Women

African American Women Scientists and Inventors

Author: Otha Richard Sullivan

Jacket Description/Flap: This latest gem in the Black Stars Series brings African American women of science and invention to life. Countless African American women have made important contributions to science that impact the way we live, work, and think today. Too often their accomplishments have gone unrecorded. African American Women Scientists and Inventors introduces you to some of these outstanding women and their achievements. Here are lively profiles of both unsung and legendary heroines spanning three hundred years of American history. For example, find out how: Madame C. J. Walker emerged from a heritage of slavery to develop the "Walker System" of hair care that allowed her to employ thousands, fund foundations and scholarships to help young African Americans----and become the first woman millionaire. Bessie Blount Griffin, a physical therapist, invented a device to help the disabled feed themselves. Angela D. Ferguson, M.D., discovered a way to detect sickle cell anemia in newborns. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics, became a leader in her field. She was the first African American to become president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, where she teaches today.

Today's price: £24.95

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table

Author: Maya Angelou

Product Description Throughout Maya Angelou's life food has played a pivotal role at important moments. In 'HALLELUJAH! The Welcome table' she narrates some of these tales and then gives us recipes for the food that helped shape her memories. There was the time she cooked a cassoulet for M.F.K. Fisher on the very day she moved into her new house in California. Or how her mother made a delicious maple cake for her when she was expelled from school for not being able to speak. Then there's a story about how once Decca (Jessica) Mitford made a delicious chicken - and the recipe is for 'Chicken Drunkard Style'. The recipes cover fried meat pies, caramel cake, Minnisota wild rice, chicken livers and many more. Dishes include fried meat pies, biscuits, potato salad, smoked pork chops, Beef Wellington, chicken livers, Minnesota wild rice, pot roast, and wilted lettuce. Color photos throughout. Maya Angelou's kitchen is a social centre, she cooks while she entertains and is renowned for what she serves.

Today's price: £9.99

Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings

Author: Zora Neale Hurston

Annotation: A special feature of this collection of works by Zora Neale Hurston is the first complete and unexpurgated edition of her 1942 autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road. Tell My Horse, Mules and Men, and selected articles are included also. Features a brief essay on the texts and detailed notes. Her groundbreaking works, suffused with the culture and traditions of African-Americans and the poetry of black speech, have won her recognition as one of the most significant African-American writers.

Today's price: £40.00

Mary Seacole

Author: Jane Robinson

The 'Greatest Black Briton in History' triumphed over the Crimea and Victorian England. The Times called her a heroine, Florence Nightingale called her a brothel-keeping quack, and Queen Victoria's nephew called her, simply, 'Mammy' - Mary Seacole was one of the most eccentric and charismatic women of her era. Born at her mother's hotel in Jamaica in 1805, she became an independent 'doctress' combining the herbal remedies of her African ancestry with sound surgical techniques. On the outbreak of the Crimean War, she arrived in London desperate to join Florence Nightingale at the Front, but the authorities refused to see her. Being black, nearly 50, rather stout, and gloriously loud in every way, she was obviously unsuitable. Undaunted, Mary travelled to Balaklava under her own steam to build the 'British Hotel', just behind the lines. It was an outrageous venture, and a huge success - she became known and loved by everyone from the rank and file to the royal family. For more than a century after her death this remarkable woman was all but forgotten. This, the first full-length biography of a Victorian celebrity recently voted the greatest black Briton in history, brings Mary Seacole centre stage at last.

Today's price: £7.99

Michelle Obama

Author: Elizabeth Lightfoot

Annotation: Michelle Obama has played an influential role in her husband's campaign, and is certain to do the same if he is elected president. This work examines her astonishing career--covering her undergraduate years at Princeton, her studies at Harvard Law School, and her tenure at a prestigious Chicago law firm.

Today's price: £14.95

Michelle: A Biography

Author: Liza Mundy

Publisher Marketing: She can be funny and sharp-tongued, warm and blunt, empathic and demanding. Who is the woman Barack Obama calls "the boss"? In "Michelle, Washington Post" writer Liza Mundy paints a revealing and intimate portrait, taking us inside the marriage of the most dynamic couple in politics today. She shows how well they complement each other: Michelle, the highly organized, sometimes intimidating, list-making pragmatist; Barack, the introspective political charmer who won't pick up his socks but shoots for the stars. Their relationship, like those of many couples with two careers and two children, has been so strained at times that he has had to persuade her to support his climb up the political ladder. And you can't blame her for occasionally regretting it: In this campaign, it is Michelle who has absorbed much of the skepticism from voters about Obama. One conservative magazine put her on the cover under the headline "Mrs. Grievance." Michelle's story carries with it all the extraordinary achievements and lingering pain of America in the post-civil rights era. She grew up on the south side of Chicago, the daughter of a city worker and a stay-at-home mom in a neighborhood rocked by white flight. She was admitted to Princeton amid an angry debate about affirmative action and went on to Harvard Law School, where she was more comfortable doing pro-bono work for the poor than gunning for awards with the rest of her peers. She became a corporate lawyer, then left to train community leaders. She is modern in her tastes but likes to watch reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Brady Bunch." In this carefully reported biography, drawing upon interviews with more than one hundred people, including one with Michelle herself, Mundy captures the complexity of this remarkable woman and the remarkable life she has lived.

Today's price: £25.00