I loved this book because it provides a vivid picture of the February 1945 Yalta conference, a key international summit where plans were drawn up for the post-Second World War European world.
The conference is seen through the eyes of the daughters of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Averell Harriman, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, three of the conference’s key participants.
I found the descriptions of the conference’s inner workings and the profiles of the talented daughters and their prominent fathers captivating. Any reference that I now see to the Yalta conference will be far more meaningful.
The brilliant untold story of three daughters of diplomacy: Anna Roosevelt, Sarah Churchill, and Kathleen Harriman, glamorous, fascinating young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference with Stalin in the waning days of World War II.
With victory close at hand, the Yalta conference was held across a tense week in February 1945 as Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin attempted to agree on an end to the war, and to broker post-war peace.
In Daughters of Yalta, Catherine Katz uncovers the dramatic story of the three young women who travelled with their fathers to the…
I loved this book because it tells the amazing and deeply researched story of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, a famed amateur ornithologist.
Born into the Swedish gentry at the end of the nineteenth century, she trained as a nurse in the First World War before meeting her future husband, a Russian aristocrat. After he was killed by the Bolsheviks, she emigrated to Canada, where she joined the Canadian Red Cross and settled in northern Ontario.
Here, she worked in Red Cross outposts and became the nurse-in-charge of the Dionne Quintuplets. Tiring of the media frenzy around them, she retreated to her wilderness cabin. There, she became a passionate and dedicated observer of birds, the subject of six books and many articles and studies.
From award-winning author Merilyn Simonds, a remarkable biography of anextraordinary woman ― a Swedish aristocrat who survived the Russian Revolution to become an internationally renowned naturalist, one of the first to track the mid-century decline of songbirds.
2022 Foreword Indies Award Winner for the Editor’s Choice Prize, non fiction
“[A] lyrical, passionate, and deeply researched portrait.” ― Margaret Atwood
“This brilliant account does justice to a pioneering figure who merits wider recognition.” ― Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[A] marvelous biography of a true pioneer of ornithology.” ― Booklist, starred review
“Woman, Watching is an entrancing blend of biography, memoir, history,…
I loved this book because it uses droll humour and keen observation to describe the challenges faced by the protagonist, a quirky, resilient young woman who strives to be recognized as a scientist in the male-dominated world of the 1960s.
I can readily identify with her plight, although I did not pursue a career in science, but in teaching history and eventually in freelance writing.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • Meet Elizabeth Zott: a “formidable, unapologetic and inspiring” (PARADE) scientist in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show in this novel that is “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel. It reminds you that change takes time and always requires heat” (The New York Times Book Review).
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, GoodReads
"A unique heroine ... you'll find yourself wishing she wasn’t fictional." —Seattle Times…
This biography recounts the life of one of North America’s most accomplished men.
Born in Illinois in 1843, Van Horne launched his railway career when he was still in his teens. He succeeded in forging an enviable reputation in the United States as a railroading general before being lured north to Canada in 1881 to become general manager of the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway. He pushed through the construction of the CPR’s transcontinental line and then went on to become the company’s president.
While serving the CPR, Van Horne developed a telegraph service, launched the Empress line of Pacific steamships, and founded world-famous CPR hotels. To cap his career, he opened up Cuba’s interior with a railway.
