Hello, dear readers! Has your June been as busy as mine has? It’s probably because my kids are finishing the last years of their respective schools before they launch into their new ones, but I’ve been run ragged keeping up with all their activities (and let’s not even get started on MY activities.) Fortunately, there are some delightful books to help fill the few quiet times I have available, beginning with Eliza Knight’s recently published historical novel Confessions Of A Grammar Queen.
There are no female publishing CEOs in 1960s New York. Savvy, ambitious Bernadette Swift is going to change that, with the help of a pair of pink pantyhose.
As a junior copyeditor, Bernadette is in the habit of pushing her personal life aside for the intentionally unmanageable workload her boss piles on her desk. Part of this is because she’s determined to become the first female CEO in the publishing industry. First, however, she’ll need to take the next step up the corporate ladder, with a promotion that her boorish and sexist boss very much wants to thwart.
Seeking a base of support, Bernadette accepts the unusual offer of a bold pair of pantyhose and joins a feminist women’s book club at the New York Public Library. Soon, she’s inspiring her fellow members to ask for more, to challenge the male gatekeepers and decades of ingrained sexism in their workplaces, and to pursue their personal and professional dreams. Their movement starts small but grows: demanding and receiving more scandalous books for the club; more time for their personal lives (and, in Bernadette’s case, for a certain charming male colleague); more women’s equity marches, and more women’s voices in publishing. Will a bad boss and a jealous colleague be able to stop her rise? Not if Bernadette and her friends have anything to say about it!