BADASS CHICKS & DUDES

The common theme is that each of these people played hard and on their own terms, usually against long odds and signifcant challenges.  

YEAH, BEING A GIRL ISN’T EASY BUT YOU GET IT DONE ANYWAY

The Burgermeister’s Daughter:  Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town             (1997)      Steven Ozment

Lucretia Borgia:  Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy                                                   (2005)     Sarah Bradford

The Secret Wife of Louis XIV:  Francoise d’Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon                     (2009)     Veronica Buckley

Get Home:  The Memoir of the New Yorker Writer                                                                    (2000)     Emily Hahn

Daughter of Han:  The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman                                  (1945)     Ida Pruitt / Ning Lao T’ai-t’ai

Hypatia of Alexandria                                                                                                                         (1996)      Maria Dzielska

CLASSICS:  WHY YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE WORLD LEADERS OR LIFE TOO SERIOUSLY

Candide                                                                                                                                                    (1759)     Voltaire
First published 1759 by French philosopher, writer and historian Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire).  Famous for his wit, criticism of the Christianity (the Church, not faith itself), and slavery, as well as an advocate for freedom of speech, religion, and separation of church and state.  He wrote over 20,000 letters as well as 2,000 books and pamphlets.  Incredible thinker and writer.

Faust                                                                                                                   (1829, final edition)    Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Considered Goethe’s magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature, this tragedy is the life of a man who was never satisfied and takes place in several parts.  You have to read it.  And if you are ever in Frankfurt, Germany, visit his house.

STUDS

 Jeno:  The Power of the Peddler                                                                                                   (2006)     Jeno F. Paulucci

Chaos:  Learning to Lead                                                                                                                 (2019)     James Mattis, Bing West

The Real All Americans                                                                                                                     (2008)      Sally Jenkins

The State of Jones:  The Small Southern County that Seceded from the Confederacy   (2010)     Sally Jenkins,
                                                                                                                                                                                  John Stauffer