Imagine in the mid 1950’s, a woman at a bank desk working as a secretary at the bank she worked at. The secretary named Bette Graham was working on the new electric typewriter the bank had just ordered. These typewriters were not very efficient and made a huge mess when you make an error in spelling. Bette Graham decided that she would invent something that would cover up the mistake and dry very quickly. After many trails and error and, Bette had success when she concocted the mixture of liquid paper. Her male boss told her “stop putting that white stuff on my paper” when she made and error on her paper. She and her family now have a $50 million fortune because of her determination to not stop making the liquid paper.  Patently Female is about the inventions and innovations women have made over the past centuries. It explains the hardship, struggles, and failure that women have gone through to reach success. It similar to an article called “The Felon and the Rhodes Scholar”. It is about to people named Wes Moore who lived near each other and lead to different lives. The Rhodes Scholar Wes Moore became very successful because of his determination and ability to work; the other Wes Moore became a felon and is now in prison. Patently Female by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek teaches readers, especially women, that through struggles and doubt, determination and the need for new products will get a woman to success.

            Success is defined as an event that accomplishes its intended purpose. My goals in life are to finish high school, go to college, and have acumen in the major that I have not yet decided on yet. The obstacles that I may face are being discouraged about what I want to do and not being able to apply myself to my work. The book is basically about determination and the obstacles that women have been through to add to the inventions over time. When the very cogent Patsy Sherman, the inventor of Geobond, said to her female teacher “I want to be a nuclear physicist; she was then named most confused person in her class” (Vare, Ptacek 47). Her teacher thought it was chimerical; luckily Sherman was a resilient person and did not let her teacher get her hopes down. This section in the book shows how women were very discouraged to be successful and that women could never get far enough in life to become a nuclear physicist or anything useful in the world. That section inspires me to push through all the work that I have to do and be successful in the end.

Patently Female is structured into chapters. Under the chapters are sections of the innovation or invention the women have made such as “It Took a Woman”. The beginning of the book has prologue and the ending of the book has an epilogue that summarizes the accomplishment and struggles the women have made and gone through. For example in the prologue it summarizes that determination is key when it comes to success. Patricia Billings was an artist and a chemist who wanted to create a material for her art sculptures so they would not break. Billings “was determined in making this product… she stayed in her basement lab working on the perfect mixture for years” (Vare, Ptacek 12). This is definitely important because to be successful you have to have determination. Even after trying and failing, she finally had her success. The writing style in this book is very informational and tedious because it just facts about the inventions they have made. An example would be there are 3 pages worth of information on the invention of optical imaging by Ellen Ochoa. It basically states every little detail about optical imaging. The strength of this book would be that it encourages women to be what they want to be and do not let any obstacles get in your way. The weaknesses would be that the structure of the book is kind of confusing but it still is a good book.

When I read Patently Female, I learned specific things about technology, medicine, fun and games, innovations in space, practicalities, and house hold items that women have invented. I have also learned that women have made a lot of contributions to society with their inventions

A reader, especially women, should care about this book because this is a very inspiring book that teaches women to never give up, always having determination, and always doing your best. I would recommend this book to everyone, even men, because as I stated before this book is about reaching success in anything you inspire to do. I would not read any other text from the authors because the text that they write tedious and kind of dull. Overall this book is really factual and inspiring. If the reader has a chance to read this book the reader should.

    Patently Female is a great book by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Patrick. It is basically about the inventions and innovations that women have made over many centuries. It ranges from practicalities, such as liquid paper (white-out), to fun and games, such as the Barbie doll. It shows how women have overcome many struggles to make society and technology better for themselves and for others. The book itself is very factual and informational. I love how it groups different categories together so that I do not have to read a whole huge chapter of inventions.
     The theme of the book, from what I have read so far, is people, women in particular, can achieve anything if they put their mind to it. There are a few examples in this book, such as Patricia Billings who invented Geobond, a fire proof and indestructible building material. She was an artist looking to find a material that would last a long time for her sculptures. After not finding anything she was determined to make a material for her sculptures.She was determined to create the correct material for her sculptors to be long lasting. With great acumen, Billings formulated the correct mixture after eight years of trial and error. This just goes to show you success involves many things: failure, determination, and patience.
      This is honestly a good book to read if you are looking for a book about the innovations of women. I am looking forward to enjoying the rest of this book.

- Jaelyn
      

      IL Postino is an Italian movie about the life of Pablo Neruda and his friendship that was formed with the postman. I thought the movie was sweet because it dealt with the three themes that I will be talking about on this post: love, class, and poetry. The only thing that I did not like about this film is that is in Italian. Other than that there weren't many parts that I didn't like because it is simply a great movie.
       Patriotism of defined as the love of one's country and willingness to sacrifice for it. The theme of love in this film is Love conquers all. In this film Pablo Neruda is from the country of Chile but is residing in a little town in Italy because he was forced to leave his home town of Chile because of political reasons. In the movie you can tell he wants to go home to Chile because of the way he looks when someone is talking about it. Evidence of this is when he and the wife are at Mario's, the postman, wedding. He receives a letter from Chile stating that he may come home now; he and his wife gladly accept. This is example of patriotism because even though Pablo Neruda never wanted to leave his country that he loves he did because he would sacrifice his want to be there for it.
       The class system in that little town of Italy was just like any other class system. The theme of class if Appearance Matters. There were basically the lower class, fishing and land working, middle class, the people that owned businesses but were still kind of poor, and  the upper class, the poets and famous actors. You can tell the difference between upper and lower class by the colors and the way they dress. If you had lighter colors on then you were in the upper class and darker you were in the lower class. I don't believe the class system affected the relationship between class; an example would be the loving friend relation ship between Pablo and Mario.
      The love of poetry in this movie is magnificent. The theme for poetry is Be Yourself. Mario had such talent when he was thinking about his wife Beatrice and poetry together. You can see this when she reads the poems and metaphors that Mario wrote to her. Metaphors were a big part of this film because it was basically all of the poetry that Mario and Neruda wrote. An example would be "Your smile is like a butterfly." In this movie and in real life the poetry was amazing. This film was great and I'm glad that I got to see it.