There is no shortage of women who have made their mark on history. But for every Eleanor of Aquitaine or Elizabeth I, there have been many more whose efforts have gone unrecognized, largely because of their sex.
Now a new BBC series, the Ascent of Women, sheds light on the forgotten heroines of the past.
In reporting on the BBC production for MailOnline, Ruth Styles tells us about the women you’ve never heard of: From the Sumerian priestess poet to the English queen who revolutionized literature.
For example:
Poet: Indian princess Mirabai survived assassination attempts by her in-laws and wrote thousands of poems
MIRABAI – 1498 – 1565
An Indian saint, author and mystic, Mirabai, also known as Meera, was a Rajput princess and the only child of a minor king. When Vikram Singh took the throne, legend says he repeatedly tried to have Mirabai killed
Despite his persecution, the princess went on to become a prolific author. Venerated by the Sikhs as well as Hindus, her many devotional poems earned her a place in the Bhakti pantheon of saints following her death and her work remains popular today
More on the forgotten women of history HERE
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Readers Delight
imgfave.com
Sitting outside in an outdoor nook.
Arielle Calderon of BuzzFeed finds
31 places bookworms will drool over
See all the places for bookworms HERE
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Bored Panda finds
15 Mind-Bending Photos That Seem Fake But Are Actually Real
If you’ve spent a decent amount of time on the Internet, you’ve probably developed a healthy skepticism – you shouldn’t always believe what you see online, because it’s fairly easy to falsify with Photoshop. These images, however, will turn your caution on its head – though all of these images look like they might be fake, each is 100% real!
Some of these images are of unexpected coincidences or exotic locations, but many also involve works of art intentionally designed by artists to subvert our certainty in what is real.
One example
Zhangye Danxia Landform In Gansu, China
See all the photos HERE
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A beautiful daughter
Holly Spring took up photography after her daughter had struggled early on in life with Hirschsprung’s Disease and no left hand, Lisa Holloway writes at Bored Panda, and she took some remarkable photos. She wants to show her daughter that there are no limits to what she can achieve if she just believes in herself.
“My daughter is my muse and my heart that inspires me to follow my passion and share these unique photos and digital art with you,” says Holly.”
See all the photos HERE
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At Flavorwire, Jonathon Sturgeon and Sarah Seltzer offer us
22 Essential Women Writers to Read in Translation
Noting that women writers in translation seem significantly less likely to get profiled by major literary outlets and are less likely to have their books sent for review, they put together a starter list of essential women writers, from Murasaki Shikibu to Minae Mizumura.
One example:
Elena Ferrante’s four novels tracing one friendship between two women in Naples is causing Ferrante Fever for a reason; dense, complex, and full of high emotion and wise reflection, they are like reading in technicolor.
The Story of The Lost Child has just been published. Other novels, like The Days of Abandonment and The Lost Daughter, put her on the map.
Read the whole story HERE
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High Literature
24 Mind-Expanding Drug Novels
Most of our best-known drug literature comes in the form of memoir, Jonathon Sturgeon says at Flavorwire. “But if you’re anything like me, you need the power of a robust, fictional delivery system to get the required effect of your literary drugs. With this in mind, here are 24 works of required-reading drug lit for research purposes only.”
Diary of a Drug Fiend: Aleister Crowley, who most certainly was a drug “fiend,” features a hilarious preface that includes the novel-effacing line: “This is a true story. It has been rewritten only so far as was necessary to conceal personalities.”
It is among the most impressively arrayed drug novels on this list, featuring everything from heroin to cocaine to Prussic acid (which is, admittedly, a way for the characters to kill themselves instead of facing up to addiction).
See all the books HERE
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Since my signature work, The Secrets of Jin-shei, celebrates a unique form of sisterhood in an Imperial China that never was, I’m always interested in stories of friendships.
Emma Volk at Off the Shelf offers us
9 Novels That Celebrate the Joys of Friendship
e.g.
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
The bond between six friends who met as teenagers at a summer camp for the arts remains strong decades later, but not all of them achieved their artistic dreams.
Can their friendship survive the envy that comes along with watching your friend succeed when you have failed?
Read the whole story HERE
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THIS n THATRomanian city offered a free ride to anyone reading a book on the bus.
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Quote of the Day
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Alma Alexander My books Email me
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