The Resolute Woman

Category: book

  • Adhere to your purpose

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    resolutewoman
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    Abraham Lincoln sometimes suffered from melancholy. However, even during the worst days of the Civil War, he “refused to surrender to the gloom of defeat,” writes Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book Team of Rivals. Goodwin says that Lincoln once wrote to the son of his wife’s cousin when the young man was miserable at…

  • Be a good bluffer

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    resolutewoman
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    In her new book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, suggests that women need more self-confidence. How can you develop more self-confidence? Betty Lehan Harragan, in her book Games Mother Never Taught You—Corporate Gamemanship for Women, says that women need to learn how to be good bluffers. Her book was published…

  • Don’t underestimate yourself

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    resolutewoman
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    Not everyone agrees with everything Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, says in her new book Lean In. According to the March 18, 2013, issue of Time, Sandberg’s thesis is that women are not aiming high enough. They’re underestimating their abilities, and they’re spending too much time on housework and children. “We hold…

  • Sassy and savvy

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    resolutewoman
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    After the Civil War, Amanda Nite Burks, who married when she was 15, and her husband Bud drove their horses and cattle to Banquette, Texas, and settled there. In her book Texas Dames—Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History, Carmen Goldwaite quotes from Amanda’s diary to tell the story of her three-month journey on…

  • The perseverance of a goat

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    resolutewoman
    in ,

    In Kabul, getting a new TV to work isn’t easy, writes Deborah Rodriguez in her novel The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul. “It had taken three weeks, a new satellite dish on the roof, three friends to help run the wires, countless trips to the electronics and hardware stores and several prayers to Allah that…

  • The spell of New Mexico

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    resolutewoman
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    One Saturday morning recently I ended up waiting unpatiently at Firestone for the technician to remove a nail from my car’s tire and then patch the tire. I had just found a spot in the waiting room when I noticed that the television set was blaring. As soon as I opened my book, the young…

  • Courage, ingenuity and intelligence

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    resolutewoman
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    It was in Lubochna, before she was taken to a concentration camp, that the police came to their apartment and ordered Gerda Buergenthal and her son Thomas to pack their belongings and to be ready to go in a hour. When they were taken to the police station, his mother demanded to see the police…

  • Beauty and wealth

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    resolutewoman
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    Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon, was fortunate. Even though her social standing was “dubious” because she was “the illegitimate daughter of a Jewish banker and his French kept woman,” Lady Almina was beautiful, explains the current Countess of Carnarvon in her book Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abby. Lady Almina, of course,…

  • Read at every wait

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    resolutewoman
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    I was reminded of Father Tim and Cynthia recently when I visited my husband’s Aunt Ola. Father Tim and Cynthia, of course, are characters in Jan Karon’s The Mitford Series books. During our visit, Ola and I talked about Father Tim and Cynthia as if they were old friends. After the visit, I thought how…

  • Are we alone together?

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    resolutewoman
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    After three people, including my husband, heard Sherry Turkle on National Public Radio on October 18, 2012, and told me about her new book, I looked up the Fresh Air interview online. In her book Alone Together, Turkle, a clinical psychologist and founder of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self, explores how technology is changing…