Diane Eickhoff

I have read a lot of books about women's history in the US and I don't remember hearing much about Clarina Nichols. That's a shame, because she was apparently an important figure in the suffrage movement and during the first wave of feminism. I really enjoyed learning about her life. This book is well-written, engaging and provides a good amount of detail about Ms. Nichols and all that she accomplished to push women toward equality. The writing style is more like a novel, which would make it more appealing to younger people. If you have an interest in this period of history, I highly recommend this book.… (más)

An exciting story about an early leader in abolition and women's rights, one who, for that matter, continued to support black male suffrage even after it became clear that women's suffrage was being sacrificed for fear that both could not pass at once. Far too few people can name more 19th century women's suffragists than Susan B. Anthony and perhaps Elizabeth Cady Stanton (maybe Sojourner Truth at a stretch, but passing familiarity with her is more likely to include only her status as an escaped slave and abolitionist). When I requested this book from ER, I didn't realize that it was a YA adaptation of a fuller length adult biography that had come out ten years before, and I didn't figure it out until I was halfway through the book and discovered a bookmark advertising the line of YA history books. Without knowing it was meant for YA, I found the prose a bit simplistic, but once I realized the intended audience, it made sense and the style seemed appropriate. I hope to have time to read the adult version, Revolutionary Heart, soon, but this was certainly worth reading once.… (más)

I don't know much about the women's right's movement. I should know a lot more, being a women, but I don't. And I admitably probably take our rights for granted, while complaining about how the boy's get favored where I work all the time, even though there are 5 times as many girls, and we do 99% of the same heavy lifting that the boys do.

This book, to me, is more a book about the women's rights movement then about Clarina herself, though naturally, since the book is named after her, there is a lot about her, too, but it's mostly about her role in the women's movements, then about her life as a whole (for example, the author talks a lot about Clarina's first marriage, but everything she writes about the marriage she relates to Clarina's future role in the movement). I wish there was more about Clarina's personal life, but the focus of the book isn't about that.

I was greatly surprised & interested in read about how in some small way, the women's right movement started in Worcester, which is where my husband grew up & my in-law's still live!

I also thought it was very cool that Clarina, a lifelong knitter, received yarn from her fans, after helping a woman on the train to keep her children!

I am only giving the book four stars, because (like I said) I wish there was more info about her personal life, but also because after a while, all of her talks and speeches and the various organizations she belonged to started to run together in my head...… (más)