Keep marching

I have read over a hundred books this year and I review each one on goodreads. Books which particularly impress me sometimes get a mention in my blog. This is one of them.

I have often wondered what Hillary Clinton is doing these days. I know she has written books and I saw her with her daughter Chelsea on the Graham Norton show talking about The Book of Gutsy Women which they co-wrote. I enjoyed the novel State of Terror which she wrote with Canadian author Louise Penny. Her latest book, published this year, answers my question and I can tell you she is not letting the grass grow. Here is the review I wrote for goodreads:

Well written and highly readable, this collection of 17 essays on contemporary events and issues backgrounded with fascinating history lessons is by turns heart warming and heart breaking. It is an absolute treasure – a book to revisit time and time again.

Always positive about individual agency, the book finished with ‘Keep Marching’ a theme from the musical Suffs about the US women’s suffrage movement. This led me to an internet search and a video of Shaina Taub and some of the cast discussing and demonstrating the creative process in making the award winning musical. The production is a perfect demonstration of a repeated message in the essays that, even when we seem to find ourselves on the brink of The Handmaid’s Tale made real, there is always something we can do, particularly if we work together whether creating a musical or fighting for the vote or reminding those who would remove them that ‘women’s rights are human rights’ as Hillary Rodham Clinton advocates.

Post Script: I know that some of my blog readers will make the connection between ‘Keep Marching’ and the song which became an anthem: ‘Keep on Moving Forward’ (also known as ‘Never Turning Back’) from the UN Fourth Conference on Women in 1995 and of Sonja Davies’ second memoir Marching On. Perhaps also of the rock musical production we saw at the Court Theatre: That Bloody Woman, about Kate Sheppard and the women who worked successfully to gain the vote for women in New Zealand.