The Discovery of Jeanne Baret was one I'm definitely going to tell Lu about one day. (I reviewed it briefly here).
An 18th-century peasant expert in countryside herb lore, Jeanne Baret posed as a young man to gain the post of assistant to the naturalist aboard France's first global seafaring expedition in the 1760s. Ridley quickly crushes modern romantic ideas of the golden age of exploration: there were rat-scrounging days of starvation and crowded quarters, and significant abuse suffered by Baret at the hands of crew members who at first suspected, and eventually learned, her sex. Baret's harrowing journey also included scientific discoveries, such as of a plant--named bougainvillea in honor of the expedition's commander--which she believed would cure gangrene, and a Patagonian shrub to help treat the crew's rampant venereal disease. Ridley captures both the optimism that inspired Baret's groundbreaking and courageous trip and the sordid reality she encountered.
I have two copies of The Discovery of Jeanne Baret to give away so you can read about the badassery for yourself. Enter to win by leaving a comment on this blog--and telling me about a phenomenal women I might not have heard of before (I need to add her to my list!)
Winners will be announced at 2 PM EST Friday, February 3.
Good luck!
You might think she is all lipstick and blush, but one of my role model women is Mary Kay Ash. I sold MK for a little over a decade so I learned a lot about her. Her autobiography is a good read.
ReplyDelete-Nova
Mary Kay Ash made it so a lot of women could have careers AND be home with their kids. I have a lot of respect for that.
DeleteI would love to win
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of Anya seton.
I don't know if she counts as historical but she
Wrote some great historical fiction
And had a really interesting life!
Thanks
elba
I'm a fan of Madame Marie Curie. Though you've likely heard of her.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that I can't think of many kickass women that you probably haven't heard of before. Hum...
Of more recent people, I'd recommend the, yet controversial, Mac McClelland. She's a reporter for Mother Jones. Since hearing her interviewed on NPR a few years ago, I read her book about time spent working with refugees/rebels in Thailand/Burma, which I thought was a good and interesting read.
She's become somewhat controversial in how she dealt with a case of post traumatic stress syndrome, but I don't think that takes away from some of her other work.
I'd like to be entered. I remember when you mentioned this book before and it sounds interesting!
Madame Curie is a good pick! I have never heard of Mac McClelland. She's going on the list.
DeleteDid you know there's a legend that "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" was written about Mother Jones?
I did not know that about Mother Jones! I really need to learn more about her and read that magazine more so!
ReplyDeleteMac McClelland's book got a bit of write up (I reviewed it sometime last year). I mean, how many people take a few months off from work to go work with rebels in a foreign country?* Like I said though, her way of working through her Post Traumatic Stress from being in Haiti after the earthquake is pretty controversial, but still. It cannot be easy being that kind of journalist, even in this day and age.
Oh....I don't know much about her, but I'd also say possibly Sophie Scholl. There was a movie about her a few years ago that got nominated for the best foreign film Oscar. She was part of a group of anon-violent anti-Nazi resistance movement in Germany and was executed for it.
* Granted, I also have an acquaintance from another blog who took a year off of law school to do something similar. She actually has a French comic book based on her story... lol.
I've always had such strong admiration for Dorothy Sayers - she really broke the glass ceiling of scholarship in so many ways, one of the first females to be graduated from Oxford, a member of the Inklings, a respected scholar and writer in a time when women were not expected to have brains.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Edith Cavell. Nurse during WWI, shot by the Germans for helping soldiers escape occupied Belgium. Amazing lady.
I would vote for Leymah Gbowee. I read her memoir 'Mighty be Our Powers' earlier this year. She realized that the real victims of the Liberian War were women and children. So she gathered up this beautiful group of Christian and Muslim mothers, grandmothers, sisters and wives to protest until change happened. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Inspiring stuff.
ReplyDeleteamelia erhart really led the way for womenlomazowr@gmail.com in aviation.
ReplyDeleteI'm obsessed with Elizabeth Tudor (hence my blog pseudonym), and recently I've been reading about "Bloody" Mary Tudor and have found much to admire about her as well.
ReplyDeleteNanny of the Jamaican Maroons led them in their fight against the British and won several battles against them in the early 1700s. Today, she remains a hero to Jamaicans and people of Caribbean descent.
ReplyDeleteSounds very cool! I love strong, bad-ass chicks!
ReplyDeleteMy awesome lady was Rosalind Franklin, who did a lot of the work that allowed Watson and Crick to discover the structure of DNA, but got none of the credit! Bad scientists!
I want to read this book so bad. Bummed I missed the deadline!
ReplyDelete