Lauren Gunderson

In this sequel to Pride & Prejudice, Mary is witty and suffers no fools. I love seeing her character's development. Jane, Lizzy and their husbands are still very much in love. Lydia is still the worst and Mary finds herself bucking under all of her sisters' expectations and assumptions. It's clever, engaging, and manages to add depth to the Bennet sisters' relationships. I would love to see this on stage!

"You have a rare thing in this world. A choice. The most liberating possession of all." show more

"I meant specifically the company of my family. They tire me, you see. When I am around them, I find myself struggling to recall who I am, or perhaps I struggle against whom they expect me to be."

** Just reread this one and I think I'll need to make it an annual tradition. Just delightful! show less

Two years ago I saw this play performed and it blew me away. Reading it added an extra layer of depth to the incredible story of a real female astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt, in the early 1900s whose discoveries laid the groundwork for Hubble and others, but who is rarely mentioned. Gunderson is quickly becoming one of my favorite playwrights with her clever dialogue and ability to immediately connect with the audience. This pairs an inspiring true story with dynamic writing, making it one of show more my favorite plays. show less

A look at the life and career of Henrietta Leavitt, one of the first of the Harvard computers, and the one who discovered the information that allowed us to determine the distance to the stars - and then was denied access to her own data because the men needed to use it to do the work she made possible. Well written, compelling, but with perhaps a bit too much emphasis on a love interest (I do not know if that is legitimate or added for the sake of getting the work staged; I don't know her show more personal story well enough). It's interesting reading the character descriptions, where Leaveitt's sister is described as "sweet", and then to meet a character in the story that is anything but "sweet". The woman had a lot more spice than sweet, which is not a complaint. A truly "sweet" character often ends up being boring, and this character wasn't boring, though she did try to dissuade Henrietta from following her dreams. I found this play much better than the work by this author on Emilie du Chatelet, perhaps because it was a bit less gimmicky (though there were gimmicks - that seems to be almost required in plays written in the last couple of decades of the last and the first decade of this century). The story was not swallowed by the gimmicks. Definitely recommended. show less

The Half Life of Marie Curie -Gunderson
Audio performance by Kate Mulgrew and Francesca Faridany
4 stars

This was an audible subscriber freebie. I haven’t been either interested or impressed by most of them, but this was very good. It is essentially a radio play, albeit one that is digitally downloaded. The actors portray Marie Curie, just after she has won her second Nobel prize, and the less well known mathematician Hertha Ayrton. The story begins with a distressed and depressed Curie show more attempting to escape the press after having her affair with a younger man exposed.

It’s a bit of herstory I knew nothing about. It’s a very feminist story. The audio production was well done. It made me want to read a more comprehensive biography of Marie Curie. show less