NetGalley ARC | Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐

I probably would have given this four stars, or at least three and a half, if I would not have had to read about the journey of the mother of the worst president in the history of the United States.

Aside from that drivel, this was a book packed with tons of interesting anecdotes and gossip and I feel the author did a fantastic job portraying life at sea for these women and how their work evolved over time.

I enjoy this period of travel. I love that the author focuses specifically on women and how they made a living on the massive liners that once ran regularly between the US and Europe.

I appreciate that she focused on a a wide variety of women, from all walks of life. We read of celebrities, artists, and the wealthy travelling for pleasure, migrants and refugees seeking safety and a new life, as well as the women who worked for the great shipping companies, sending their wages back home to help care for parents and siblings.

I found women on the crew to be of the most interest to me. I admire these women who worked these long, hard hours at sea to provide for their families. Violet Jessop is mentioned here and I absolutely recommend her autobiography, which I wrote about HERE. Not only did Violet survive the sinking of Titanic, but not long after she survived the sinking of the Britannic (Titanic's sister ship) as well. Her book is a wonderful look into her life, in which the famous and not-so-famous shipwrecks play but a small part. She had even been aboard the Olympic in 1911 when it collided with the HMS Hawke.

There were times when the narrative was very slow and felt like a slog. This could be a personal thing, as we learn plenty about those who travelled by liner because they had the money to do so, sailing back and forth between the Old World and the New. Still, it did take me a bit to finish this one and some passages and stories were not nearly as interesting as others.

There were times when the book became a bit repetitive as well, especially when stories were similar. Not always, but enough to be noticeable.

I never really thought about until this book, just how critical this work was for women who sought independence and a way to support themselves. To say that it changed countless lives would not be an overstatement. Slowly but surely, as women began travelling more, the need for stewardesses arose to help tend to them aboard the ships. That role of stewardess even evolved over time as some women were able to become conductresses and coordinate activities for the passengers. And then as two world wars came, women were able to stay aboard as nurses and continue to make a life for themselves.

Overall I appreciate the author's work and the research that went into the book. She's given a voice to many women who otherwise might remain unknown to us today.

NetGalley ARC | The Kidnap Years: The Astonishing True History of the Forgotten Kidnapping Epidemic that Shook Depression-Era America

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I would have given this five stars if there were not so many damned exclamation points.

Naturally when one thinks of kidnappings in the 1930s, the first case that almost always comes to mind is that of Charles Lindbergh's twenty-month- old son, Charles Jr. That case is discussed extensively throughout the book, while other less high-profile cases are also given equal footing.

One thing I really appreciated about this book is that it was more or less chronological, and did not tell each kidnapping story individually. As the author moved through the decade when his epidemic was at an all-time high, we see which cases overlapped, and sometimes had to wait several sections for any kind of resolution. I personally liked this, as it was as realistic as one can get without having actually lived through it.

There is such a blend of themes here and they are woven together well. The Great Depression is in full swing and families are struggling to simply survive. Prohibition was coming to an end, so those who made their living that way were seeing income dry up as quickly as the country was supposed to when the law went into effect in 1920. On top of that the likes of Dillinger, the Barkers, and so many others were terrorizing the country, sometimes opposed by police and sometimes assisted. The constant message though, was one of desperation and despair that drove so many to attempt or carry out these crimes.

While it would be impossible to recount every single case, there are enough discussed here to really give the reader a feel for what it felt like to live through such a time. Most of the time the victims or survivors were held for ransom. Some were lucky enough to see their families again, though they were scarred for life from the experience. Others were not, and only in death were reunited with loved ones.

I found it especially difficult to read about the children who were kidnapped for far more nefarious reasons than ransom. The story of Grace Budd was absolutely heartbreaking and I feel so terribly for her parents and siblings. It is a horrific case and one I would rather not dwell on much here or I will probably start crying again, just thinking of the anguish her parents felt and the blame they put on themselves for believing the lies they were told and allowing their beloved daughter to go to the birthday party for a man's niece, the man whom they had only recently met.

As one would expect, we see ol' Hoover trying to insert himself into any investigation he could. Even when, and maybe especially because, his agency often came under fire for being incompetent and out of control. He wanted to be seen at apprehensions and discoveries in order to portray himself as the one who was cleverly solving these crimes and in full control, that the newspaper reports were wrong.

I found it especially interesting to read of how many families contacted police to inform them of the kidnappings, but also asked they stand down while the family also contacted those who might, shall we say, have connection to the world in which the kidnappers moved in. More than one case detailed in this book was solved this way and it should not have surprised me. After all, many wealthy families had some underworld contacts for a variety of reasons, and sometimes those contacts were able to make far more progress than law enforcement. One must also not overlook the corruption that permeated some police forces, so many were right to not trust those supposedly sworn to protect them.

The plethora of exclamation points aside, the author does a fantastic job transporting the reader back to this turbulent period where no one was truly safe from the epidemic, whether rich or poor - it merely depended upon the perp's purpose for the kidnapping. Most were for ransom, and more were returned to their families than not - here, at least. I can't speak for the statistics overall, but from the cases presented in the book only.

Any reader interested in this period will find value in this book. I hesitate to use the word 'enjoy' because how does one enjoy a story about kidnapping and murder. I think, however, everyone gets the point. Highly recommended.

Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory

I received this free ARC via NetGalley from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5 Stars

2017 was terrible for me in getting my NetGalley ARCs read. Since February I have been working on my own book and I just did not review nearly as much as I wanted to. My galleys in particular were set to the side and one of resolutions for 2018 is to get them all read and reviewed properly.

As soon as I saw Dust Bowl Girls, I knew I had to request it. My reasoning was two-fold, and I suspect that there are many who may have requested it for the same reasons I did:

1. I love basketball and played for years. March Madness is the greatest time of year.

2. A League of Their Own is one of my favorite movies and this seemed to be in a similar vein

I was not disappointed. Once I started reading, I could not stop. I only wish I had read this one a year ago, back when I first got it.

Dust Bowl Girls tells the story of the women's basketball team from Oklahoma Presbyterian College in Durant, Oklahoma in 1931. We learn about Sam Babb, their coach, who traveled back and forth all over Oklahoma to recruit women to play for OPC. The women were given the opportunity to not only play the sport they loved, but do also get a college education - something of high value in the midst of terrible suffering with farmers losing harvests, banks closing down, and families barely making ends met. He offered these young women a chance to change their fate and many took him up on the chance. Before Babb came into their lives, most of the girls were working on their family farms, playing basketball on make-shift dirt courts, helping out their family any way they could. College was certainly out of the question for most, as there was no money to pay for such a luxury - especially in a time where so many farms were struggling as it was and the loss of crops in one season could mean losing everything else as a result. There were several girls though, who despite taking the chance, were simply not up to the challenge once they arrived on campus and practice started. One of the star players made an interesting observation about why she thought this was so.

"In fact, after much thought about the issue of so many girls quitting the team and going home, Lucille had decided the poorer the girl, the harder she worked. All the poorest girls were still there" (38%).

The author, Lydia Reeder, is the perfect person to write such a book, as she is the great niece of head coach Sam Babb. Her writing style is smooth and engaging, and if you are one who enjoys their non-fiction to read like fiction, you may enjoy this. It is rare for me to get caught up in such non-fiction usually, because I am very much a "just the facts" person who does not like a lot of supposition. There were times for me when this was off-putting, especially when she was describing a daily run by one of the players. There is simply no way the thoughts and details could have been recorded anywhere or in such detail. There will be times of dramatic flair added, but not in a way that distracts from the actual story, or embellishes any of the accomplishments of this talented teams. And Reeder not only had access to stories passed down in her family, but scrapbooks, newspapers, interviews with the players, etc to rely on to paint a very vivid portrait of life for these young women. In fact some of those 'extras' that can make a book so special found their way into the pages - tons of team photos, newspaper articles about the season, and even a photo of a ticket stub from one of the games. Those kinds of artifacts are wonderful additions and enhance the text. At the end the author also provides extensive notes explaining how she came by the information and how it all worked to bring this story to life.

In addition to the story of the 1931 team and their undefeated season, we are given information about the history of women's basketball in general, as well as certain aspects of Oklahoma's history - not least of which is the terrible legacy of the treatment of Native Americans there. The players, who several themselves had Native American ancestry in the not-so-distant past, were given the task of teaching younger Indian students table manners during meals.

While the story of this team and the many women who played for many different teams was enchanting, that was not the case for the entire country - including First Lady Lou Henry Hoover. I myself played basketball for many years, am still a fierce competitor in nearly every aspect of my life (truly, I can make almost anything into a competition). Hearing stories from my grandma about how in the 50s when she was in middle school and high school, the girls could only play half-court basketball because they weren't strong enough to play full-court baffled and angered me. Then to see that and more in this book, while I logically knew there were many who thought was an acceptable and appropriate way to think of women and sports, made me even angrier. Basketball was not considered an acceptable sport for young women to play. They were not physically, emotionally, mentally tough enough to do so. Malarkey, I say. They were instead encouraged to play tennis or golf - yawn. Instead of having competitive varsity teams, many schools basically had what amounted to play dates with other schools, which concluded with sharing milk and cookies. I mean, seriously? Give me a break. It was okay for young women to learn some athletic sills, but never to get too good at any single sport. I know of course that those attitudes today do not exist on the large scale they did then, but the backwardness of it all really grated on my nerves. Authorities at the time were so afraid that too much physical activity would eventually cause the young women to "turn into men". No joke, when it was discovered that more active women did not have regular menstrual cycles, there was a fear that the uterus would wither away altogether. The "Women's Division" was a massively annoying group of women, including the aforementioned Hoover, who were incredibly anti-feminist women who set the rules and if the AAU wanted to continued having female athletes, they had to compromise sometimes. This gaggle of women were so sure that the young ladies would not be able to stand the pressure of competition and the ones that did not would somehow become tomboys who lost their ability to be "ladylike".

All in all, this was such a wonderful read, even when I was shaking my fist at those who tried to limit or prohibit altogether women from playing basketball. I am forever grateful to these pioneering women who forged this path, allowing generations after them to come to know and love this game so dearly. Fantastic read, highly recommended.