Penni Mitchell

Subtitled "A Playful History," Beauty Queens is a wonderful, uncritical look at the evolution of beauty pageants in North America seen through the eyes of a historian and told from the heart of a feminist.

While short essays by feminist historians like Veronica Strong-Boag give Framing Our Past a quick glance feminist credibility, this encyclopedic book is no source of feminist inspiration.

The National Council of Women of Canada has staying power. After 100 years of petitioning, lobbying and, slowly but surely, working to improve the status of women in Canada, the Council emerges as an undercredited feminist institution. The Council is no hotbed of radical activism, though it's influence on the equality stage in Canada is more pronounced that the organization's sleepy reputation. This, according to historian Naomi Griffiths, author of The Splendid Vision.