Memoirs Political Women

More than 50 years after her death, Eleanor Roosevelt is remembered as a formidable first lady and tireless social activist. Often overlooked, however, is her deep and inclusive spirituality. Her personal faith was shaped by reading the New Testament in her youth, giving her a Jesus - centered spirituality that fueled her commitment to civil rights, women's rights, and the rights of all "little people" marginalized in American society. She took seriously Jesus's words and despite her life of privilege, she made the needs of those on the margins her priority.

As a young woman, Democratic congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked her grandmother for career advice. She was shocked by the reply: "Get married." Though much has changed for women since then, more has remained the same. On a January night in 2008, Maloney and her daughter attended a Hillary Clinton rally in New Hampshire. Men in the audience held "Iron My Shirt" posters aloft. This small incident provoked outrage, but it provided an important peephole onto larger problems that women face today.

After a 25-year career spent fighting for women's rights around the globe at the expense of time with her family, Karen Sherman looked around and realized she didn't really know her children and felt little connection to her husband. With her world - work, marriage, family - crashing down, she made the rash decision to move to Rwanda with her three sons, an experiment she dubbed "our year of living dangerously".

For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship.

Why They Stay explores the reasoning and motivation of wives who stay with their politician-husbands after they cheat. Hillary Clinton couldn't have known in 1998 how her husband's high-profile philandering would play out. Would he be rehabilitated in the public eye? She took the gamble. Had she left the marriage, today she might be the spurned wife of a retired politician instead of the first American woman to run for president on a major party ticket.

There's nothing the liberal media love to attack more than a conservative celebrity. Unless it's a female conservative celebrity. Make that a beautiful female conservative celebrity. So, when a California beauty queen had the audacity - the nerve - to stand up for traditional marriage in front of a national televised audience, well then, the liberal media went crazy. They called her every vile name in the book - while feminists around the country were oddly silent.

The two reigns - both unusually long - could scarcely have been more different. Queen Elizabeth I brought a much needed (and appreciated) stability to England at a key moment in the history of the nation. Queen Elizabeth II has, by contrast, been the constitutional monarch par excellence.

Veteran political journalist Anne Michaud knows the hidden agendas women employ to gain and cling to power. Working as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and awarded “Columnist of the Year” by the New York News Publishers Association, Anne has researched the women behind some of the most notorious men in the public eye. She discovered a surprising pattern as old as the dynastic maneuverings of England’s medieval queens.

In this witty, candid and utterly fascinating memoir, Baroness Trumpington looks back on her long and remarkable life. The daughter of an officer in the Bengal Lancers and an American heiress, she was born in 1922 into a world of privilege and luxury. But her mother lost most of her inheritance...

Alternating between laugh-out-loud scenes from his childhood and acidic ruminations on the present state of an America he and his famous fundamentalist parents helped create, best-selling author Frank Schaeffer asks what the Glenn Becks and the Rush Limbaughs and the paranoid fantasies of the “right-wing echo chamber” are really all about. Here’s a hint: sex.

Antonia Felix's many interviews reveal a quiet, centered woman, who from her early childhood in Texas to the White House has risen to the challenges put in front of her. Travel with Laura Bush through her happy childhood to the tragedy that strengthened her, through her courtship and marriage to a dashing young Navy Pilot and the raising of her twin daughters, to the White House and the aftermath of the recent attacks. Probing and revelatory, Laura is a fitting tribute to our First Lady.

In the era of Watergate and rising feminist awareness, reporter Pam Zekman was queen of the muckrakers. Her biggest investigation: buy a bar, document the inevitable city department shakedowns and bribes, and publicly document Chicago’s institutionalized corruption. Her epic story changed Chicago and also raised serious questions about the future of journalism.

Discussion about abortion and associated rights are often limited to either "anti-abortion" or "pro-choice," the latter of which focuses on the importance of having the right to choose, rather than on what that right means for real people. In this timely essay, Pauline Harmange provides an intimate, detailed account of her abortion. Reminiscent of Annie Ernaux's Happening, Abortion is nuanced, complex, honest, and precise. Harmange gives voice to the emotions, reflections, and contradictions that someone could experience when they choose to terminate a pregnancy.

Eleanor Roosevelt, Fighter for Justice shows young listeners how the former First Lady evolved from a poor little rich girl to a protector and advocate for those without a voice. Although now seen as a cultural icon, she was a woman deeply insecure about her looks and her role in the world. But by recognizing her fears and constantly striving to overcome her prejudices, she used her proximity to presidents and her own power to aid in the fight for Civil Rights and other important causes. This biography gives listeners a fresh perspective on her extraordinary life.

Sarah Palin, a hockey mom and small-town mayor, thought her dream of making a difference in Alaskan politics was over when she clashed with the state chairman of her Republican Party and went head-to-head with the powerful Republican governor. In 2006 she became a long-shot candidate for governor, demanding a higher ethical standard in state government. Her populist reform message suddenly became front-page news. Alaskans began listening to her, and they liked what they heard.

50 Things to Know About the First Ladies by author Margaret Strolle offers a approach to learning about the first ladies that is simple yet informative. Most books on first ladies tell you anecdotes about all the first ladies individually. Although there's nothing wrong with that, this audiobook streamlines the information for the casual first-ladies scholar, teaching you the highlights in easily digestible paragraphs. Based on knowledge from the world's leading experts, this audiobook will help you sound like an expert on the first ladies.