Hello, [community profile] a_reader_is_me people! I signed up for this community about a million years ago (or so it seems... Oh, those happy days of 2010), and am combining two things in order to actually make my reading challenge happen: my desire (as posted in my intro) to read 50 history books about the experiences of people of colour in Canada, and my PhD Comps reading. (My Canadian history required comps list is a bit light on race & ethnicity, but I have a lot of lee-way in my optional reading.)

That said, a book! Required reading:

Title: Sweatshop Strife: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Jewish Labour Movement of Toronto, 1900-1939
Author: Ruth A. Frager
Number of Pages: 300, including index, appendix, notes, bibliography, picture credits, not including several pages of black & white photos.
Genre: labour history
Book Number/Goal: 1 of 50

Review:
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Title: Flygirl
Author: Sherri L. Smith
Book number/goal: 6/10

Review: Flygirl is the story of Ida Mae Jones, a African-American woman whose father taught her how to fly. When the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program starts during World War II, Ida Mae is determined to join -- even though it means passing for white.

This book is excellent; grounded in the realities of the time, full of well-researched (but not dry or over-described) historical details, well-told and well-plotted, and it digs deep into the emotional complexities of passing, as well as the difficulties of being a woman in a highly sexist time and place.

Highly recommended, and I'd definitely look up more books by this author! (The author's blurb says she started writing Flygirl as her master's thesis project after hearing about the WASP program on public radio.)
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