#2018netgalley

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VOX A highly significant and timely book exploring the question: What if women could only speak 100 words per day? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ SUMMARY There’s a new President in the White House, Sam Myers was elected by the votes garnered by ultra conservative Southern Baptist Reverend Carl Corbin. A Presidental decree, written by Corbin, changed everything. Women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily. They must wear a bracelet on their wrist that is a word counter, and if 100 words are exceeded you receive an electric shock, which increases with intensity with the number of words over the limit. But that’s not all. Women can no longer hold jobs. Books and writing instruments are off limits. Passports have been revoked. Schools are segregated by sex and girls are taught only how to count, sew and cook. Nothing more is necessary to manage a home. Females no longer have a voice. Dr. Jean McClellan had been in denial. And she was not alone. No one believed this could happen here, not the United States. She is married to Patrick and they have four children, the youngest is age 4, and her name is Sonia. Jean misses reading bedtime stories to Sonia and talking to her three sons about their day. Jean was a cognitive linguist in Washington DC, and before the decree she was researching reversing aphasia, the inability to speak, cause by brain damage. She was the foremost expert in her field until she was forced out. It’s been a year since she’s been gone. And now the President desperately needs her back. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke REVIEW This captivating debut novel may just leave you speechless. Could this really happen? Never! That’s exactly what Jean thought. And yet, look where we find ourselves today. Our current puppet president has berated, abused and belittled every woman who gets in his way. It’s scary to think that VOX may not be to far off the mark as we would like to think. Think of all the women who have confronted him! He would love it if we would all just shut up and go away. Vox is a first rate journey into the role of women in making a difference. Jean McClellans character is strong, amazing and she comes alive on the pages. You can’t help but feel her frustration, her anger and her fear for her children’s future. Christine Dalcher’s writing is robust, smart and haunting. She skillfully transports us to a place that no woman wants to go, but while we are there she helps teach us a few things about ourselves, just by asking one question—what would you do to be free? DALCHER earned her doctorate degree in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University. She specializes in the phonetics of sound change in Italian and British dialect and has taught at several universities. Her Short stories in a flash fiction appear in over one hundred journal’s worldwide. She teaches flash fiction as a member of the faculty at The Muse Writer Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Vox is her first novel. Thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing and Christine Dalcher for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publisher Berkley Published August 21, 2018 Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

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Rust & Stardust T. Greenwood A gripping and heart-breaking novel of a 1948 kidnapping of a 11 year-old girl from New Jersery and her haunting two-year odyssey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ SUMMARY Sally just wanted a friend. In order to be a part of a group of girls at school, 11-year-old Sally Horner is forced to steal a notebook from the local Woolworth’s in Camden, New Jersey. She doesn’t know that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her, Frank convinces Sally that he is an FBI agent who will have her arrested unless she does exactly what he says. RUST & STARDUST traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family friends and those she meets along the way. The novel is based on the experiences of a real life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocks the nation in 1948 and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita. REVIEW RUST & STARDUST is haunting tale that every parent fears. It will shake you to your core to read this story from Sally’s perspective. T. GREENWOOD’s writing is phenomenal, presenting this horrific story in a beautiful and delicate way. You can’t help but fall in love with this naive, but brave little girl and your heart breaks for her everyday she is under the conniving spell of Frank LaSalle. You become deeply invested in every character of this book. You want someone to do something. You feel the intense pain, struggle and embarrassment that Ella, Sally’s mother feels. You cheer when Al, Sally’s brother-in-law goes to Baltimore and knocks on doors, and you even laugh when Sally meets Lena, a circus performer in Dallas for the first time. My favorite character was the hairdresser, Ruth, who cuts Sally’s hair and was the first person in Sally’s journey to show her any care or motherly love. The story is robust, full of well-developed characters, and riveting dialog. The title Rust & Stardust comes from a famous line in Lolita, and the words are independently masterfully woven into the story. This emotionally profound and eloquent novel is one of my favorite reads in 2018 and will not soon be forgotten. This is the first T. GREENWOOD book I’ve read, and I am so looking forward to reading more of her work. I have already purchased The Golden Hour(2017). Greenwood is the author of twelve novels. She has won three San Diego book awards and she teaches creative writing for San Diego’s Writer’s Ink and online for The Writer’s Center. She and her husband and two daughters live in San Diego, California. Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publisher St. Martin’s Press Published August 7, 2018 Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

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Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers Jill Norgren Enlightening and fascinating, this book should be considered essential reading for women attorneys, and any women considering the field of law.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ SUMMARY The Stories from Trailblazing Women Lawyers tells the thought-provoking stories of several generations of women lawyers who, with their insistence on equal treatment, helped to create a new dynamic in the field of law. After World War II, changes in U.S. public policy along with the second women’s movement altered longstanding resistance to female participation in the law profession. This book captures the experiences of 100 women lawyers who challenged the rules and fought for access to law schools and meaningful legal careers. It draws on a unique set of oral histories gathered by the American Bar Association’s, Women Trailblazer Project. One hundred outstanding senior women lawyers were asked to recount their personal and professional histories in interviews. The women chosen were selected on the basis of their accomplishments in the post World War II period. The woman who were interviewed have had careers at private law firm’s; government agencies; state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States; Congress; law schools; and public interest legal organizations. The oldest interviewee was born in 1916, the youngest in 1951, with the majority born in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Stories from Trailblazing Women aptly describes the societal values in the decade after WWII, and the astounding lengths men would go, to keep women out of the legal profession. The stories are sometimes painful, sometimes funny, but very inspirational. They highlight what women did, and what they had to do, in order to become lawyers. And when they entered the profession, the Trailblazers succeeded with brilliance.

Neither law firm‘s nor most government institutions hired female attorneys. The thinking at law schools, therefore, was simple: why train women as lawyers if nobody will hire them? Why use a precious place for a woman that could be given to a man?”

“Harvard Law School did not even open its law school to women until 1950. By 1961 the number of women admitted at Harvard had worked its way up to twenty in a class that also included 540 men.“

REVIEW Norgren had a daunting job in front of her when she was handed the oral interviews from these 100 women, with each interviewee transcript numbering hundreds of pages long. She has done a superb job at capsulizing an immense amount of information and organizing it in a coherent manner. She begins her recounting of these stories by starting with the childhood influences that supported or discouraged the aspirations of these women and the motivations that drew them to the law profession. Stories about the difficulties in gaining admission to and treatment at law schools were followed by the women’s experiences as they began or attempted to begin their job search. Norgren then explores the work experiences of these trailblazing women and she highlights specific stories of women in private practice, public interest, government and the judiciary.

The stories were amazing and moving. The resilience and fortitude exhibited by these women is inspiring. Norgren is a consummate storyteller and the book was immensely satisfying. She skillfully showcased a multitude of astounding women and the battles that had to be fought in an effort to secure their dreams. This book should be essential reading for all women attorneys, and women considering the field of law, so they understand the challenges that have preceded them.

Jill Norgren is a Professor Emerita of government and legal studies at John Jay College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, where she taught government, law and society, and women’s studies for thirty years. This is the third book she has written about women lawyers in the U.S.

Thanks to NetGalley and New York University Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date May 22, 2018.

“I sent you a letter asking you to join the chief executives organization, but we didn’t realize you were a woman. And we don’t have any women—and we have to withdraw that offer…… But we understand that your assistant is a man and he can join.