NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book Review).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads
"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." —Seattle Times…
I’m a geoscientist and writer, and ever since my childhood explorations of the ponds, creeks, cliffs and forests of my native Ontario I’ve been fascinated with the natural world. During my PhD studies and subsequent academic career I’ve been fortunate to experience the thrill of experiment and discovery, and I’m passionate about communicating the wonders of science to others. I try to do that in my own books. Those I’ve recommended here, in my opinion, do it superbly.
The ‘obsessive genius’ of the title is Marie Curie, the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes. I love Goldsmith’s book because it humanizes Curie, starting with her childhood in Poland and progressing to her determination to someday become a scientist, the difficulties she faced as a woman seeking an education in Poland at the end of the nineteenth century, and finally the combination of serendipity, enduring curiosity and fierce determination that led to her groundbreaking discoveries about radioactivity, a word she is credited with coining.
Through family interviews, diaries, letters, and workbooks that had been sealed for over sixty years, Barbara Goldsmith reveals the Marie Curie behind the myth-an all-too-human woman struggling to balance a spectacular scientific career, a demanding family, the prejudice of society, and her own passionate nature. Obsessive Genius is a dazzling portrait of Curie, her amazing scientific success, and the price she paid for fame.
Writing for children is the most gloriously tricky thing in the world, and I love doing it. With fiction, am I telling a story worth telling to someone who’s new to the planet and new to our way of life? With non-fiction, am I distilling complexity into a shape they can grasp quickly? Am I showing them how wonderful and strange our world is, and can I make ‘em laugh while learning? I’ve written 18 books for kids, many commissioned by Think Equal for their global SEL program and used in the national curricula of 20 countries.
At two pages per scientist (one of which is an annotated portrait), this is a superb introduction to the theme.
The book covers a wide time period – from the brilliant, long-dead Hypatia (c.350 CE) to brilliant, modern-day scientist, Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–). It includes sciences your kids might be familiar with, like medicine and marine biology, to ones they might not be, like industrial engineering and crystallography.
Ignotofsky’s a dab hand at condensing a life’s work plus an introduction to a scientific discipline into the space of a page. I love how her choice of a limited colour palette works in her subjects’ favour, reinforcing similarities and themes across the portraits. This is a gorgeous book that repays repeated reading.
The perfect introduction for learning about women throughout history who dared to do the extraordinary! Inspire our new generation of women to explore, discover, persist, succeed, and fight like a girl! A great gift for girls 9-12! Women have been doing amazing, daring, and dangerous things for years, but they're rarely mentioned in our history books as adventurers, daredevils, or rebels. This new compilation of brief biographies features women throughout history who have risked their lives for adventure-many of whom you may not know, but all of whom you'll WANT to know, such as: Annie Edson Taylor, the first person…
When I was 14, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to be an astronaut. It was 1968, and all astronauts were men. My role models came from fiction. It wasn’t until after I got my degree in physics and went to work for NASA that I finally got to know other women scientists and engineers, including the first women flight controllers and American women astronauts. After leaving NASA, I became a space journalist, author, editor, and book reviewer, often focusing on women’s contributions to space. I’m currently the volunteer historian for Mission Control and helping to capture more stories of women in space.
This book surprised me. I was skeptical that Mary Sherman Morgan was the first female rocket scientist—surely I would have heard of her before now! But that’s the problem with pioneering women: most of them remain unknown, their contributions overshadowed by the men they worked for.
Thankfully, her son’s curiosity about his mother’s past uncovered an almost mythical story of a woman fleeing abject poverty and cruelty, giving her baby up for adoption for an inability to take care of it, and yet overcoming discrimination to apply her mathematical genius to formulate the rocket fuel that led directly to the first successful launch of America’s first satellite, Explorer 1.
LIKE THE FEMALE SCIENTISTS PORTRAYED IN HIDDEN FIGURES, MARY SHERMAN MORGAN WAS ANOTHERUNSUNG HEROINE OF THE SPACE AGE-NOWHER STORY IS FINALLY TOLD.
This is the extraordinary true story of America's first female rocket scientist. Told by her son, it describes Mary Sherman Morgan's crucial contribution to launching America's first satellite and the author's labyrinthine journey to uncover his mother's lost legacy--one buried deep under a lifetime of secrets political, technological, and personal. In 1938, a young German rocket enthusiast named Wernher von Braun had dreams of building a rocket that could fly him to the moon. In Ray, North Dakota,…
I’ve always loved science—especially ecology and geology, because I grew up among the strange plants and rocky mountains of the Sonoran Desert. In college, however, I found my chosen field felt a little lonely. I didn’t know many stories about the women who had come before me. Now, I know history is full of women who ran rivers, climbed mountains, and made significant scientific contributions in their chosen fields. I find power in these stories, which I hope will make the world of science more welcoming to people of all backgrounds—and also reveal science as the great adventure I always felt it to be.
This book is a whirlwind tour of scientific history from Antiquity to the twentieth century, highlighting the often-forgotten women who have been doing science all along.
Among them are Nicole-Reine Lepaute, the French astronomer who helped calculate the path of Halley’s Comet; Jeanne Baret, who disguised herself as a man to circumnavigate the globe; and Bertha Parker, an Abenaki and Seneca archeologist.
Many of the women in this book rightfully have entire books of their own, but I was drawn to Forces of Nature for its sweeping perspective—and also the realization of just how many women made significant contributions to science, even if I never learned their names in school. I found it inspirational, reminding me that I’m not alone in my love of scientific inquiry.
From the ancient world to the present women have been critical to the progress of science, yet their importance is overlooked, their stories lost, distorted, or actively suppressed. Forces of Nature sets the record straight and charts the fascinating history of women's discoveries in science.
In the ancient and medieval world, women served as royal physicians and nurses, taught mathematics, studied the stars, and practiced midwifery. As natural philosophers, physicists, anatomists, and botanists, they were central to the great intellectual flourishing of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. More recently women have been crucially involved in the Manhattan Project, pioneering…
Like many others, and perhaps mostly the dreamers, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with time travel, along as many others, always wondering, what if? Plus, I have a passion for American history, mostly American Revolution history, always thinking, what if you could time travel back in time to witness history in the making, or travel to the future and witness the results of decisions made today. Plus, I have an obsession with a good mystery, mainly murder mysteries. I thoroughly enjoy a good murder mystery that has (I didn’t see that coming) twists, turns, and a few good red herrings. Which you can see by the books on my list.
If you love time travel and murder mysteries as much as I do, you’ll love this great read.
The author has captured a compelling obsession of one of the characters in unraveling a fifty-year-old mystery. With one crucial question, can you stop a murder from occurring in the present, with a clue from the future. I enjoy a well-written whodunit mystery that pulls you into the storyline with facts and clues.
'An astonishing debut... Breathtakingly tender and wryly understated' NEW YORK TIMES.
'Genre-defying... Witty and inventive' GUARDIAN.
1967.
Four female scientists invent a time travel machine. But then one of them suffers a breakdown and puts the whole project in peril...
2017.
Ruby knows her Granny Bee was the scientist who went mad, but they never talk about it. Until they receive a message from the future, warning of an elderly woman's violent death...
2018.
Odette found the dead women at work - shot in the head, door bolted from the inside. Now she can't get her out of her mind.…
When we were young and naughty, our parents only had to give my sister The Look, and she’d burst into tears. Me, I would stare right back at them and demand, “What?” Fiercely. In fact I often got in trouble for “arguing,” (when all I was really trying to do was make my case because I felt misunderstood). These days people describe me as someone who doesn’t care what other people think. I forge my own path, staunchly, proudly, and so I am drawn to heroines who do the same, who fly in the face of societal expectations to fight for truth and science and what is right.
I adore everything about the premise of this book—a secret society of lady scientists, working away in an old house in London, trying to invent solutions to the problems of the day. Yes please! I also love that Lady Violet is worldly. She's knowledgeable about physical relations between men and women, and she knows about her body, what she likes, and how to prevent pregnancy. She’s very down-to-earth, empowered, and sex-positive, and she brings our brooding hero Arthur to his knees. There’s something very special about historical fiction with a modern sentimentality. Add to that a swoon-worthy hero, a cast of colorful side characters, and dark forces working against our heroine, and you’ve got a recipe for the perfect start to a super fun series.
What is a Victorian lady's formula for love? Mix one brilliant noblewoman and her enigmatic protection officer. Add in a measure of danger and attraction. Heat over the warmth of humor and friendship, and the result is more than simple chemistry--it's elemental.
Lady Violet is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for England's most brilliant female scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a confidential mission for the Crown. But the biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland.
Solitary and reserved, Arthur learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more…
After a long career in other forms of writing including but not limited to journalism, TV writing, nonfiction book authoring, I began writing contemporary romance novels two years ago and I haven’t gotten off the couch or closed my laptop since then. I write sweet, spicy books about quirky heroines and the men who can’t live without them. When I’m not writing, I’m perfecting the right ratio of coffee to milk, hustling my 2 rescue dogs around the neighborhood, or running up a hill in search of a view.
Who says math can’t be sexy? This is the second book in the Secret Scientists of Love series, and the enemies to lovers journey of Letty and Grey hits all the right notes with swoony banter and hot chemistry. I love the friendships between the brainy female scientists at their secret lab and the humor—Everett always brings the humor in big, satisfying doses.
A PopSugar and BookBub Most Anticipated Romance of 2022!
How do you solve the Perfect Equation? Add one sharp-tongued mathematician to an aloof, handsome nobleman. Divide by conflicting loyalties and multiply by a daring group of women hell-bent on conducting their scientific experiments. The solution is a romance that will break every rule.
Six years ago, Miss Letitia Fenley made a mistake, and she’s lived with the consequences ever since. Readying herself to compete for the prestigious Rosewood Prize for Mathematics, she is suddenly asked to take on another responsibility—managing Athena’s Retreat, a secret haven for England’s women scientists. Having…
I was always in love with love. I had my life all planned out, I was going to marry my high school sweetheart and have a family and live happily ever after. Newsflash, that didn’t happen and I’m glad it didn’t! As I’ve gotten older I still find myself in love with love, but now there are other things included with it such as quiet rebellion and a determination to simply be me. I find that I enjoy the suspense aspect because I know life isn’t perfect. We don’t all have stalkers or physically abusive exes, but books are a safe place to experience the emotions of these situations.
Deeper than the Dead is so well written! It took me a bit to get into since it jumps around a bit, and there are a ton of characters, but the budding romance between Anne and Tony kept me hooked through the entire thing!
This one is more of a police procedural, but I really enjoyed the start of their relationship! This book is part of a series, which I absolutely love as well! The longer I can stay in a setting, the better! The suspense in this one was a little more of the focus, but I still had to include it! I read it in 2023, and it has stayed with me!
I love a well-written historical fiction novel that immerses me in the time period and introduces a female character I can relate to. We may live in different times, but women in all eras feel love, attempt and fail, find strength, perform heroic deeds, suffer mishaps, and experience life. Escaping into their stories makes me question what I would have done in their shoes as well as think about how my own story is still being written. As a historical fiction author, I seek to create those relationships between my characters and readers.
I finished this novel quickly as the story and writing are engaging.
I knew something of Hedy Lamarr’s wartime efforts and intelligence going in, but this story shed much more light on the woman and highlighted the difficulties she faced.
I recommend it for readers who enjoy historical fiction, WW2 stories, and novels about strong women.
Bestselling author Marie Benedict reveals the story of a brilliant woman scientist only remembered for her beauty.
Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side and understood more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.
