Maria Quitéria de Jesus (c. 1792 - 1853, Brazil)
Ellen Ochoa (born 1958, United States)
Cindy Arlette Contreras Bautista (born 1990, Peru)
An Interrupted Life
by
Etty Hillesum; Arnold J. Pomerans (Translator); J. G. Gaarlandt (Introduction by)
nlike Anne Frank's quietly universal Diary of a Young Girl, these Amsterdam meditations by a Dutch/Jewish woman in her late 20s--who would die in Auschwitz--are the product of a highly idiosyncratic sensibility. Working as a Russian-language tutor, living in a quasi-boarding-house, sexually liberated Etty devotes the greatest portion of her diaries to her intense relationship with ""S.""--identified in the Dutch publisher's introduction as Julius Spier, a middle-aged, charismatic therapist/palm-reader who trained under Jung. Etty begins as a patient: ""Suddenly I was living differently, more freely, more flowingly, the costive feeling vanished. . . . And now I live and breathe through my 'soul,' if I may use that discredited word."" But soon, though sleeping with lover Hans, Etty is obsessed by S.--reporting each shift in their strange, erotic, mystical union. There are ruminations on male/female dynamics, dependence, selfhood, parental ties. Etty immerses herself in Rilke, pondering ""The relationship of literature to life."" And, with soulful S. as her model, Etty reacts to the increasingly grim Dutch[Jewish situation with a kind of holistic acceptance. ""Why is there a war?. . . Because I and my neighbour and everyone else do not have enough love."" Despite an occasional feeling of terror, Etty enjoys life, refuses to go into hiding, repeatedly disavows hatred for her enemies, converses at length with God, is aware of the dire prospects, but isn't fearful: ""I don't feel in anybody's clutches; I feel sale in God's arms. . . ."" And even after S. dies, with deportation looming, Etty's equanimity remains essentially intact: ""I want to be sent to every one of the camps that he scattered all over Europe. . . . I don't want to be what they call 'safe'. . . I want to fraternise with all my so-called enemies. . . ."" Some readers will be inspired, perhaps, by this spiritual rising-above the Holocaust horror. Others, however, will be much more skeptical--especially since Etty's musings so often suggest a neurotic post-adolescent phase. In any case: a strange, one-of-a-kind document--by turns tedious, bewildering, disturbing. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Nefertiti
by
Joyce A. Tyldesley
In the tradition of her intriguing Hatchepsut, Joyce Tyldesley rescues another female ruler from the shadows of history c. 1350 B.C.: Queen Nefertiti (literally "a beautiful woman has come"). We know her from the exquisite painted bust in the Berlin Museum, discovered in 1912, which has made her ancient Egypt's most recognizable queen and a symbol of her country's history. Until now, however, she has remained largely unknown and unrecognized for her contributions to Egyptian society. Wife of Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh, adored by her family, blessed by the sun god, and worshiped by her people, Nefertiti suddenly and completely vanished from the record. Was she banished by her husband or raised to rule as his equal? Did she reign, under another name, in her own right? Could she have been the eminence grise behind the young Tutankhamen, her son-in-law?
The reluctant empress : Elisabeth of Austria
by
Brigitte Hamann
Great Catherine
by
Carolly Erickson
A portrait of one of the world's great leaders that reads like a historical novel.