What a thoroughly interesting novel. Back in the 50's and 60's women generally only went to college to get their MRS degree--or else they were supposed to be nurses, teachers or secretaries. There were a few really brave ones who kept to their dreams and went for the sciences. Henrietta was one lucky girl-her father actually wanted her to learn about and work in the field her father did. She spent a lot of time in the Smithsonian where her father worked. Of course her Mother was not too happy especially when she went off to college.
There weren't too many females in her classes, if any--the guys were not all that friendly putting it mildly--but she ignored them and excelled in most of her classes. When they went on field trips--she was the only female.
This novel also contains the life of a woman who lived millions of years ago. It was not an easy life as you will read. When Henrietta went to Africa, in place of her father (much to her mother's distress) it was as if the woman from the past was calling to her to find her remains.
The imagery in this novel is amazing--you will feel like you are there in the past and in the future. What an amazing book about strong woman who follow their dreams!
About the Book: (from Amazon)
A million years ago, humans walked the earth in tribes, their lives precariously short, their stories mostly untold. Ifa was such a woman. And her story is at the beginning of all things.
As a woman raised in the 1950s, Henrietta Ballantine has always had to prove herself. Homeschooled to challenge her intellectually, Henrietta spent her childhood with a strict Russian tutor and an overbearing mother for whom she could do nothing right. It’s her science-driven father who finally manages to give Henrietta refuge within the Smithsonian’s glorious walls. There she learns a love of ancient things, of secrets hidden in the ground. Of fossils.
Deciding to attend college and study paleontology, hoping knowledge will finally fill the emptiness inside her, Henrietta faces an uphill battle against those who refuse to see her as their equal in a male-dominated field. This, she expects. But as her studies bring her to dig sites across the country, Henrietta’s adventures unearth something she never imagined: a romance with fellow geologist Frank Bailey, a man of few words, strong opinions, and an evolving belief in Henrietta’s capabilities. Still, it isn’t Frank who haunts her dreams: the relationship she can’t seem to define is the one she has with a “guardian angel” whose voice Henrietta hears in her loneliest moments. A voice that calls to her across the ages. A voice that suddenly becomes very loud once Henrietta’s excursions bring her to Africa.
How could Henrietta and Ifa, two women born thousands of millennia apart, forge a connection, one that may ultimately fulfill Henrietta’s greatest desire? The answer will be found deep beneath the sediment, in fossils that tell a wondrous story of endurance, of resilience…of women.
Read a Chapter or Two Here
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About the Author: (from Amazon)
Sharon Lyon is a geologist and science educator. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geology from The College of William and Mary, and a Master of Science degree from The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Ms. Lyon has worked as a paleontologist, a petroleum geologist, and an environmental scientist. However, her greatest passion is teaching and as a Professor of Physical Sciences, she has shared her love of the earth sciences with her students at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland for over 25 years. She retired from full-time teaching in 2019 and currently resides in Virginia. Fossil Woman is her first novel.
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