Kate Schatz

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: In this electrifying and heartfelt historical coming-of-age novel, set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1960s San Francisco, a pregnant teenager reckons with womanhood and agency after being sent to a home for unwed mothers.

It’s 1968, and the future is bright for seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Phillips is called by her middle name “Baker” by everyone. She’s the valedictorian of her high school, with a place at Stanford in the fall and big show more dreams of becoming a journalist. But the seductive free-spirited San Francisco atmosphere seeps into her carefully-planned, strait-laced life in the form of a hippie named Wiley. At first, letting loose and letting herself fall in love for the first time feels incredible. But then, everything changes.

Pregnancy hits Baker with the force of whiplash—in the blink of an eye, she goes from good girl to fallen woman, from her family’s shining star to their embarrassing secret. Sent to a home for unwed mothers, Baker finds herself trapped in an old Victorian house packed with a group of pregnant girls who share her shame and fear. As she reckons with her changing body, lack of choice, and uncertain future, Baker finds unexpected community and empowerment among the “girls who went away.”

Where the Girls Were is a timely unearthing of a little-known moment in American history, when the sexual revolution and feminist movement collided with the limits of reproductive rights—and society's expectations of women. As Baker finds her strength and her voice, she shows us how to step into your power, even when the world is determined to keep you silent.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I remember my much-older sister having a friend who was sent away to "nature camp" for a few months. Is that transparent or what? It was part of the culture, though, so while there were significant looks and quiet changes of subject, it wasn't treated as stunning or weird. The Pill was very newly available in the US, though I think it wasn't legal for unmarried women in California at that time. The battles of the Second-Wave Feminists for full adulthood and, crucially for Baker's story, bodily autonomy, were still unfolding.

Baker, poor lamb, didn't come from sophisticated people who didn't approve of her accidental pregnancy but didn't freak out. I wished she'd been among my family's orbit as we were there at the relevant time. Alas. Baker's trip to the maternity "home" as it was so wrongly called is designed to cast shadows over her family's star as she falls from grace so she can still be useful to them:

They love her, they're proud of her—and they need her. And that's why no one can know what is really going on. Brilliant young Baker is their ticket, the proof to everyone that their little family has made it, will make it. The future is bright, because their daughter is bright. No one else in this family has gone to college. Baker is going to life them to a new level. This has always been the plan.

The emotional register of the entire novel is in that passage. This extraordinary, exceptional young woman isn't allowed any autonomy, any agency, afforded any support for expressing her own desires or needs. It was a different time, though, right?

How different remains to be seen.

The condescending (at best), judgmental (more usually), shame-dealing (always) hierarchy of Baker's "home" atmosphere keeps all its inmates uninformed as to their own body's workings by doctors refusing to discuss the progress of the pregnancies they're all undergoing, to discuss the realities of giving birth; of course, they're also misinformed and misled about their legal rights as a matter of course. What use instructing these girls in the illusion of legal rights when they all disappear as soon as she marries? No sense giving girls who already showed "poor judgment" by getting pregnant...clearly placing all blame on her, none on the male who was of necessity there at the time...in "rights" she might try to exercise against her husband's will.

It makes me angry even typing it. It made me panther-screechingly furious as I was reading the book. At least the abuse Baker has to endure is not physical as well as psychological. Undermining her confidence and booby-trapping her self-esteem with real, unexaggerated Hitchcockian gaslighting were not compounded by Dickensian-poorhouse deprivational cruelty. Small mercies, I suppose, loom large when the injustice of a situation is so star and so terrible.

As her due date approaches, Baker begins to use her reporting skills to keep herself sane in a place that isn't sane. She discovers there are darker patches than hers in her family's past. It's a well-handled side quest that reveals the seemingly immutable law that no surface is a real gauge of how the structure underneath is supported. It's almost always a lot more ramshackle and surprisingly at variance with appearances. A story at once familiar to me on generational axes while being at wild variance with my own privileged-male upbringing, Author Schatz's adaptation of a common story was inspired by her own mother's life story. I found the read engaging, enraging, and enlightening, as Baker brought home to me the personal and emotional realities of the absence of agency women are being forced back into.

No one with a daughter, a niece, a sister, or a mother should fail to engage with this story's emotional underpinnings. In Author Schatz's telling, the story of an unlucky young woman's odyssey through a cruel, indifferent-to-her system paying alone for a "sin" she did not commit alone, is edifying and devastating by turns. It is a must-read. show less

“We do what we have to do.” If there was ever a novel that supports intensely candid sex education, this is it. A historical fiction based on events that 1.5ish million US women went through in the decades between 1950-1971, Schatz reveals the truth in story form through Baker and her newfound friends, but also lends a gentle warning that we cannot go backwards.
Personal sexual information was extremely limited during this time, as it wasn’t proper to discuss, and “no one tells us show more shit” about their bodies and the consequences of heated passions. Women of that time who found herself ‘in trouble’, choices were limited, and oftentimes deadly. Through their silent shame, they had to rely on others, often embarrassed parents or men who had no sense of responsibility, where the women were left holding the bag. A tale as old as time itself.
As the story progressed, feelings of anger, manipulation, and desperation unfolded as Baker and friends rode through the experience, learning to “just play the game”, letting others make decisions they had no power to make themselves. That is until some decided to exert their own free will and figure it out themselves.
The story itself is well written, with relevant twists and details to keep it interesting, while a bit educational as well. It’s eye opening, heartbreaking, and hopeful all at once, and a piece of history that must be unveiled. 4.5 ⭐
*I was invited to read by the publisher, through NetGalley for an honest review. show less

Kicking butt and taking names.

(Full disclosure: I received a free book for review through Blogging for Books.)

When Kalpana Chawla's math professor explained the concept of a "null set," she used the example of a female Indian astronaut. There had never been one, so it was a classic case of a category that simply did not exist. "Who knows?" Kalpana exclaimed to her class. "One day this set may exist!" The other students laughed - they had no idea that their outspoken classmate would one day show more make history.

After the hate-fueled dumpster fire that has been the 2016 election cycle, a book like this is just what the psychologist ordered. In Rad Women Worldwide, Kate Schatz (pronounced ‘Shots’) profiles forty BAMF (you might say 'nasty') women, past and present, who have left their mark around the globe. They are mothers, daughters, and wives; activists, scientists, scholars, athletes, artists, and - yes! - pirates; women of all ages, races, nationalities, religions, and social classes; women who are every bit diverse as their accomplishments.



A follow-up to 2015's Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide deliberately takes a more international approach, as the title suggests. As soon as you open the book up, you're treated to a map of the journey that's to come. The trail hops from North to South America, Africa to Europe, Asia to Australia - and don't forget Antarctica, too! You can follow the suggested route, or blaze your own path.



Each woman (or group of women, such as the Guerilla Girls and the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) receives a brief, one- or two-page write up. There are quite a few names I recognized off the bat (Venus and Serena Williams, Malala Yousafzai, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie) as well as some that are new-to-me (Marta, Junko Tabei), and those that are familiar yet still unexpected (Emma Goldman, Poly Styrene). I especially loved the entry on Birute Mary Galdikas, since I was kind of obsessed with "Leakey's Angels" as a teenager.



Schatz's biographies are accompanied by full-page illustrations by Miriam Klein Stahl. Stahl's artwork is simple yet striking, consisting of stark, black and white portraits set against a single-color background, which really makes the portraits pop. Among my favorite images are those of Frida Kahlo and Bastardilla, which actually breaks with the overall style by focusing on the anonymous street artist's graffiti rather than the artist herself.



Though the writing feels geared toward a slightly younger audience - say, middle grade/junior high - I enjoyed the book immensely. Okay, that's an understatement. Some of the entries legit had me in tears. (I blame my raw emotional state on the election, fwiw.) This is a book that parents will LOVE sharing with their kids.



Also, can we talk about the cover? Not only is it bright and vibrant, but the embossed artwork on the hardcover adds extra texture and interest. I mean, it's basically a written invitation to touch, handle, and caress. I also love that there's no dust jacket, because I tend to rip or lose those things. Between this and the thick paper stock, you know they designed this book with younger readers in mind.

The synopsis for Rad American Women A-Z features a Lemony Snicket quote that works just as well here: "This is not a book. This is a guest list for a party of my heroes. Thank you for inviting us."

http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/11/05/rad-women-worldwide-by-kate-schatz-and-miri... show less

Baker is slated to be the valedictorian and has been accepted to Stanford, but then she meets Wiley.

Baker had no experience, Wiley was wily, lured her in, got her pregnant, and then left.

Baker was left with the consequences.

At least her parents didn’t throw her out.

Her mother made secret arrangements because she didn’t want Baker to run away if she found out what she had planned.

The arrangements weren’t too bad, but will Baker have any say about the baby and her future?

WHERE THE GIRLS show more WERE is a familiar book topic, but Ms. Schatz puts a twist and take on it with a little bit of mystery about the girls in the home for unwed mothers.

The mystery involves a letter one of the girls left asking for help and what helped Baker make a decision she should not have had to make.

Her book leaves the reader with thoughts about how this time in the lives of these girls affected their entire life.

Find out what happens while Baker is in this all-too-familiar scene during the 1960s where education could have prevented girls from going through this ordeal. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. show less