper-class mansions, I became immersed in the lives of the people who once lived in these places. I have always been interested in history, and I have a post-graduate degree in Canadian literature, but my schooling in history seemed confined to the Tudor period and Greek and Roman times. Working in Toronto’s fine homes led me to a deep understanding of the fascinating history we have right here on our doorstep!
Most of the information on Anne Powell’s life is written by men. They invariably find her to be eccentric, bizarre, or crazy. That’s why I was pleased to discover this book by a female professor. It contains detailed, well-researched information on the Powell family and the world they lived in. The book also directed me to useful letters written by the Powell family that I was able to research in the local archives. From this book and those letters, I was able to discover a new Anne Powell.
During this period the realms of the public and the private became increasingly separated, with increasingly separate roles for men and women. Changes in cultural values concerning gender, ideals about family relationships, and ideas of the appropriate role women brought uncertainty, confusion, and contradiction. Anne Powell's life embodied this shift in values and provides an example of how they were carried from the old world to the new. A Life of Propriety makes an innovative contribution to the literature on women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and will also be of interest to scholars in women's studies,…
I found this book at a sale about 20 years ago, and it opened my eyes to the fascinating early history about my city, Toronto. It’s filled with information about the scandals, tragedies, and courtroom clashes of the prominent families of the times, the problems faced by early immigrants, and the attempts of a government elite to control the town’s inhabitants. Some of it seems very relevant for today!
When you write historical novels, you have to place your characters in a certain real setting. Hounsom’s book let me step right onto the streets and into the houses of Toronto in 1810. As well as wonderful information on the way people lived at the time, Hounsom includes maps and drawings of Toronto and its important buildings. For example, I actually found a drawing of the house that my novel’s main character lived in.
I grabbed this book from a friend when I visited her cottage this summer. Recently published, it’s a stunning collection of short facts and spectacular portraits of 158 women who changed our world for the better. Most of these women’s contributions to our knowledge of the world have been ignored or forgotten. I was particularly interested in the brief description of Mary Anning who was living in Devon, England at the same time as Anne Powell was residing here in Toronto. Anning’s amazing discoveries about fossils from centuries ago gave a new understanding of the history of our planet.
From the internationally acclaimed artist, a stunning collection of portraits of ground-breaking women—Joan of Arc, Josephine Baker, Greta Thunberg, Misty Copeland, and many more history-making women whose names have been forgotten and are finally being brought to light. With a Foreword by Roxane Gay
“This book, as a whole, offers the reader possibility and promise … You will be introduced to many of these women for the first time, because history is rarely kind to women until it is forced to be. You will learn about artists and activists, rulers and rebels.” —Roxane Gay, from the Foreword
The Original Sisters book contains a very brief description of Mary Anning, and I was keen to find out more about her. Our book club this fall fortunately discussed Chevalier’s historical novel about Anning and her friend Elizabeth Philpott, and it was a mind-breaker. It’s Charles Darwin, not Anning, who gets the credit for our understanding of evolution, but I’m convinced that Anning must get at least some of the recognition. Because she was a woman, Anning was barred from joining the National Geological Society of London, but Darwin was fascinated by her discoveries and read her findings avidly. Chevalier’s carefully researched novel lets us have an in-depth look into Anning’s life and her mind-boggling contribution to our knowledge.
From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever.
On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms,…
Anne Powell is a real historical figure who lived in York, now called Toronto, in the early 1800s. As the protagonist of my novel, she challenges the rules laid down for upper-class women in those days: live a life of propriety, marry a rich husband, raise his family, and be a figure at important social events that will promote his status. Anne Powell craves a more useful existence that will make the larger world a better place, especially for women in childbirth.
I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives.
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.
The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…
