I completely judged this book by its title and cover. In a good way. Who could resist the title A Well-Read Woman and the picture of this sassy, knowing woman on the cover? Not me.

Ruth Rappaport lived through and participated in many of the major events and movements of the twentieth century. She served as a librarian in a war zone and at the Library of Congress. I proposed this biography to my IRL book club, which is composed primarily of librarians, and can’t wait for our discussion later this month.

Author Kate Stewart is a third-generation librarian. This is her first book and I think she served her subject well by writing about Rappaport in a rather understated way. Stewart, for the most part, lets Rappaport’s actions and missions speak for themselves. Had I written this biography it would have been filled with the literary equivalents of OMGs!

Continue reading my review on my blog -- https://chriswolak.com/2019/07/19/a-well-read-woman-by-kate-stewart/

A fascinating biography of the life of Ruth Rappaport, born a Jew in Leipzig, left her country aged 15, ended up in the US working for 25+ years at the Library of Congress, arriving there via Switzerland, Israel, Okinawa, and Vietnam where she worked in military libraries for 9 years.

An extraordinary, often difficult, eccentric woman, but one who was committed to the power of the word. ( )

Not many people can say they have lived in several corners of the world. Enter librarian and activist Ruth Rappaport.

Born in Leipzig, Germany, Ruth grew up in a Jewish community before moving to Switzerland and the U.S. as a teen, narrowly missing the Holocaust that murdered her parents. She then moved to Israel to work on and witness the Zionist movement before heading back to the U.S. to earn her Masters in Library Science degree. MLIS in hand, Ruth moved to Vietnam for eight years to build and expand the U.S. military's library system there for soldiers during the war -- a service I had no idea existed, and that no longer exists today due to the Internet. She then returned to Washington D.C. where she worked as a subject cataloger at the Library of Congress until she retired.

Ruth's story is full of life and fire, especially surrounding her passions of books, justice, and freedom. Ruth isn't always the most likable protagonist, but I loved her nonetheless. I can't imagine the work that author and librarian Kate Stewart devoted to poring over Ruth's archives and world history to complete this book. ( )

Got this as a freebie from Amazon First Reads, thought it sounded interesting. In fairness the book was interesting but after reading I thought why? The author never met Ruth Rappaport and relies on a lot of research of a relatively not famous person so the stories, antidotes and facts are thin. The author does well to try to put together a story but there are lots of unknowns and leaps of faith to make this story of Ruth. Personally I found the most interesting is Ruth's work in building a whole library infrastructure in Viet Nam during the 60s. Who even knew we had libraries in Viet Nam? Again I feel why did I read this? Still don't know. ( )