Bonnie Smith

An overview of modern imperialism with a global view

"A better sister novel for To Kill a Mockingbird, this southern bildungsroman, Black-Eyed Peas and Turnip Greens written by 92-year-old first-time author Bonnie Smith, plants our imaginations vividly in the soil of her poverty-stricken childhood and develops in us not pity but endearing admiration. Both a raw confessional and tale of triumph, Smith's voice is as fresh and flourishing as her first day of school amid violent bullies and shaming teachers whose relentless taunting only serve to fertilize a bounty of inner strength that will see her from coast to coast through decades of anti-female working conditions, failed marriages, and drug-abusing children. What most amazes and inspires in this sometimes funny, always generous, and deeply soul-searching autobiography, is that Smith remains thankful for the scarlet "P" that poverty etched upon her mind. I want all my high school students to read it as soon as possible, while the author lives to receive our thank you notes." Lauren GrahamEnglish Writing Instructor

"A better sister novel for To Kill a Mockingbird, this southern bildungsroman, Black-Eyed Peas and Turnip Greens written by 92-year-old first-time author Bonnie Smith, plants our imaginations vividly in the soil of her poverty-stricken childhood and develops in us not pity but endearing admiration. Both a raw confessional and tale of triumph, Smith's voice is as fresh and flourishing as her first day of school amid violent bullies and shaming teachers whose relentless taunting only serve to fertilize a bounty of inner strength that will see her from coast to coast through decades of anti-female working conditions, failed marriages, and drug-abusing children. What most amazes and inspires in this sometimes funny, always generous, and deeply soul-searching autobiography, is that Smith remains thankful for the scarlet "P" that poverty etched upon her mind. I want all my high school students to read it as soon as possible, while the author lives to receive our thank you notes." Lauren GrahamEnglish Writing Instructor

Thou shalt not bear false witness. Don't lie. Especially not against yourself. But in 1894 in an Idaho court of law, with a jury on the verge of hanging her husband, Francis Cooper Hurst lies. And as a result, this young Mormon woman loses what she holds most dear in the world-her children. The Soul of Frannie Cooper is a true story, its pages drawn from historical documents of her time and from tales told by those who knew and loved her. Mormon Church records say Frannie was born in a settlement north of Salt Lake City, the sixth of twenty-one children in a devout pioneer family. Her dark hair and flashing eyes amid fair-haired, blue-eyed siblings soon creates gossip to flutter in the wind. Frances is not a natural daughter of the Cooper family. Perhaps the child of a Scots trapper and an Indian woman instead-taken in and fostered. This in the day when an Indian soul is not worth that of a white one. While the issue never settles, an imaginative young Frannie reels from family turmoil when her father brings a plural wife home. The suffering deepens when her mother bears a ninth child and abruptly dies. Grief raises the specter of a death angel which will haunt Frannie the remaining days of her life. Born and raised in the same Utah valley where Frannie lived, Bonnie Smith grew up hearing the rattle of bones from the family cupboard-great-grandfather John Hurst facing the hangman for murder, and great-grandmother Frannie admitting to an illicit relationship with the dead man. Bonnie wowed that someday she'd research and find the truth in Frannie's story. The murder occurred without a doubt yet the truth of Frannie's testimony was never as clear. Still . . . the fact is that Frannie saved John Hurst's life, and suffered unimaginable loss for it. That part is in the record book.

The Sung Dynasty (960-1279) was a paradoxical era for Chinese women. This was a time when footbinding spread, and Confucian scholars began to insist that it was better for a widow to starve than to remarry. Yet there were also improvements in women's status in marriage and property rights. In this thoroughly original work, one of the most respected scholars of premodern China brings to life what it was like to be a woman in Sung times, from having a marriage arranged, serving parents-in-law, rearing children, and coping with concubines, to deciding what to do if widowed. Focusing on marriage, Patricia Buckley Ebrey views family life from the perspective of women. She argues that the ideas, attitudes, and practices that constituted marriage shaped women's lives, providing the context in which they could interpret the opportunities open to them, negotiate their relationships with others, and accommodate or resist those around them. Ebrey questions whether women's situations actually deteriorated in the Sung, linking their experiences to widespread social, political, economic, and cultural changes of this period. She draws from advice books, biographies, government documents, and medical treatises to show that although the family continued to be patrilineal and patriarchal, women found ways to exert their power and authority. No other book explores the history of women in pre-twentieth-century China with such energy and depth.