Scandalous Women

“It’s a good thing I’m not a woman. I would always be pregnant. I can’t say no,” President Warren G. Harding speaking to a group of reporters at a private party at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. I’m a little obsessed with the TV show Scandal on ABC, a captivating saga of illicit relationships, unchecked power, and shocking political intrigue in the administration of President Fitzgerald Grant. Grant had been having an illicit affair with Olivia Pope who not only worked on his campaign but also in the White House as his press secretary. Now she’s a crisis management consultant whose job frequently involves the White House. Grant is married to Mellie, the ice-queen who would stop at nothing, even faking a miscarriage to get her husband elected. And then there is Cyrus, the Machiavellian chief of Staff who also happens to be gay, and Hollis Doyle, the Texas oilman who has a stake in the Grant Presidency. Oh, and did I mention that Fitzgerald Grant is a Republican? Alth...

Happy Valentine's Day!  I wrote this blog post way back in 2007, when the documentary Crazy/Love came out. It was one of the most outrageous stories of love gone wrong, that if I read it in a novel, I wouldn't have believed it.  Linda Pugach recently passed away this January at the age of 75. If you get the chance, I urge you to seek out Crazy/Love on Netflix. Everyone knows about Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuco. They had an affair while she was underage, he broke up with her, she shot his wife. Now allegedly they're back together. Well, meet the 1950's equivalent. Instead of Amy Fisher, we have Burt Pugach, the man from whom 1-800-Shyster could have been invented. Burt, not very good-looking, but apparently smart and charismatic works as an ambulance chaser in the Bronx. He's also a film producer, and owns a night club. He spies Lnda Riss, a sheltered dark haired beauty said to look like Elizabeth Taylor, on a park bench and decides than and there that he has t...

Title:   The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things Author:   Paula Byrne Publisher:    Harper Collins Publication Date:   1/29/2013 How Acquired:   Through the Publisher What it’s about:   I came to Jane Austen relatively late in life it feels.   I didn’t read Pride and Prejudice until my senior year of high school.   As a moody teenager, I reveled in the gothic novels of Emily and Charlotte Bronte.   It was actually the film version of Pride and Prejudice starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson that got me interested in reading the book.   I found the movie so delicious and fun that I had to read the book.   Since then I’ve read Northanger Abbey, Emma and Persuasion and I’ve seen almost every single adaptation of all the books.   I’ve even read several biographies but I’ve never really felt as if I knew who Jane was.   She certainly wasn’t the character played by Anne Hathaway in BECOMING JANE that much...

  Frida Kahlo, Mexican, 1907-1954, Self-Portrait with Monkeys , 1943 Oil on canvas, 81.5 X 63 cm, Gelman Collection. Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D. F. /   While planning a future trip to Washington, DC, I stumbled upon an ad promoting this new exhibition at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA.  Entitled "Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting" the exhibition will feature some of the best examples of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's work, approximately 140 paintings mainly from collections in Mexico. According to the press release, the paintings will be exhibited chronologically and according to themes including: maternity, Mexcian identity, and portraiture.  The High Museum of Art will be the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, so if you want to see it, you'll have to book a plane to Atlanta. I wrote about Frida Kahlo in Scandalous Women and I'm not afraid to admit that I became a little obssessed by her and her stormy relationship...

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome author Vicki Leon to the blog with a fascinating guest post about Pericles and Aspasia. You wouldn’t think that enthusiastic kissing would set off such a scandal. But even during the glory days of ancient Athens, it did. The couple caught in the act were celebrities around town; Pericles, the most brilliant political and military leader of his time; and Aspasia, the witty, well-spoken foreigner from the Greek city of Miletus. Such public displays of affection were taboo in that era. And independent, eloquent women, even more so. Well-bred matrons shunned the public eye. Sneered at Aspasia, called her harlot and worse. Some secretly envied her, and the steadfast affection their leader had for her. Each morning, with the neighbors as witness, Pericles soundly kissed his love; and each evening, when he returned, he embraced her again before their jealous eyes. I’m willing to bet they had the most loving, full-bodied relationship of any coup...

Title:    The Joy of Sexus - Lust, Love and Longing in the Ancient World Author:   Vicki Leon Publisher:   Walker and Company Pub Date:     January 29, 2013 Pages:         302 How Acquired:   Through publisher What it's About:   In her previous books, Vicki León put readers in the sandals of now obsolete laborers, ranging from funeral clowns to armpit pluckers, and untangled the twisted threads of superstition and science in antiquity. Now, in this book of astonishing true tales of love and sex in long-ago Greece, Rome, and other cultures around the Mediterranean, she opens the doors to shadowy rooms and parts the curtains of decorum. León goes far beyond what we think we know about sex in ancient times, taking readers on a randy tour of aphrodisiacs and anti -aphrodisiacs, contraception, nymphomania, bisexuality, cross-dressing, and gender-bending. She explains citizens' fear of hermaphrodites, investigates...

Title:   Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker   Author:   Jennifer Chiaverini   Publisher: Penguin Group (USA ) Publication date: 1/15/2013   Pages: 352   How Acquired:   Through Net Galley Overview:   New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini illuminates the extraordinary friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, a former slave who won her freedom by the skill of her needle, and the friendship of the First Lady by her devotion. In Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker , novelist Jennifer Chiaverini presents a stunning account of the friendship that 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 ...