Katie Hickman

I listened to about half of this on audio book before there was a tech issue and I moved to an ebook instead. It's a tremendous amount of scholarship presented in a meandering, fascinating, respectful and eye opening way. I love that this history covers so many of the different untold stories, that it tries hard to give us the catastrophic ecological and genocidal contexts while honoring the source material and individual accounts. It's also possibly one of the most moving books I've read on the subject of Native American decimation and the tremendous loss that America suffered in allowing Westward expansion to destroy cultures, communities, and ecosystems. That makes the book sound like a downer -- it's not. It's just got a lot to say and is very evocative in language and narrative. Very well done.… (more)

This is a rattling good read. It's quite a gossipy account of the lives and times of five of the better-known courtesans living and working in England and France from the 18th to the 20th centuries. To say it's 'gossipy' is to underrate it, however. Hickman's style is tremendously readable, but she's resesarched her subject matter exhaustively. The courtesans themselves, and the wide social spehere in which they mixed is described in detail and sympathetically. I came to the last page reluctantly, feeling I'd learnt a lt about the social history of the times, and of the lives of women in particular.… (more)

This is an enjoyable book on several levels - a well written account of a trek in a little-known corner of the world, amid colourful, exotic characters, describing a simple way of life in an often harsh climate. There is humour, pathos and areal sense of wonder in all the new experiences. The only disappointment is the (unnecessarily) abrupt ending - having travelled to the "uttermost east of Bhutan", Katie Hickman gives no account of the return journey to the capital (or were they airlifted out?), or any thoughts about the culmination of a great enterprise. There are also one or two instances of what can lightly be called lese-majeste, which, while perhaps understandable lapses, would probably have been more wisely omitted of otherwise covered.… (more)

Brave Hearted: The Women of The West
by: Katie Hickman
Spiegel & Grau Publishers
Due October 22, 2022
***** ( 5 stars)
#netgalley #BraveHearted
Fantastic and captivating, "Brave Hearted' is a novel of the Amerucan WEst Expansion of the 1840s that is eye-opening and thought-provoking. The story of American Women -missionaries wanting to "civilize" the Native Aericans, mothers walking thousands of mile pulling handcartsm, slave-brides - all looking for a new life, new chances and hope.
The courage and resiliance of these women is hard to forget, what was done to the Native Americans -The Whitmans Massacre and Trailof Tears, for example- is extraordinary hard to read. So much of history has been groomed, and has little to do with fact. This uncovers and releases them all, with clarity and perception that will open your eyes.
I highly recommend this to anyone, esp. history buffs and anyone interested in reading a great novel.
Thanks to netgalley, Katie Hickman and Spiegel & Grau for sending this ARC e-book for review.… (more)