BOOK: Nellie McClung by Charlotte Gray

Nellie McClung by Charlotte Gray, 204 pages

Women Unbound; Canadian authors

If you are Canadian, you might remember Nellie McClung from her Canadian Heritage Minute, "Take it from me, nice women, don't want the vote" as she mocked the Manitoban premier. She was also a member of the Famous Five, women, led by Emily Murphy who challenged the British North American act that stated women were not persons under the law, and could not sit in the Senate. Where were we Canadians be without our history lessons from Canadian Heritage Minutes?

Gray has written an insightful, readable biography, as is her specialty (Sisters in the Wilderness and Reluctant Genius: The Passions and Inventions of Alexander Graham Bell.) With little primary material to work with, (Nellie's daughter burned all her journals and mementos after her mother died) she brought Nellie McClung to life. Nellie was vivacious and quick witted, and an excellent orator. She was a real leader in the West, and took on any injustice she felt was important, a leader in the first wave of feminism. She was not perfect, but admitted her mistakes, and valued her family and home. That's what she was fighting for: for women and their families to have the best life they could. Gray shows the life that allowed and led Nellie to be the leader she was, including her loving husband. She was an amazing woman, and I'm pleased that I've read more about her.

I picked this for the Women Unbound Challenge, check out the blog here. Reading the book lists of other participants, I was feeling like I was picking easier books, so I am pleased to be able to add this leader in the feminist movement in Canada to my list. Nellie got the vote for Manitoban woman in 1916, and then went on speaking tours in the US before they got the national vote in 1920. She was also an early advocate for the ordination of women in the United Church.

I just happened to pick up this book at the library, and was pleased to see that it is a part of a series called Extraordinary Canadians, edited by John Ralston Saul and published by Penguin. Famous Canadian authors write biographies about other famous Canadians. Here's a partial list of the editions that I am interested in, either for the subject, or the author:

• Lord Beaverbrook, David Adams Richards
• Emily Carr, Lewis DeSoto
• Tommy Douglas, Vincent Lam (Keifer Sutherland's grandfather!)
• LM Montgomery, Jane Urquhart
• Lester B Pearson, Andrew Cohen
• Marshall McLuhan, Douglas Coupland
• Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Nino Ricci
• and even more
  

BOOK: Without You by Anthony Rapp

Without You by Anthony Rapp, 306 pages
a memoir of love, loss and the musical Rent

Rapp tells the story of the years around when the musical Rent started, which happens to coincide with the diagnosis of cancer and then death of his mother. He originated the role of Mark, and fans of the musical (I've only seen the movie, and loved it!) will enjoy reading how the musical got its beginnings, the tragic death of its author, Jonathan Larson before the opening, and then sing the tunes in their head while reading.

He is brutally honest about his reactions and emotions during the tragic illness of his wonderful mother. He discusses his sexuality, and there are some explicit descriptions of a few encounters, again brutally honest. He is also transcribing his journey of grief and there are lots of sad passages.

I'm off to re-watch the movie. My sister and I gave each other the DVD of RENT for Christmas. We do stuff like that a lot.

CHALLENGE: Dewey Decimal System

Being hosted at The Novel World. The challenge is to read one from each category of the hundreds in a year. I don't read a lot of nonfiction, and this might be a great place to keep track of books read. This is just a list, books read will be noted, or linked to a review if possible. I like the idea of keeping track of my nonfiction reads by their Dewey number. The first will probably be Dewey: the small town library cat who touched the world, appropriately enough.

000 - Generalities
081 The Darwin Awards - Wendy Northcutt

100 - Philosophy and Psychology
128.4 The Book of Calamities*

153 A Whack on the Side of the Head*

153.4 Blink: the power of thinking without thinking - Gladwell

200 - Religion

300 - Social Sciences
394.1 POL An Omnivore's Dilemna: A Natural history in 4 Meals
370 UNG Failing Our Kids: How we are ruining our public schools
305.48 Kabul Beauty School - Deborah Rodriguez*
302 The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

400 - Language

500 - Natural Sciences + Math
599.9 SYK The Seven Daughters of Eve
539.7 The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene*
516.204 The Golden Ratio - Mario Livio*
522 Miss Leavitt's Stars - George Johnson
530 E = mc^2 - David Bodanis


600 - Technology
636.8 Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - Vicki Myron
641 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of food life - Barbara Kingsolver*

658 Bo's Lasting Lessons*
614.52 The Great Influenza by John Barry*

700 - The Arts

792.7 I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This - Bob Newhart
796.962 Searching for Bobby Orr - Stephen Brunt
791.45 Survivor! - Mark Burnett
792 Without You - Anthony Rapp

800 - Literature and Rhetoric

808 Shakespeare Wrote for Money - Nick Hornby
814.54 I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron

823.92 Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan*
818.09 The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain
832 BRE The Life of Galileo

900 - Geography and History

971 Souvenir of Canada - Douglas Coupland

910.91634 Titanic's Last Secrets - Brad Matsen*
942.1 Necropolis: London and its Dead - Catherine Arnold
967.5 DALShaking Hands With the Devil - Romeo Dallaire

*I have the book here. I won the Hachette nonfiction box o'books which certainly increases my nonfiction TBR.