Library Loot ~ August 13-19

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker ~ by Jennifer Chiaverini, 2013, fiction (Washington, DC)

A friendship blossomed between Mary Todd Lincoln and her seamstress, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Keckley, a former slave who gained her professional reputation in Washington, D.C. by outfitting the city’s elite.  Keckley made history by sewing for First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln within the White House, a trusted witness to many private moments between the President and his wife, two of the most compelling figures in American history.  In March 1861, Mrs. Lincoln chose Keckley from among a number of applicants to be her personal “modiste,” responsible not only for creating the First Lady’s gowns, but also for dressing Mrs. Lincoln in the beautiful attire Keckley had fashioned. The relationship between the two women quickly evolved, as Keckley was drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family, supporting Mary Todd Lincoln in the loss of first her son, and then her husband to the assassination that stunned the nation and the world.

Keckley saved scraps from the dozens of gowns she made for Mrs. Lincoln, eventually piecing together a tribute known as the Mary Todd Lincoln Quilt.  She also saved memories, which she fashioned into a book, Behind the Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House.  Upon its publication, Keckley’s memoir created a scandal that compelled Mary Todd Lincoln to sever all ties with her, but in the decades since, Keckley’s story has languished in the archives.  In this impeccably researched, engrossing novel, Chiaverini brings history to life in rich, moving style.

Learning to Walk in the Dark ~ by Barbara Brown Taylor, 2014, spirituality

Taylor provides readers a way to find spirituality in those times when we don’t have all the answers.  She has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness.  Doesn’t God work in the nighttime as well?  She asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.”  She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes).  Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen.  Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? : The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell ~ by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman, children's

In the 1830s, when a brave and curious girl named Elizabeth Blackwell was growing up, women were supposed to be wives and mothers.  Some women could be teachers or seamstresses, but career options were few.  Certainly no women were doctors.  But Elizabeth refused to accept the common beliefs that women weren’t smart enough to be doctors, or that they were too weak for such hard work.  And she would not take no for an answer.  Although she faced much opposition, she worked hard and finally — when she graduated from medical school and went on to have a brilliant career — proved her detractors wrong.  This inspiring story of the first female doctor shows how one strong-willed woman opened the doors for all the female doctors to come.  An NPR Best Book of 2013.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to name books we checked out of the library.  Click here to see what others got this week.