Readers Roost: women in history

Showing posts with label women in history. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Adélaïde: Painter of the Revolution Release Blitz #rabtbooktours

Painter of the Revolution

Historical Fiction

Date Published: January 13, 2026

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

In a world where women are seen but rarely heard, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard refuses to be silenced.

The daughter of Parisian shopkeepers, Adélaïde dreams not of marriage or titles but of earning a place among the masters of French art. With Queen Marie Antoinette on the throne and a spirit of change in the air, anything seems possible. But as revolution brews and powerful forces conspire to deny her success, Adélaïde faces an impossible choice: protect her life—or fight for a legacy that will outlast her.

Inspired by the true story of one of the first women admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Adélaïde: Painter of the Revolution is a sweeping, evocative portrait of ambition, courage, and resilience in the face of history’s fiercest storm.

About the Author

Janell Strube makes a mean barbecue sauce. She’s also a world traveler, a baker, and a bicyclist. But when she writes, her identity as an adoptee often steers her attention to topics of alienation, erased history, and displacement.

In 2024, a personal essay of hers was published in the anthology Adoption and Suicidality. Her work has also appeared in Shaking the Tree: brazen. short. memoir and A Year in Ink. Her short memoir, “Taking my Blonde Daughter to a Black Lives Matter Rally,” was selected for the 2020 San Diego Memoir Showcase, an annual live storytelling event.

While much of her writing is personal, she enjoys the freedom that comes with crafting fiction. Her desire to learn about forgotten female artists who shaped the French revolutionary period motivated her to write Adélaïde: Painter of the Revolution.

When not crunching numbers as a tax executive for a hotel chain, she can be found hanging out with Shiloh the Wheaten and plotting her second book.

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Friday, November 7, 2025

Carrie Ingalls the Forgotten Sister Teaser #rabtbooktours

Non-fiction Chapter Book Juvenile Fiction

Date Published: 10-30-2025

Publisher: Solander Press

While her sister Laura chronicles their life on the frontier, Carrie Ingalls forges her own path. This is the story of the “forgotten” sister, a frail child who grows into a resilient woman of the American West. From the hardships of pioneer life, Carrie emerges as an independent journalist, newspaper editor, and landowner, quietly shaping the futures of fellow homesteaders and proving that strength comes in many forms.

Excerpt

Chapter Six A Single Bag of Wheat

On October 15, 1880, a fierce blizzard struck the Dakota Territory. It soon became clear that the Ingalls family could not survive the coming winter in a one-room shanty.

First, Charles took his haystacks to town in the wagon. Then he returned to the shanty, and he and Caroline packed the wagon with their few pieces of furniture, bedding, and clothes. They returned to town and moved back into the rooms above the small store Charles had built. The good news was that Laura and Carrie could go to school.

A lot had changed over the summer while they lived in the shanty. The school had been completed and opened on November 1, 1880. Laura and Carrie were two of the first fifteen students to attend De Smet School. When another blizzard hit during a school day, Laura and Carrie struggled to find their way back to where they lived.

Settlers depended on the train for their supplies. Not only did they get food delivered daily by train, but they also received mail and, most importantly, coal for fuel. Charles and the other men from town often shoveled snow from the tracks so the train could reach the station.

As the blizzards continued into January 1881, the railroad made a decision that significantly affected Carrie and her family. They would not deliver more supplies until spring and would cease operations for the winter.

The school was shut down because there wasn’t enough coal to keep the children warm, and soon food became scarce in the town. Food prices rose sharply, with flour costing $50 a pound, and the last few pounds of sugar selling for $1 a pound. Without coal, the Ingalls burned hay twisted into bundles. As their kerosene ran low, they burned the oil lamps less and less at night. But a good deed by Charles may have saved the family.

About the Author

Award-winning author Clarissa Willis writes children's books. She has authored four picture books and one chapter book. Bloomers on Pike’s Peak, the story of Julia Archibald Holmes, received a Will Rogers Medallion Award and was a finalist for the Women Writing the West 2025 WILLA Literary Award in Children's Picture Books. Her book Fast as the Wind: The Story of Johnny Fry Pony Express Rider won a Will Rogers Medallion in 2023. The Three Little Pigs and the Not So Big Bad Wolf, released in early 2025. It tells a familiar story with a new twist. She believes childhood is a journey and strives to make it joyful through her books and public speaking.

Clarissa loves traveling and has a special connection to the American West. She finds inspiration in the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona, and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In fact, her next book, Not from Around Here, is set in Sedona and chronicles an unusual friendship between a young cowboy and his friend from far away.

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