I’ve written ten books for children and adults
inspired by women throughout history, ones about American outlaws, war-time
heroes, resistance groups, and activists. I enjoy learning, researching, and
shining a spotlight on the women who shape our world today. In A Betting
Woman, the presence of three names for a single woman intrigued me. I
wondered how one name bled into the next and how life winded to a seemingly unappealing
nickname, given to Eleanor after she’d taken a man’s last dime during a card
game. Still, Eleanor kept the moniker for over a decade as she carried on. I
hope you’ll enjoy her story, along with the other strong women featured on
this list!
I completely lost myself in Paul McLain’s prose and storytelling, along with her character of Beryl Markham. In the novel, Beryl wants to be a horse trainer. She does in fact become one, which made her the very first female horse trainer, and I love that she’s portrayed as an intrepid, resilient, entrepreneurial female who tackles a man’s world and transforms her life and legacy through ambition and sheer will. One of my favorite quotes from the book illustrates this so well: “We’re all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren’t your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.”
As a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother, the dream quickly turned sour, and she returned home; Beryl was brought up by her father, who switched between indulgence and heavy-handed authority, allowing her first to run wild on their farm, then incarcerating her in the classroom. The scourge of governesses and serial absconder from boarding school, by the age of sixteen Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage - but it was in facing up to this reality that she…
Marie Benedict’s novels are known for introducing us to overlooked women throughout history, In The Other Einstein, we meet Mileva Einstein. I’m so glad to have learned more about her. I knew very little about her relationship with Albert Einstein—and how he often overshadowed her. Still, Mileva—like Beryl—is someone who breaks the female norms of their time and who seeks to make it in a man's world. Though—like Eleanor Dumont—she often has to bend to men and outside forces while she tries to remain true to herself.
From beloved New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Marie Benedict comes the story of a not-so-famous scientist who not only loved Albert Einstein, but also shaped the theories that brought him lasting renown. In the tradition of Beatriz Williams and Paula McClain, Marie Benedict's The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. This novel resurrects Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated. Was she simply Einstein's sounding board, an assistant performing complex mathematical…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
This novel demanded my attention from the title and cover alone. From there, it further clinched my interest when I learned it highlighted the life and times of the real-life Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton agent. I absolutely adored her pluck, her resoluteness, her successes, her cleverness (in both mind and tongue), and, ultimately, how she was a trailblazer.
"Electrifying...a rollicking nineteenth-century thrill ride." -Amy Stewart, New York Times bestselling author of Girl Waits with Gun Inspired by the real story of investigator Kate Warne, this spirited novel follows the detective's rise during one of the nation's times of crisis, bringing to life a fiercely independent woman whose forgotten triumphs helped sway the fate of the country. With no money and no husband, Kate Warne finds herself with few choices. The streets of 1856 Chicago offer a desperate widow mostly trouble and ruin-unless that widow has a knack for manipulation and an unusually quick mind. In a bold move…
Becoming Mrs. Lewis is the improbable love story
of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis. And, at the novel’s onset, their coupling
truly feels improbable. While in an unhappy marriage, Joy is very much married.
She has young children. Joy has health issues. Joy and C.S. Lewis are separated
by a body of water. Yet, Joy is also a very tenacious woman, which also
included Joy inserting herself into conversations and places women at that time
didn’t frequent. I wholly respect how Joy creates a new life for herself.
Now a USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly bestseller! Meet the brilliant writer, fiercely independent mother, and passionate woman who captured the heart of C.S. Lewis and inspired the books that still enchant and change us today.
When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis-known as Jack-she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn't holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford professor and the beloved writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters.
Aury and Scott travel to the Finger Lakes in New York’s wine country to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings at the Songscape Winery. Disturbed furniture and curious noises are one thing, but when a customer winds up dead, it’s time to dig into the details and see…
The Yellow Wife is a story about Pheby Brown, an enslaved woman who is sold to a man named Rubin Labier,
who is the owner of a jail known as the Devil’s Half-Acre. There, Pheby
becomes Rubin’s mistress, and certain expectations, along with limitations, are
forced upon her. While Pheby is presented as Rubin’s “wife” and their children
are legitimized by his acknowledgment of them, Pheby is far from free. She is
very much at the mercy of Rubin and his world. But Pheby is strong and
determined. And I delight in how she fights for freedom for herself and her
children.
A Best Book of the Year by NPR and Christian Science Monitor
Called “wholly engrossing” by New York Times bestselling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, #1 bestselling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.
Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation,…
Born Simone Jules, reinvented as Eleanor Dumont, and largely remembered as Madame Moustache, A Betting Woman is a historical novel inspired by the tumultuous life, times, and loves of America’s first professional croupier of modern-day blackjack, bringing to life an intrepid and entrepreneurial real-life woman who lived on her own terms.
Selected by Deesha Philyaw as winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, Lake Song is set in the fictional town of Kinder Falls in New York’s Finger Lakes region. This novel in stories spans decades to plumb the complexities, violence, and compassion of small-town life as the…
Palmer Lind, recovering from the sudden death of her husband, embarks on a bird-watching trek to the Gulf Coast of Florida. One hot day on Leffis Key, she comes upon—not the life bird she was hoping for—but a floating corpse. The handsome beach bum who appears on the scene at…
