Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sunday Salon - July 12

The Sunday Salon.com
Earlier this week, we took a trip to Morven House in Princeton, the home of Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton. During the tour, I learned that Annis, a feminist and patriot, was one of America's first female published poets, and wrote more than 12o works. Wanting to learn more, I asked if any of her works were still in publication. The tour guide did not know (I since looked it up; they were collected and published in 1995 in a book called Only for the Eye of a Friend: The Poems of Annis Boudinot Stockton) but another visitor on the tour reminded me of a book that has been languishing on my TBR pile: Founding Mothers: The Women who Raised our Nation by Cokie Roberts. Annis is covered in the book, along with Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Reed Franklin, and Eliza Pinckney. I ran out this afternoon on the way back from the beach and picked up a copy of the book from the library, and that will be my reading material for this not-so-leisurely Sunday!

Cokie Roberts has a new book out that also sounds good which seems to pick up where Founding Mothers leaves off. It is titled Ladies of Liberty: The Women who Shaped our Nation.

Yesterday I breezed through a small book by young Japanese author Hitomi Kanehara, Snakes and Earrings, an explicit look into the counter-culture of Japanese youth. It's...interesting. 

Happy Sunday!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to put Founding Mothers on my wishlist. Yours is the second blog I've read that talked about it. :-)

Literary Feline said...

I'll have to make note of Cokie Roberts' books. I go through history phases where I like to read about certain time periods and I haven't read enough about the historical women in U.S. history.

The book you read, Snakes and Earrings, sounds interesting. I've read a few articles on the subject of the youth counter-culture in recent months.

tanabata said...

LOL. I had to laugh at your reaction to Snakes and Ladders. It's certainly not a part of society I've had any first-hand experience with!

Nyssaneala said...

koolaidmom - I'll let you know how it is after when I finish reading it!

wendy - I also go through history phases, I seem to be entering a revolutionary one at the moment. :)

tanabata - Other than seeing the funky fashion choices of some youth in Osaka a few years back, I have no experience with that part of Japanese society either. I think it would be more interesting to read a non-fiction book about this sub-culture, Kanehara's novel wasn't entirely my cup of tea.