Cover Image: Stories from Suffragette City

Stories from Suffragette City

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Member Reviews

Thank you Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this heartfelt selection of short stories. Each fictional story brought a unique moment from October 13, 1915 to life. I was pleased by the diverse array of perspectives explored within the women’s suffrage movement in New York. I learned a great deal and was deeply moved my many of the stories. The story that resonated with me the most was Just Politics by Chris Bohjalian. As the great-granddaughter of Armenian Genocide survivors, I found myself reflecting on the experiences of my family members and of other immigrants to the United States during the time period. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or simply wants to learn more about the suffrage movement in the United States.

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This was a wonderful book that fit so perfectly with the time, I'm sitting here one week from out election day and feeling the spirit of the women who fought for our rights for over 22 years. This collection of short stories painted the picture of relatable, sympathetic women from so many different backgrounds fighting for their equal voice.

I love that it honed in on women of poverty and illustrated the exclusion of women of color because they were so vital to the movement and yet did not gain their vote for many years after. There was also an interesting focus on the way men viewed great women as delicate objects they needed to protect which was only a reflection of their ego and smallness. Set in New York City on a monumentous day, I was drawn into the energy that at times felt like today.

I especially loved that this was not a book exclusive to only female historical fiction authors. This is an odd thing for me to voice as I'm usually banging my feminist drum aloud but it's important for women to hear and appreciate the voice of men who support equality and writers like Steve Berry brought their own unique view of the moment.

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My grandmother was in college in Rochester, New York when the march took place in New York City in October 2015. I so wish I could be able to talk to her and find out what she thought and what she might have done during this time. I really enjoyed this selection of short stories by many authors that I have read and admired. I read Stories from Suffragette City over a couple of months. I liked how some of the stories interweaved with each other. I especially enjoyed M.J.Rose’s story about the Tiffany family and Steve Berry’s story about the bomb threat. I wish I was still teaching a high school American History..Literature class. It would be fun to assign groups of students to each short story and then discuss. Thank you Holt and Co. and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I'm glad I read this one! It's a collection of short stories that are woven together in a really clever way. Especially important to read during election year. As you think about your ballot and stand in line to make your decisions known, it's interesting to think of the women of long ago who went before and paved the way to make it possible for us to vote today. This book brings those women and their viewpoints to life. Recommended.

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With the celebration of woman's right to vote, I was happy to see this collection of short stories. Each story takes place on the same date as women and the Men who supported them prepare to March in the suffragette parade in NYC, 1915.
While I liked some stories better than others, the compilation explored the lives of women from all walks of life, all races, and social status who came together and overcame great obstacles to March for the right to vote. A common thread that ran through many of the stories was a little girl with a camera who captured the photos of the various characters.
This book is a fitting tribute to the brave and courageous women who fought for the right to vote. As I was reminded, women were not given the right to vote, they fought long and hard for it.
Kudos to the authors who participated in this project.

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This was a collection of stories centered around the Sufragette march in New York City. Overall, I enjoyed this one. However, since they were all short stories I felt that some of the stories were lacking character development, and failed to make me excited for their plight. On the other hand, there were three stories that really grabbed me and made me so excited for what this book was doing. One such story was the last one in the book, and it made me tear up for the amazing privilege we have been given, as women, to vote.

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October 23, 1915 is the stage for the 13 short stories that honor the women’s march. For today’s world, this is a must read. What we’ve fought for and endured should never be forgotten.
Honored to have been able to read this.
Thank you NetGalley and authors!

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This is an inspired collection of short stories by 12 big historical fiction authors. The common thread is the day of the Suffragette march for women’s votes in NYC on October 23, 1915. This was a huge march and an important step in getting women voting. Each author has created a short story that somehow relates to that march, that day. Some of them even have characters in common. Highly readable and quite interesting look at an important time in history! Kudos to MJ Rose and Fiona Davis for coordinating, contributing and editing!

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Stories from Suffragette City, edited by MJ Rose and Fiona Davis, is a great collection of short stories by some of the best historical fiction writers around. There were no stories I didn’t enjoy, though my favorites were Boundless, We Ride by Jamie Ford, The First Step by M.J. Rose, and The Last Mile by Fiona Davis. Since these are three of my favorite authors, that makes a lot of sense. I loved the way the history of the movement was captured not just by white women but women of all colors and backgrounds. The stories are all well written and I appreciated the thread that tied them together besides the suffrage movement itself. I really savored the reading of the collection and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys short stories and historical fiction.

Thank you NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

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October 23rd, 1915 is an important date in women's history. On that day, many women learned that they were not alone in their belief that their opinions mattered on more topics than how to run a household. The first of many gatherings to show that thousands of women would stand in support of equality rights would eventually lead to the passage of the 19th amendment almost 5 years later.

These 12 short stories are written by some of the best selling women writers today. Their published libraries include numerous #1 rankings in their respective genres. Each of them has written a story set during this date's events. Each story centers on a specific character and how this event shaped their futures and the futures of the women who would come behind them. The stories are excellent, the fact that they are set in a moment in history is only part of their fascination for this reader. These authors have collectively "flexed" their writing muscles and reminded us that it was not that long ago that this type of book would have never been published. So, yes, it was an excellent read, but the experience is multiplied by the emotional response I had to their stories. Read it for yourself, then share with everyone you know.....

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This collection of short stories set proved to be a fantastic anthology! Brace yourself for powerful stories that will provoke thought and provide value during this current political climate.

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Thanks to Henry Holt & Co for an advanced copy of Stories from Suffragette City.

Stories from Suffragette City is a collection of short stories based on the October 23, 1915 Women March for Suffrage. Over 25,000 women marched for suffrage, (the largest in NYC at the time). Told in 12 different short stories and a few of them slightly overlap. A few well known women make appearances along with many others.

I thought this was a wonderful collection of short stories and liked how a few slightly connected to each other as it helped with some continuity. Also loved the perspective from women of different classes, races and backgrounds.

Kristin Hannah writes a wonderful introduction and a few of my favorite authors are included such as
Lisa Wingate, Paula McLain, Christina Baker Kline and Fiona Davis.

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On October 23, 1915, an estimated 25,000 women, all dressed in white, marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City in support of the vote for women. While it was an impressive show of support, it would take women another five years to obtain the vote. The 12 stories in this collection, all written by well-known historical fiction authors, take place during the march and are told from the perspective of women and men who supported suffrage for women.

This is an easy-to-read short story collection that has the unique perspective of 12 different authors telling the stories of 12 different people as it was during the march. Each author’s story adds to the overall story of the historic march itself.

Every story in this collection is well-written and compelling with well-developed characters within the short-story genre. This was a hard-to-put-down book and you may well find yourself reading into the wee hours of the morning in order to finish just one more of these powerful stories of women going against societal norms to demand the vote.

If you’re a fan of historical fiction, you may very well find your favorite authors on the list of contributing authors. One surprise on the list was Steve Berry, whose story did not disappoint. Kudos to the editor for adding his story to the mix.

My thanks to Henry Holt and NetGalley for an eARC.

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I realize that these are all “best-selling” authors, but I’ve (regrettably) only read one book by Fiona Davis (“The Lions of Fifth Avenue”), and I’ve only heard of Kristin Hannah and Lisa Wingate, but never read any of their books. The rest of these are writers I never even heard of before, but there are a few here that I might decide to investigate after reading these stories.

Before I go any further, let me state that there was only one story (I’d prefer not to say which) that I had a real problem with in that I felt confused while reading it. This story included both flashbacks and events taking place the day of the march. My problem was that this story seemed to not have any clear distinction between these two time periods, with them all mixed up in the same paragraph, and even once or twice in the same sentence. Because of this, I couldn’t get any clear picture of what the author was trying to portray here, which was very disappointing for me.

So, let me make a comparison here for a moment. This isn’t the first time I’ve read a collection of short stories by various authors around a single topic, and so you will forgive me if I make some comparisons here. The first book like this I read was “Fall of Poppies” which had nine stories about November 11, 1918 – the day that WWI ended. That book got a full 5/5 stars from me. The second was “Ribbons of Scarlett” which all had to do with women during the French Revolution. I gave that book 4/5 stars. The last one was “Another Time Another Place” which had no real discernible theme that I could find, and because the genres were so mixed, I ended up giving it 3.5/5 stars. Looking these books, it seems to me that a theme or a specific subject for stories is part of what makes a collection successful. On the surface, that would bode well for this collection, but it is also up to the writers to maintain a level of continuity in their stories. This, I think, is where these stories have a few problems.

To be specific, a great topic isn’t always enough to make a cohesive collection. With “Ribbons of Scarlett” the stories work chronologically, and where one ends, the next one seems to pick up, which really helped in unifying these stories. While this wasn’t the case with “Fall of Poppies” the date combined with all the authors including elements of personal relationships – both lost and found on that date – to solidify the book. Here, I thought that this extra element would be the character Grace, the young niece of Mr. Tiffany, whose aunt decides to take her to the parade, despite her uncle’s misgivings. That would have been a fantastic idea, but unfortunately, after a handful of these, the other authors (except for Fiona Davis, who wrote the last story here, which was actually my favorite) ignored this girl and went their own ways with their stories.

Not that these weren’t nicely written tales. However, I felt that with those stories that didn’t include Grace, the authors were more interested in giving us some other historical backdrops as to why women’s suffrage was so important to their characters. For example, there’s the story of the Armenian immigrant who witnessed her people’s genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and the Turks. There’s also the story of the Black women in Chicago who were discriminated against by these suffragettes, both for this march and for the parade in Washington DC three years prior to this. Let me be clear; these were very important stories to tell. However, I felt that because the thread of Grace wasn’t in those stories, this ended up feeling like two different collections – one with Grace and one without.

All told, most of these stories were fascinating reads, and almost all of them well written. The two that I had problems with were the one I mentioned above that confused me, and another story that didn’t include Grace or anything ethnic or historical. That one was about a very afraid and repressed woman who finally defies her husband to join the march. It was a good story, but it felt out of place with all the others here. I think I can still recommend this book, but because of the fragmented feeling I got, I can only give it three and a half stars out of five.

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This is a collection of short stories all centered around the Women’s March that took place in NYC in October 1915. Each story connects its central characters to the March, and in some cases, they run into one particular character who manages to see quite a lot of the parade!

This collection was contrived as a celebration of the 100 year anniversary of women’s suffrage (not universal, but the first step). Considering the present political climate, these stories are just as timely now as they would have been 100 years ago. I really can’t pick a favorite, because each one just got better and better. I really enjoyed that there are stories with Ida B. Wells and Alva Vanderbilt as main characters. Putting these real-life suffragettes in to these stories really brought the whole thing together, I thought. By the end, I could really picture the streets Manhattan filled with these women and their banners!

Brava to all the authors. I will say that the story by Steve Berry seemed kind of awkward. I understand trying to put the male perspective in as well, but it just didn’t seem to fit in for me.

I will definitely recommend this to anyone interested in women’s fiction, and historical fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and all the authors for an ARC in exchange for a fair an honest review.

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Where do I even begin? This book was jam packed with value, despite these being fictional short stories.

From the top, Kristin Hannah draws you in. I mean, have you read her books? Of course you’ll be sucked in, it’s Kristin Hannah. This collection of fictionalized stories is based on the women's suffrage march that happened on October 23, 1915 in New York. Each story follows an individual woman's experience that day, and those stories don’t shy away from status, race or age.

It was educational, humorous, and timely. What more do you need?

Like all books containing multiple short stories, some resonated with me more than others, but I found myself wishing all characters had their own book.

The importance of this collection goes above and beyond the idea of good literature. It’s a reminder to not be complacent in today’s society and to continue forward with feminist activism for ourselves and future generations.

For the rest of the day and the end of time, I’ll be telling everyone about this book. Might tell them about my “I Voted” sticker from this week too.

Big thank you to Net Galley and Henry Holt & Company for this ARC! I can’t wait to purchase a copy on October 27.

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What a compelling anthology! These stories were written by some of the very best historical fiction authors in this country, and each of their voices and points of view comes through loud and clear. Each story was told from a different perspective, nationality, and socioeconomic status, so that each story was a fresh take on the same day. I loved that there was a thread that was woven through the stories, as well, to tie all of the unique stories together. Historical fiction that is timely and relevant adds another layer to this intriguing collection.

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While this was a collection of stories, they were cohesive in how they flowed throughout the book. With that said, some of them I really enjoyed and some were just ok. That is why I gave it 3 stars. I would still recommend it.

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Inspiring and so poignant that they just wanted to make me want to stand up and shout “I am proud I’m a woman and I Can Vote & I Will Vote!
It’s true so many nameless woman stood in lines and were ridiculed and beaten by others and had things thrown at them as they marched. Black women were treated so unfairly by Women Suffragette Organizers in different States, but eventually that all changed and all Women regardless of color have the Right to Vote.

Each of these stories were written to highlight, just minute seconds of what women had to endure as they thought about or attempted to fight for their opinions and their rights to be able to vote. We need to celebrate the achievements of what women have achieved in 100 years and what more they could and need to obtain to still be seen as equals in all countries.

I would definitely recommend this this book!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

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This book exceeded my expectations! Never before have I come across a book that sought to so thoroughly convey an event from so many perspectives. The power of combining all of these stories into one tome is nothing less then mesmerizing. The contributing authors are so captivating with their stories that the reader would be hard pressed to select just one favorite. From poor mountain families, to immigrants, to refugees, to the underprivileged, to the affluent; no corner of society was left untouched by the suffrage movement. The authors do not attempt to provide the full historical context of the suffrage movement, but harness their energy on one pivotal event, the march for a woman's right to vote that took place in New York City on October 23, 1915. Even still, the resounding struggles of the movement up to this pivotal point linger in each and every story. As the United States celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment which secured women that very right, this book is a timely reminder of all that was sacrificed by so many for the greater good.

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