Mohr Library Book Discussion – Women's Panel More…

More … Mohr Library Book Discussion – Women’s Panel Monday, August 19 3:30 ––– 5: 5:30303030 PMPMPM Nellie Bly Elizabeth Bisland Eighty Days: May 5, 1864 – June 27, 1922 Fe bruary 11, 1 861 – January 6, 1929 Nellie Bly and Nellie Bly and “Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.” Elizabeth BislandBisland’’’’ss ― Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days HistoryHistory----MakingMaking RRRaRaaacece Around the World by Mathew Goodman This discussion group program is part of the Mohr Library’s participation in the national CSLP Adult Summer Reading Program: Marian J. M ohr Memorial Library One Memorial Avenue Johnston, RI 02919 401401----231231231231----49804980 www.mohrlibrary.org [from Random House] Book Su mmary How to par ticipate in a Discussion On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for [from Litlovers] Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was Watch your language! Try to avoid words like "awful" or determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe "idiotic"—even "like" and "dislike." They don't help move discussions in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight forward and can put others on the defensive. Instead, talk about your thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever. experience—how you felt as you read the book. The two women were a study in contrasts. Nellie Bly was a scrappy, hard- driving, ambitious reporter from Pennsylvania coal country who sought out the Don't be dismissive . If you disagree with someone else, don't most sensational news stories, often going undercover to expose social injustice. refer to her as an ignoramus. Just say, "I'm not sure I see it that way. Genteel and elegant, Elizabeth Bisland had been born into an aristocratic Southern Here's what I think." Much, much nicer. family, preferred novels and poetry to newspapers, and was widely referred to as the most beautiful woman in metropolitan journalism. Both women, though, were Support your views . Use specific passages from the book as talented writers who had carved out successful careers in the hypercompetitive, evidence for your ideas. This is a literary analysis technique called male-dominated world of big-city newspapers. Eighty Days brings these trailblazing "close reading." women to life as they race against time and each other, unaided and alone, ever aware that the slightest delay could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Read with a pencil . Take notes or mark passages that strike you—as significant or funny or insightful. Talk about why you marked A vivid real-life re-creation of the race and its aftermath, from its frenzied start the passages you did. to the nail-biting dash at its finish, Eighty Days is history with the heart of a great adventure novel. Here’s the journey that takes us behind the walls of Jules Verne’s Amiens estate, into the back alleys of Hong Kong, onto the grounds of a Ceylon tea plantation, through storm-tossed ocean crossings and mountains blocked by snowdrifts twenty feet deep, and to many more unexpected and exotic locales from London to Yokohama. Along the way, we are treated to fascinating glimpses of everyday life in the late nineteenth century—an era of unprecedented technological advances, newly remade in the image of the steamship, the railroad, and the telegraph. For Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland—two women ahead of their time in Praise for the Book every sense of the word—were not only racing around the world. They were also “The story’s engaging, the writing gripping, and the treatment—how Bly and Bisland racing through the very heart of the Victorian age. are praised for combating sexism and denigrated for ignoring classism and embracing imperialism—is as clear-eyed as you can get. ….”—The Literary Omnivore To my thinking, a great librarian must have a clear head, a strong “Deftly mixing social history into an absorbing travel epic, Goodman conveys the exuberant dynamism of a very unfusty Victorian era obsessed with speed, power, hand, and above all, a great heart…and I am inclined to think publicity, and the breaking of every barrier.”—Publishers Weekly that most of the men who achieve this greatness will be women. “A richly detailed double narrative of the adventures of two young women journalists in a race against time . entertaining and readable throughout.”—Kirkus Reviews --- Melvil Dewey, Library Journal, January 1899 “Goodman writes exceedingly well. Delightful . solid history . filled with energizing details. History lovers will eat it up.”—Library Journal .

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