⇒ [PDF] Almost Famous Women Stories Megan Mayhew Bergman Books

Almost Famous Women Stories Megan Mayhew Bergman Books

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Almost Famous Women Stories Megan Mayhew Bergman Books

I'll share the blame, but I felt duped by Almost Famous Women, and Amazon/Kindle didn't help.

I was under the impression that these were true stories about women of interest and importance that history had bypassed. It put me in mind of the well-done books NPR and ABC corespondent Cokie Roberts wrote about unsung heroines in American history and politics. I'm not sure where I first heard about the Megan Bergman book, but whatever it was caused me to seek it out on Amazon and buy it on Kindle.

"From the acclaimed author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, a dazzling new collection that explores the lives of unforgettable women in history," was the lead of the book's description on the Web site. I skimmed a bit of what followed and quickly made the purchase. When I opened the Kindle, the first page was the first page of the first story -- no table of contents and, importantly, no forward. I didn't give it a thought, just started reading.

It wasn't long until I was wondering about the veracity of the stories. Beyond that, I was not at all charmed with nor especially interested in the portrayals of these women. Additionally there seemed to be a recurring them of sexual wandering that tied the women together. I'm not a prude, but that's not the book I that was described.

I was thinking about bailing on the book, but in considering all the positive reviews figured I must be missing something, so I read on. Around the halfway mark I decided to give up, but first went back to the Amazon page and read some of the negative reviews. They were right in step with me -- both regarding the fictional nature of the book and their disappointment in the depth of their character. Still, in understanding that it is a work of fiction I decided to try again. I'm glad I did. There were a couple of really interesting stories, including one foreshadowing post-traumatic stress disorder that I found very compelling.

But here's the thing: promising to tell the stories of worthy-of-note women that history ignored and then presenting a made-up drama that, as far as the reader can discern, may have had little or nothing to to with their actual story, not only gyps us but dishonors the women. Truly, what's the point. There are only cursory facts mixed with an apparent desire to fantasize about the sexual foibles (including the lovemaking acrobatics of co-joined twins) of these ladies along with their encounters with drugs and booze. I don't think the author did them justice.

My standard for historical fiction is Michael Shaara's Civil War epic, Killer Angels: totally accurate regarding actual events with dialogue based on valid sources to carry the narrative. Almost Famous Women doesn't pretend to rise to that level, but it shouldn't masquerade as a provider of insights into the lives of these ladies either.

By the way... the table of contents and the forward in the Kindle edition were eventually found after the final chapter. The forward made it clear: the first words were, "This is a work of fiction."


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Almost Famous Women Stories Megan Mayhew Bergman Books Reviews

Writing was good. Quick and easy read. However, very depressing book. Would not recommend to anyone. Not an aspiring book for women.
While the premise of these stories interested me, I was not terribly enthralled by the execution. The author utilized interesting / fascinating women, but the focus of much of the writing tended towards the sordid ends of their lives. As snapshots, the stories seemed to be sepia-toned photos with little to delight.
They say that “well-behaved women seldom make history.” Unfortunately they can be forgotten from history. Thankfully this author is doing her part to immortalize the women in these pages. She does such a great job, I read it in one sitting.
This book is very interesting as it highlights women who we may not have heard about before. It also tells the stories from the perspective of a person in the circle surrounding this almost famous woman.
I had never heard of "Joe Carstairs" and had to look her up online as well as the conjoined twins Violet and Daisy and quite a number of other less than famous people.
For sheer interest, I would recommend this book.
Quite unusual stories about women who are quasi-famous from the Siamese twins
turned down for marriage certificate in the South because they couldn't issue
two to only one man to the bizarre sister of Edna St Vincent Millary who was an
actress in local plays but lived at her sister's place until the latter's death. Who
knew the poet was an opium addict? Fiction intermingled with the facts but
enough of the latter to inspire readers to research these women for themselves.
For a start, Ms. Bergman is a crackerjack writer. When I began her book, I didn't really know what I was reading, that kind of meta-info sometimes being tricky to get at via a device. As a writer myself, I have long toyed with a notion of doing a series of essays cataloguing distinguished females, and hoped at the time that I was gathering background material on some possible lesser-knowns... in other words, memoirs and brief autobios by the women themselves. This book, however, is not that. I was baffled from the getgo by the account of the showbiz career of Daisy Hilton, one of a pair of Saimese twins, asking myself why such an accomplished writer didn't go into a career of wordsmithing, rather than anything so toilsome as vaudeville. It was only as I read on that I noted that the personal accounts were all like that; that it began to dawn on me that I was reading historical fiction, a clever blending of fact and fiction, meant as entertainment, not history. I did knock off a star, betokening my disappointment there, but not because there is anything wrong with the book, if you happen to like historical fiction. Much in its stories, anecdotes drawn from the lives of some thirteen almost-famous females, springs merely from the author's fancy. However, her research into these lives appears to have been meticulous, and the writing is first-rate.
The title Almost Famous Women is perfect because I found that I had heard of or at least thought I heard of most of these women. Dolly Wilde, Allegra Byron, Tiny Davies, and the most famous of all of them the great Butterfly McQueen. They aren't the nicest women you'll ever meet and some of the stories were connected by psychological scars won by volunteering as ambulance drivers in World War I. (The best part of books like these is you get so many ideas and so many threads of things you want to follow-up on that you may not even think about in everyday life. After reading this I totally want to research women in World War I.)
Because each woman only gets a chapter nothing ever goes in depth so you are left to chase down anymore information on your own but that's just as fun for me. I'll admit some of the stories suffer from being too little. But overall this book is like an introduction to things I never really thought about before and women I didn't really know and I can't wait to read more.
I'll share the blame, but I felt duped by Almost Famous Women, and / didn't help.

I was under the impression that these were true stories about women of interest and importance that history had bypassed. It put me in mind of the well-done books NPR and ABC corespondent Cokie Roberts wrote about unsung heroines in American history and politics. I'm not sure where I first heard about the Megan Bergman book, but whatever it was caused me to seek it out on and buy it on .

"From the acclaimed author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, a dazzling new collection that explores the lives of unforgettable women in history," was the lead of the book's description on the Web site. I skimmed a bit of what followed and quickly made the purchase. When I opened the , the first page was the first page of the first story -- no table of contents and, importantly, no forward. I didn't give it a thought, just started reading.

It wasn't long until I was wondering about the veracity of the stories. Beyond that, I was not at all charmed with nor especially interested in the portrayals of these women. Additionally there seemed to be a recurring them of sexual wandering that tied the women together. I'm not a prude, but that's not the book I that was described.

I was thinking about bailing on the book, but in considering all the positive reviews figured I must be missing something, so I read on. Around the halfway mark I decided to give up, but first went back to the page and read some of the negative reviews. They were right in step with me -- both regarding the fictional nature of the book and their disappointment in the depth of their character. Still, in understanding that it is a work of fiction I decided to try again. I'm glad I did. There were a couple of really interesting stories, including one foreshadowing post-traumatic stress disorder that I found very compelling.

But here's the thing promising to tell the stories of worthy-of-note women that history ignored and then presenting a made-up drama that, as far as the reader can discern, may have had little or nothing to to with their actual story, not only gyps us but dishonors the women. Truly, what's the point. There are only cursory facts mixed with an apparent desire to fantasize about the sexual foibles (including the lovemaking acrobatics of co-joined twins) of these ladies along with their encounters with drugs and booze. I don't think the author did them justice.

My standard for historical fiction is Michael Shaara's Civil War epic, Killer Angels totally accurate regarding actual events with dialogue based on valid sources to carry the narrative. Almost Famous Women doesn't pretend to rise to that level, but it shouldn't masquerade as a provider of insights into the lives of these ladies either.

By the way... the table of contents and the forward in the edition were eventually found after the final chapter. The forward made it clear the first words were, "This is a work of fiction."