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by kate
Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Last House On the Street” by Diane Chamberlain and Susan Bennett
Kate’s 2¢: “The Last House On the Street” by Diane Chamberlain and Susan Bennett
“The Last House On the Street” by Diane Chamberlain and Susan Bennett
I really enjoyed this story, although, sometimes jumping back and forth between generations was unsettling. It certainly brought to the forefront the danger of being a civil rights proponent ‘back in the day’ and how its secrets still affected the ‘present’.
No the author and I, as far as I know, are not related. Our last names are spelled differently.
I was an insatiable reader as a child, and that fact, combined with a vivid imagination, inspired me to write. I penned a few truly terrible “novellas” at age twelve, then put fiction aside for many years as I pursued my education.
I grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent my summers at the Jersey Shore, two settings that have found their way into my novels. In high school, my favorite authors were the unlikely combination of Victoria Holt and Sinclair Lewis. I loved Holt’s flair for gothic suspense and Lewis’s character studies as well as his exploration of social values, and both those authors influenced the writer I am today.
I attended Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in New Jersey before moving to San Diego, where I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from San Diego State University. After graduating, I worked in a couple of youth counseling agencies and then focused on medical social work, which I adored. I worked in hospitals in San Diego and Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria, Virginia, specializing in adolescents. I reluctantly closed my practice when I realized that I could no longer split my time between two careers and be effective at both of them.
It was while I was working in San Diego that I started writing. I’d had a story in my mind since I was a young adolescent about a group of people living together at the Jersey Shore. While waiting for a doctor’s appointment one day, I pulled out a pen and pad and began putting that story on paper. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I took a class in fiction writing, but for the most part, I “learned by doing.” That story, PRIVATE RELATIONS, took me four years to complete. I sold it in 1986, but it wasn’t published until 1989 (three very long years!), when it earned me the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Romance Novel. Except for a brief stint writing for daytime TV (One Life to Live) and a few miscellaneous articles for newspapers and magazines, I’ve focused my efforts on book-length fiction and have written twenty-eight novels.
My stories are often filled with twists and surprises and–I hope–they also tug at the emotions. They have always been hard to characterize—some are contemporary, some are historical, some are suspenseful, and there’s even a bit of time travel thrown into the mix with The Dream Daughter. What they do have in common is the focus on relationships — between men and women, parents and children, sisters and brothers, friends and enemies. I can’t think of anything more fascinating than the way people struggle with life’s trials and tribulations, both together and alone.
I now live and write in North Carolina, the state which has become my true home and has also spawned many settings for my stories. I live with my significant other, John, a photographer and film maker, and our sweet Shetland Sheepdog, Cole. I have three grown stepdaughters, a couple of sons-in-law and four grandkids.
For me, the real joy of writing is having the opportunity to touch readers with my words. I hope that my stories move you in some way and give you hours of enjoyable reading.
Read by Susan Bennett, who was born in Burlington, Vermont, and attended high school at Clinton Central School in Clinton, New York. In 1967, she enrolled in Pembroke College and graduated in 1971 from Brown University after the two schools merged. In college, Bennett focused on the classics, intending to be a teacher.
Alma mater: Brown University
Occupation: Voice actress, singer
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
The last house on the street DB106437
Chamberlain, Diane; Bennett, Susan Reading time: 12 hours, 13 minutes.
Susan Bennett
Suspense Fiction
Family
Romance
Two women, a generation apart, find themselves bound by tragedy and an unsolved, decades-old mystery. In 1965, Ellie chafes against the future planned for her and works to register black votes in her North Carolina home town. In 2010, widow Kayla receives warnings not to move into her new home. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2022.
Download The last house on the street DB106437
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by kate
Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “A lab of one’s own: one woman’s personal journey through sexism in science”
Kate’s 2¢: “A lab of one’s own: one woman’s personal journey through sexism in science”
by Rita R. Colwell and Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
“A lab of one’s own: one woman’s personal journey through sexism in science”
by Rita R. Colwell and Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
This scientist had an up-hill battle, because in her opinion, Deep down , many scientists are convinced that the ability to do science is linked to the Y chromosome. The unequal treatment of women in science is an institutional and social problem. Women have the intelligence for successful careers…There is no biological difference in intelligence in students of STEM.
On a personal level, our daughter did very well in her 6th Grade math courses, but, the female department chairman said we wouldn’t recommend her for the Advanced Math in 7th Grade, because she only recommended boys for that course.
Implicit bias is holding us back
In Chapter 10, The author offers her suggestions on how to get an equal chance to achieve.
“The best of 100% of the population is better than choosing from 50% of the population.”
From the WEB:
Rita R. Colwell is an American environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator. Colwell holds degrees in bacteriology, genetics, and oceanography and studies infectious diseases. Colwell is the founder and Chair of CosmosID, a bioinformatics company. From 1998 to 2004, she was the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation.
https://www.mcgrayne.comActions for this site
Sharon Bertsch McGrayne is the author of highly-praised books about scientific discoveries and the scientists who make them. She is interested in exploring the cutting Works McGrayne interviewed all the featured women alive at the time and more than.
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
A lab of one’s own: one woman’s personal journey through sexism in science DB100468
Colwell, Rita R; McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch Reading time: 8 hours, 34 minutes.
Jackie Sanders
Science and Technology
Biography
Microbiologist and first female director of the National Science Foundation shares her experiences with building a career in scientific research and the sexist practices and behaviors she experienced. Examines what has changed since she was studying for her PhD and what still needs to change. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2020.
Download A lab of one’s own: one woman’s personal journey through sexism in science DB100468