The Woman with the Cure
By Lynn Cullen
In the 1940s and 1950s the world is battling the poliovirus. It spreads quickly, paralyzing and often killing its victims. Doctors don’t know how it spreads or enters the body. They don’t know how to cure or eradicate this disease. As summers go by with children locked in their homes, parents remain terrified. Teams of scientists across the globe research a multitude of theories. Dr. Dorothy Horstmann is a child of immigrants. She claws her way through medical school. Dorothy is one of a few women working in medicine and specifically epidemiology. Dorothy’s gentle bedside manner extends to everyone; never searching for fame or money, she only wants to help people. It takes years for scientists to finally recognize her research into poliovirus in the human bloodstream which led to the vaccine that was ultimately created. Dorothy works tirelessly, placing her personal life second to this horrific disease. The race for a cure overrode war, politics and notoriety. Dorothy is not a household name but this account of her contributions is simply incredible.
Her Lost Words
By Stephanie Marie Thornton
Mary Wollstonecraft was a British writer, philosopher and one of the first advocates for women’s rights in the late 1700s. After leaving her childhood home and a violent alcoholic father, Mary found trust in a London publisher who introduced her work to the literary world, a door closed to women at the time. Experiencing poverty, pregnancy out of wedlock and Paris’ Reign of Terror, Wollstonecraft spent her short life championing education and equality for women. Mary Shelley, celebrated author of Frankenstein, never knew her mother but discovered guidance through her intelligent and often scandalous words. She grew up craving her father’s attention and fell in love with Percy Shelley, a poet who turned her world upside down. Mother and daughter express their thoughts and emotions through pen and paper at a time when women had virtually no voice or vote, when women were completely dependent on their male counterparts. Mary and Mary led extremely uncommon and unconventional lives that were criticized and dangerous but forced change within their conformist society. Narrated through their relationships and endeavors, we travel back in time to understand these trailblazing women on whose shoulders we stand.
The Pirate’s Wife
By Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos
Sarah Bradley was born in England circa 1665. After her mother died, Sarah helped raise her younger brothers while her seafaring father was mostly away. Maturing quickly due to her circumstance, Sarah was married to William Cox at 15 years old when the Bradleys arrived in the New York Colony. Becoming even more self-sufficient, Sarah possessed natural business acumen and quickly married a second time after the untimely demise of Cox. When John Oort passed away, Sarah met Captain William Kidd, a dashing and adventurous man with a notorious reputation that followed him the world over. As Sarah was already a beautiful and well-to-do woman with multiple businesses and land acquisitions – unheard of for women during this time – the two became something of a power couple. When the dashing captain made a privateering arrangement with duplicitous investors, their adventurous lives came crumbling down. Astounding account of a period in history most know little about, including horrendous conditions for women, dependency on the whims of a monarchy and a colony on the cusp of change. This author brings a rare story to life revealing shocking secrets, survival and ingenuity of a pirate’s wife.
WATCH TIP: The Codebreaker tells the fascinating true story of Elizabeth Smith Friedman, a groundbreaking cryptanalyst whose top-secret decoding work changed the outcome of wars and saved thousands of lives. Can be seen on PBS, Hoopla and Prime Video.
