History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England Author: John Carmi Parsons  Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography  Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan  Book Release Date: 1998 Pages: 388 Source: Personal Collection  Synopsis: Medievalist feminist studies' early concentration on the lives of prominent women has more recently given way to an interest in their less exalted sisters. Historians have seemingly avoided the careers of medieval queens, creatures of romance and legend, women who enjoyed rank and wealth merely as a consequence of birth or marriage. A renewed interest in such women has, however, followed the opening of new avenues to the study of women and power in the Middle Ages. That the lives of these women will reward reconsideration has been amply proven in the works of such historians as Pauline Stafford and Janet Nelson. Eleanor of Castile studies the wife of Edward I of England, a woman eulogized since the sixteenth century as a model of ...

        Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing author, Gabriella Saab. She is the author of The Last Checkmate  and Daughters of Victory . She has recently published  Survivor's Guild , which tells the story about of two Titanic survivors. One of them is a wealthy heiress, and the other is a Lebanese immigrant. They are tasked with finding the mother of a baby boy whom they have saved. In this interview, we discussed the Titanic as well as the events that were going on in Lebanon during that time. Thank you, Mrs. Saab! What inspired you to write The Survivor’s Guild? I’m half Lebanese, and while attending a conference through the Southern Federation of Syrian Lebanese American Clubs, I learned about the Lebanese aboard the Titanic . I never knew there were Lebanese aboard the ship, so it was the perfect opportunity to explore a lesser-known side of the story we all know. But I didn’t want to tell a story of only the Titanic ; I wanted to know what li...

The Survivors Guild Author: Gabriella Saab Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Harper Muse Book Release Date: September 1, 2026 Pages: 400 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: In 1912 aboard the RMS Titanic , Nabiha “Bea” Nohra is traveling to America to find work, eager to earn the funds necessary to afford passage for the family she left in Lebanon. On the same ship, heiress Marguerite Ashby sails home to celebrate her engagement to a dull British lord, a marriage that will secure her new-money family’s place in old New York society. But when the Titanic sinks, the two women’s paths are fused together when Bea saves Marguerite’s life and they are unexpectedly charged with the smallest survivor—a baby boy.       No one claims the infant, so the women form a committee to aid survivors and locate the baby’s next of kin. Bea works as the child’s nanny, desperate to bring her family to America before the difficulties in Leba...

  Isis of Egypt: Goddess of Thrones Author: Malayna Evans Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy  Publisher: Alcove Press  Publication Date: June 23, 2026 Pages: 325 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: One determined goddess. Two beloved gods. Three coveted thrones.         Ancient Egypt’s most formidable goddess will stop at nothing to save her true love from the wrath of a vengeful god in this romantic retelling by the author of Neferura , perfect for readers who loved Lilith .       Isis, goddess of thrones and magic, steals the crown of Egypt and hands the power to her husband, Osiris. Together, Isis and Osiris live an idyllic life, ruling justly until the god of chaos, set on revenge for a crime Isis knows nothing about, traps Osiris in a box—a box that quickly vanishes.        Driven by rage and desperation, Isis spends decades di...

Ravenous: A Life of Barbara Villiers, Charles II Most Infamous Mistress Author: Audrea Zuvich  Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography  Publisher: Pen & Sword History  Book Release Date: 2024 Pages: 282 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Barbara Villiers was a woman so beautiful, so magnetic and so sexually attractive that she captured the hearts of many in Stuart-era Britain. Her beauty is legendary: she became the muse of artists such as Peter Lely, the inspiration of writers such as John Dryden and the lover of John Churchill, the future great military leader whom we also know as the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her greatest amorous conquest was King Charles II, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with whom she had a tempestuous and passionate relationship for the better part of a decade. But this loveliest of Stuart-era ladies had a dark side. She hurt and humiliated her husband, Roger Palmer, for decades with her unashamedly ad...

The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime  Author: Sara Fitzgerald  Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography  Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Book Release Date: 2024 Pages: 336 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: The first full-length biography of the longtime secret love of the celebrated poet T. S. Eliot, Emily Hale, called "heartbreaking" by Publishers Weekly .        In January 2020, the largest and most eagerly awaited cache of new materials written by the Nobel-Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot was finally opened: the 1,131 letters he sent Emily Hale, his little-known American love. But even as Eliot scholars explore Hale's impact on Eliot's work, a tantalizing question has not been fully answered: who was Emily Hale?        Sara Fitzgerald's The Silenced Muse: Emily Hale, T. S. Eliot, and the Role of a Lifetime is the first full-len...