Tag: women

You Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt

You Learn by LivingYou Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is not a feminist manifesto as most women would like it to be. The subject matter is not exclusive to women only. Rather than polarizing the class/gender stratifications, Mrs. Roosevelt speaks to all of her readers who feel less about themselves based upon their falsely limited views on representations of the reality. She was a Mother Figure to all Americans in  her time and still speaks to us through this book of the importance of human dignity and positive attitudinal values to appreciate what we already possess in us regardless of things that we cannot change beyond our control as by telling us “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Of all the towering glittering famous women, it’s the mind of Mrs. Roosevelt that scintillates with brilliance because of her compassion toward humanity combined with her intelligence, which has become a rarity in our time.

Adventures of American Girl in Victorian London by Elizabeth L. Banks

Adventures of an American Girl in Victorian LondonAdventures of an American Girl in Victorian London by Elizabeth L. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If this book had been written in an armchair perspective of a priggish journalist who would only report by hearsay or with cavalier attitude toward working class, then I would not have even bothered to pick it up in the first place. What attracted me to this book was an excerpt bespeaking the author’s telltale recounting of the story as an ambitious, enterprising journalist who dared to work undercover as a domestic maid and a laundry worker in Victorian London during which the social conditions of the working class, not to speak of women’s social positions, plummeted to a dismal low as the rise and the prosperity of the bourgeoisie was skyrocketed especially in London. Although Ms. Bank’s motivation of writing this book arose from her achievement of journalistic ambition, her candor, analytical mind, and diligence should be esteemed highly in the discourse of her artless recounting of working experience. In fact, this book itself is a valuable historical and anthropological record of social conditions and cultural aspects of the 19th century London., guiding readers to her veni, vidi vici adventure thereof.