Full Review: "You Don't Own Me"

Trever Tolliver is an unabashed super-fan of Leslie Gore, so I didn't quite know what to expect in his biography of the singer, but although there are plenty of superlatives about her music, it is pleasantly thorough in other ways as well. I learned a great deal about her that I didn't know: the surprisingly short tenure of her first fame (only about 4 years), her friendship with Quincy Jones, the long business relationship (ultimately exploitive) with Mercury Records, her feminist and political instincts, and her homosexuality. (She was a lesbian in a time when any orientation other than straight was fundamentally dangerous.)

After moving on from Mercury, she began to try new things, successful artistically but not commercially, for most of a decade. She did some acting and songwriting, some nostalgia tours, some duet work with other singers (notably Lou Christie) and every now and then a new album, finally finding renewed success working first with her brother Michael on the film Fame and after that on numerous television, stage and film projects.

My only criticism is that Tolliver is so exhaustive (bordering on relentless) in his description of every song, every album, and most of her live performances that some chapters are a little eye-glazing. Still, this is an important book, worth a look.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.

Short Review: "Headstrong" - Women Scientists You Need to Know More About

 

You've probably heard of Rachel Carson and Sally Ride, and maybe even Rosalind Franklin, Lynn Margulis or Grace Hopper. Scientists all, most of them when women in their respective fields were particularly scarce. But did you know that Hedy Lamarr (yes, the actress) patented technology during World War II that is still used today? Or that Lise Meitner would have shared the Nobel for discovering fission had she not been a Jew and a woman in Hitler's Germany? Or that Maria Goeppert Mayer, who did eventually win a Nobel for her research, was never paid for her work until she neared retirement? There are fifty-two women profiled in this handy book - Headstrong, by Rachel Swaby - and all of them made huge discoveries under trying conditions. Most are not well known, even today. Of necessity, the profiles are short, but punchy, and there is a substantial list of references at the end. 

Highly recommended.

I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a review. The image above links to the book's Amazon page.