My challenge, begun in August of this year, was to read books with specifically designated colored jackets. Today’s selection and recommendation sports a pink cover.

This book, selected because of its cover, because it fulfilled my desire to read more non-fiction, and because it was already on my Kindle, turned out to be a very good “read.” It deals with “the Past, Present, and Future of Women Working in Films,” and was published in 2018. It shines a “spotlight on women who deserve to be known for their incredible contributions to film and to society as a whole”…this credit is “…something that has been stolen from them.”

The title comes from the famous quote, “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels…” I believe the quote is attributed to Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas.

Malone divides the book into eras of film making: 1890s earliest days/WWII/50s post war/60s and 70s New Hollywood/ 2000s “The Future is Female”

This last section discusses Wonder Woman, the first stand-alone, female super- hero-film released since Ironman began the current trend of comic book movies back in 2008. WW had a female filmmaker, a female protagonist, and was a huge box-office hit in 2017. Because Wonder Woman was my childhood hero, I was especially interested in this section. The stories of early silent-film stars was interesting, but even more interesting were the stories of female film makers, producers, and even directors working with the femme-fatale stars of the silent-film era. Most proved themselves to be shrewd businesswomen, battling it out for equal status (and equal pay, which has yet to be achieved) with the Hollywood “boy’s club” members and moguls.

My grandson read this book for the film class he wrote and taught at UH, so it was he who discovered and selected this book. I am so glad I read it. it was an enlightening, often surprising, well-written book that just happened to have a pink cover.