The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

 genre: historical fiction

The two women couldn't have had more different backgrounds.  One, from old money and high society.  The other, the daughter of two formerly enslaved parents.  What Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of the politician and future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Mary McLeod Bethune (civil rights activities and president of of her own college) have in common, though, is a desire to help and to create change.  These common desires will fuel a friendship that last for some of the hardest decades this nation has known.

While the idea of this book didn't quite capture my attention at first, I am once again so grateful for the miracle of book clubs that force me to stretch a little and add something into my reading life that I would have otherwise left behind.   Told from alternating points of view between these two amazing women, this story taught me so much not just about their history but also about the astonishing mountain of prejudice and racism that stood in the way of EVERY TINY THING that Mary and Eleanor tried to accomplish.  I have never spent a lot of time learning about the politics of the 30s, so this was a crash course for me, but the way the story is told, you learn about what's happening as the story moves forward so it didn't bog me down.  It actually felt so important, what these women were trying to do.

The most powerful (and yes, sometimes uncomfortable) parts for me was when Eleanor would overstep or make a racist mistake and Mary called her on it - with compassion, usually, but without ever backing down. Mary knew that she truly deserved the same kind of respect as anyone of any race and it was so important for me to read about her way of interacting with the world. I am embarrassed that I have never heard of her, HOW have I never heard of Mary Bethune? But I finished this book with tears in my eyes, tears of appreciation for what Mary fought for and against and for how she never gave up on this country, despite how it chewed her and spit her out over and over.   

The only reason it's four stars instead of five for me is that the writing just didn't throw it over the top to "amazing" - literarily it's a solid, four star piece of historical fiction that I absolutely would recommend.