A Midwife’s Tale
09/02/2013 § 1 Comment
I read this book at the end of last semester. Please read it.
This book is about a million things. I think about it and reference it almost every day of my life. But mostly, it’s about community and the people who keep communities running (aka midwives–read it; you’ll see what I mean).
Then click on the images below to read the handout I gave during my presentation.
In case you didn’t get that link at the end: http://dohistory.org/diary/1812/03/18120318_txt.html.
Winter Break Library Haul
05/02/2013 § 1 Comment
What I read over Winter Break (library books only):
Women and Money by Suze Orman
The Doctor’s Book of Food Remedies by Selene Yeager
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
A Teen’s Guide to Going Vegetarian
The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure
What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World by Noam Chomsky
Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything by Geneen Roth
Insecure at Last: A Political Memoir by Eve Ensler
Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born by Tina Cassidy
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
The Way Forward is a Broken Heart by Alice Walker
Kind of light fare, but I was recovering from a semester of crazy and an end-of-semester of even crazier and I needed some great feminists to help me through. And some Noam Chomsky. Also, there was a collection of Susan Sontag essays I also got from the library, but I’m still reading it, so I’ll record it later. (She taught at SLC.) (And Alice Walker attended SLC.)
I took this picture right before I brought all the books back to the Atascadero Public Library. It’s always hard to let them go.
Hurricane
31/10/2012 § 1 Comment
Well, the storm of the century hit, and everything went to chaos. I survived the first day by watching Breaking Bad and playing games with my housemates. The second day was more of the same, plus reading this book by a man in my program. Tonight, I’ll read Feminism Without Borders by Chandra Mohanty and Brides of Christ by Asuncion Lavin.
Thankfully, I stocked up on two weeks of food, toilet paper, candles, etc.
The electricity isn’t coming back for a week. Subway, commuter train, and bus transit is down, so that might mean no school for a while.
Welcome to the East Coast! Actually, Welcome to Climate Change!
Brain jumble
12/10/2012 § Leave a Comment
I can’t think of anything to say, except for that I’m very busy. So, I’ll just leave you with the things I’m reading/watching.
Reading:
A Midwive’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Voices of Women Historians, ed. Eileen Borris
Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia by Kathleen Brown
American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan
Malintzin’s Choices: An Indian Women in the Conquest of Mexico by Camilla Townsend
Women’s Rights Emerges Within the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1830-1870: A Brief History with Documents by Kathryn Kish Sklar
Joyous Greetings: The First International Women’s Movement, 1830-1860 by Bonnie S. Anderson
Women, Resistance & Revolution: A History of Women and Revolution in the Modern World by Sheila Rowbotham
Born for Liberty by Sara Evans
Sor Juana, obras completas (complete works), ed. Porrúa
Recovering Race, Constructing History by Martha Menchaca
Also: a ton of stuff about Louise Otto.
Watching:
Girls (HBO)
The Newsroom (HBO)
Call the Midwife (PBS)
New York, new digs
04/09/2012 § 2 Comments
I moved to New York, just outside the city (NYC). I mentioned a long time ago on this blog that I was accepted to Sarah Lawrence College; in a week, I begin the master’s program in women’s history. This is a two-year program with a huge emphasis on writing, something I’ve been craving for a long time.
Right now, everything is new: the weather is changing (!), I’m afraid of driving on the freeways, and am trying to read all my summer homework. Basically, my brain is overstimulated, but not to such an extent that I’m not enjoying myself.
There is food and wine at nearly every orientation function, which makes everything go down easier. (And the veggie options are delicious!) Most of the people I’ve met are very intelligent, yet humble and engaging. I am trying to make friends.
I have many, many pictures of driving across the country and a few I’ve taken since arriving. My dad and I drove through 13 states in 5 days, making important stops to see old friends and fix old tires along the way. I’ll try to fit some photographic evidence into the blog over the next days and weeks.
I think the East Coast is going to be great. There are big cities with big historical pasts all around me, I get to be in school again, the people here seem to be more like-minded than other places I’ve been, namely California, etc. And autumn is definitely going to be better than in California.
*******
Heading over the George Washington Bridge into New York
Great song
04/07/2012 § Leave a Comment
When I was young, one of the things I made fun of my dad for was his obsession with The Andy Griffith Show. Of course, I actually loved the show, especially spending early Saturdays watching it with my dad or summer afternoons with my siblings (that or Little House on the Prairie; we weren’t allowed to watch much else).
One of the things I didn’t realize until I was a grownup was the great music:
emilieegger
