Women in the Spotlight--Fiction

In Miss Jane--a novel by Brad Watson--Miss Jane Chisolm is born into a rural area of early twentieth-century Mississippi. She is born with a genital birth defect that will surely exclude her from the roles traditional for a woman of her time and place; however, it frees her to live her life on her own terms. Unlike others with similar afflictions, Miss Jane isn’t melancholy or bitter about her situation. She is affable with an exuberance and generosity of spirit that is contagious and eternal.

When We Were Worthy is a novel by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. The small town of Worthy, Georgia is just like most southern towns on a fall night—full of young people and football. On this night, however, the sound of sirens pierce the cool night air just a few hours after the Wildcats scored a winning touchdown. Two cars collided and three cheerleaders are dead. The only survivor is a boy in the other car and he is believed to be at fault, so naturally, rumors, allegations, and secrets begin to churn in this close-knit community. At the center are four women: Marglyn, a grieving mother; Darcy, whose son was behind the wheel; Ava, a substitute teacher with a time-bomb of a secret; and Leah, a cheerleader who should have been in the car with her friends, but wasn’t. When the truth is finally let loose, it will either bring redemption or destruction.

John Banville continues the saga of one of Henry James's characters in his novel Mrs. Osmond. Isabel Archer is the young protagonist in James's novel The Portrait of a Lady who was brought to Europe in the late nineteenth century by an aunt who thought that the trip would round out the girl's eager, yet naive view of the world. Isabel comes into a large, unexpected fortune and is lured into a marriage with the charming, penniless--and as she later learns--cruel and lying Gilbert Osmond. As married life grows more intolerable each day, Isabel defiantly takes a solo trip to England where she is confronted with the opportunity to free herself from the loveless union she is bound to, however, she inexplicably chooses to return to her husband in Italy. Mrs. Osmond picks up where James's novel ends and furthers Isabel's journey with an intensity and dark humor that would make the author proud.

Enchantress of Numbers is a novelization of the life of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer Chiaverini. The only legitimate child of the brilliant and infamous Lord Byron, Ada was destined for greatness from birth. Her mathematician mother is determined to save her child from the destructive and passionate behavior that seems to be the Byron legacy. Ada's education is a rigorous one founded in mathematics and the sciences. Fairytales and anything that sparks the imagination have long been banned from the nursery--or so her mother thinks. Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress and she soon discovers the intellectual and social circles she has longed for. An exciting new friendship with the brilliant, charming, and occasionally grouchy inventor Charles Babbage and his invention, the Difference Engine will most certainly define her destiny.