GIRLYBOOKS MESSAGE BOARD

It occurred to me that this group didn't have a message board for miscellaneous posts.

Here a first:-)

Most of us are having great fun cataloging our libraries and making literary friends all over the world. Why not take a little time to thank the people who have made it happen? Send a postcard to Tim, Abby and the gang to:

LibraryThing
PO Box 391586
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Can you imagine being on the receiving end of postcards from all over the world? Makes going to the mailbox so much more enjoyable. Please join us in thanking Tim, Abby and the LT crew for this fabulous service and cool place to hang out and discuss BOOKS!

I am reading alot of Bronte sisters and I'm totally swept away. Anyone else ?

Avaland - What a thoughtful idea and how right you are to suggest we value the 'crew' for their contribution to so many.
I have always read but this community has been an enriching experience beyond my wildest dreams. In addition it is one, albeit small way in which links across nations and cultures may be developed. I am learning so much along with, and from others.

juliette07, you're in this group as well? We seem to be travelling everywhere together! And I must say, you make a wonderful travelling companion!

Hi Laura - yes, a thoughtful friend invited me along to travel along this path for a while! Strangely enough it was because I had written a comment on your blog and mentioned the list of 100 Modern Modern Novels Written by Women. When I complete my wondrous War and Peace I am hoping to begin a new strand with that list.

I'll try to get the '500' out of the way before then, juliette07!

>5 juliette07: wow, what a strange coincidence!

#3 Juliette: I agree completely. I too have always read but my reading was stagnating, carrying on within safe and fairly predictable parameters. When I discovered LT, it revived and revitalised as I saw what others were reading, read wonderful reviews, and began to branch out into global literature. I have 'met' some extraordinary readers through this wonderful vehicle and am deeply grateful for it.

I agree with tiffin that LT is a great site. I was thinking of posting asking for some suggestions about books by women who wrote about writing, but when I stopped to look at what I had I thought I would run it past the message board instead.

I stopped because the idea of women writing about writing is a new fad in my eyes and writing was more a section of an autobiography. A writer would talk about childhood stories or things that led them down the path to writing.

One of my fav is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont. It is funny because I am not a fan of some of her other stories ( I may not have had enough worldly experience to understand her grievences), but I love this one.

Any thoughts?

Hi yareader2 - I have something that may interest you although it is not strictly women writing about writing. This list was found by another LT friend 'writestuff'. She then found out some more and posted it on a blog, see below.
"Erica Jong did a survey in 1996. asking thirty prominent male authors to put together a list of 100 influential female writers, in contrast to the male-majority Modern Library list. If you go to the link below you will find the list. It is called "100 Influential Modern Novels Written by Women."
http://thelists-booksfortheobsessivereader.blogspot.com/search/label/100%20Most%...

Thanks juliette07. That really blew my mind. I felt so small like Alice in Wonderland. I think I'll need to read for a few decades before I qualify to visit there again.

juliette07, is there a reason Ms. Jong asked only male authors? and influential to whom? men? women? (do they dare speak for women?). At some point I'll google around and see if we can find out the motives behind the survey. Without the context in which the idea sprung, I am left to only note facetiously that "goodie, it's ok to read women's fiction now; it's been validated by men." :-) How would a list constructed by women's votes be different? Hmmm.

I couldn't agree more avaland. When I read that it had been completed by men my heart sunk. The list was originally posted and then writestuff did some research as she says on the link I gave. Her contact whose name I can't remember is also on that list so she may be worth 'looking up'!
Perhaps we LT women could construct a list ???

I wonder if Jong asked only male writers to participate in the survey as a sort of contrast or addendum to lists like 500 Great Books by Women and other female compiled listings of women-authored books. These sorts of lists were fairly popular at the time that Jong ran her survey (the 500 volume was published in 1994) and she may have viewed her list as a way of pointing out that female-authored fiction matters to everyone, whatever their sex or gender. "Ghettoization" of art by socially marginalized groups was a very hot topic in the late 80s and throughout the 1990s and she may well have had this controversy (which raged across the artistic spectrum although it was especially heated in the visual arts community) in mind when she set out to compile this poll.

Just my .02 cents...

I now know why Jong shows up on the list.

I like the idea of coming up with our own LT list, but need it be limited to LT women? (Might be interesting to see if there are male/female differences - I suspect there are.)

But the phrasing of the question is important: is it books that have most influenced the person responding, or books the person responding THINKS have been most influential in society broadly? If I talked about books that influenced me, for example, Rossetti would be very high on my list, Austen very low. But I'd reverse that if I'm assessing broader influence.

I see that Stevie Smith's Novel on yellow paper shows up on the Jong compiled list. That reminds me that one of the Guardian Books blog's few intelligent and credible regular contributors*, Lee Rourke, posted a nice piece on Stevie Smith's novels last week, which I meant to share here: The Beautiful Melancholy of Stevie Smith

*The majority of the semi-regular bloggers there write with all the depth, intellect and critical expertise of a drunken university student fiddling around on MySpace. Thank heavens for the guest bloggers and Rourke!

Thank you, marietherese. I guess my next Virago will be one of the two by Stevie Smith I own.

You know what I have learned from women authors? One person's fantasy is another person's reality.

>14 marietherese: good points, marietherese. I don't remember the trends to these kinds of lists but then again I was more than a little distracted at the time.

>15 A_musing: Influence is an interesting word. Influenced how?

I came across this nice article on Angela Carter this morning:

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bkw-rayner3feb03,1,6488273.story

I just wanted to say that the "theme reads" are really shaping up to be something great! There are so many wonderful selections being proposed for each month that I could see this becoming an integral part of my reading plan.

Excellent idea!

wooooweee! we have 200 members now!

*waves* I'm one of the new ones! Drawn in by the group reads :-) I think the name had distracted me a bit before (I'm afraid I had visions of reams of chick-lit & nothing else!), but given that I love reading about women in literature and books *by* women, it seems this would be a not inappropriate place for me to be. I'm plotting my April read as I type...!

LizT, you rock!
Welcome!!!!!!!!

Wow, I just checked out the list referred to in post #10 above (catching up here...) and I am really surprised by the results - especially the fact that Interview with the Vampire clocks in at #2. Maybe I'm just a snob, but to me, this was a fun book that I read once as a youngster because I was in love with vampires and once as an older person recovering from appendicitis, but I would NEVER say that it was particularly inspiring or influential to me. And that its more influential than anything written by Virginia Woolf or Margaret Atwood? Sigh....

fannyprice, I heartily agree with you. The only book by Anne Rice I ever read was The witching hour, which I must say I kind of enjoyed. I never felt the urge of reading any of the others, though, and definitely did not consider it influential.

>26 aluvalibri:, I tried to read The Witching Hour but got really turned off by the constant descriptions of how hot the main character was and all the sex. :) I'm a prude, somewhat (blush)....

As a slight counter to the above (slightly bizarre in places) list, Women's Hour on Radio 4 did a Women's Watershed Fiction list, a little like the BBC's Big Read in that it was voted for by the listeners. It's possibly a little predictable and classic-heavy in places, but it's slightly more encouraging I feel...

ETA: although it appears that at least some aren't actually by women, so now I'm wondering what their definition of women's fiction was....

LizT, I found this on the website: "Woman's Hour invites you to nominate the novel which has spoken to you on a personal level. It may have changed the way you look at yourself or simply made you happy to be a woman. As a man, it may have affected your understanding of the women in your life. Your selection can be written by a man or a woman, in this country or abroad, as long as it touched your life in some way."

Strange criteria to my way of thinking, but apparently this generated enough interest and they received sufficient nominations to come up with the list you posted above.

I have a new heroine in my life and her name is Lillian Florence Hellman. I don't care about politics or her personal life, just her words. Yes, I know she was friends with the great Dashiell Hammett and was very influenced by him.

I feel she was magnificent at placing words down to describe the scenes she witnessed through her own eyes.

Good for you, yareader2!
I agree totally and compliment you for the excellent choice.
:-))

I really am going to contribute to the women and beauty thread but I've gotten distracted by...er...books. And now a new Joyce Carol Oates is here in my lap...how can I resist?

Anyone ever read anything by Pat Barker? She interests me.

>33 yareader2:

After looking at her author page, I can now safely say that no, unfortunately I have not read anything by her. I see that three of her books (Union Street, Blow Your House Down, and Liza's England) are vmc's, so if you don't find anyone here who has read her, you might try asking in the Virago Modern Classics group.

yareader2, I recently got a copy of her Regeneration trilogy, having had it recommended to me in glowing terms a few years ago. The first book in the trilogy won the Booker Prize (although I realise that varies from person to person as to whether that's a recommendation or not!)

thanks. I will read her books. I am glad she was recognized with the Booker Prize and I think she will always have her faithful followers.

I have another woman writer that truely amazes me, Rebecca Goldstein. When I grow up...

yareader2 - I just read Life Class a couple weeks ago. I did like it, though wouldn't count it as a favorite. I plan to read her Regeneration Trilogy at some point, as it's come very highly recommended, but need to get some distance from war stories for awhile.

You can read my review of Life Class on my blog.

This is a quote from the current Guardian article by Alexander mcCall Smith about Barbara PYm. I am quoting it here because the thought about novels touching our capacity for human sympathy is incredibly important, and most of the reason I read novels and believe they are important.
"If it is a mark of a great novel that it should help us to feel for others, that it should touch our human capacity for sympathy in an important way, then Excellent Women, a novel that on one level is about very little, is a great novel about a great deal."

yareader2 Pat Barker - excellent but read a while ago. Regeneration Trilogy highly recommended.

In reference to the women and beauty group read this month, I have found, totally by accident, two books that might be options for someone.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Master of All Desires by Judith Merkle Riley
A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott

Sorry I added the third b/c I had found it on my shelf, TBR, and it fits also.

I keep running into readers who are thinking about reading or rereading The Handmaid's Tale (or looking for a good excuse to read or reread), so I'm sending everyone over to THIS THREAD on the Atwoodians group (you can post without being a member). Once we come up with a month (May?), we can make it official there.

Help save Edith Wharton's "The Mount"!

The Mount is facing imminent foreclosure and the possibility this property could be no longer available to the public. Click HERE for more information, and then click through to the regular website and see just what a fabulous restoration project this has been. I used to live just up the street from this property back in the 70s and was thrilled to see it restored. As an Edith Wharton fan I felt compelled to make a pledge (they won't call in the pledges unless they can make the whole agreement with the creditors goes through).
Please consider making a pledge to save this beautiful property.

I made a pledge a few days ago. Haven't ever been there but would love to go some day.

So did I, Cariola.
I was in Massachusetts last weekend and, unfortunately, the Mount was still closed. They will open this coming weekend (my luck!).

is this a good place to talk about romance novels/novellas? Or can someone point me in the right direction on LT to talk about women romance writers. Thanks

>45 yareader2: For a group dedicated specifically to the romance genre, check here. That being said, romance written by women can certainly be discussed here.

Thanks christiguc. I'll try that group. It is just that it is such fluff compared to what is discussed here.

I've been part of this most excellent group for ages but haven't spent much time here. Just beginning to read through these threads and hope to keep up with the lot of you! Daunting, yet inspiring indeed.

For those who might be interested, The Atwoodians group will be following up their reading of The Handmaid's Tale with Oryx and Crake for a summer group read. Discussion will begin in August.

Hey, I just found this group, and I am so glad to see it. Glad, but terrified about what this will do to my TBR list! It can't be that bad, though, because I am buying a house, and I can't be running out to buy more books for a while. There is always the library, though....

I have already found many lists of books I would like to work my way through. Lots of great literature here! I am looking forward to exploring this group more.

>50 sussabmax: It will be VERY BAD for your TBR pile (or list, as the case may be)!

Friends - and welcome sussabmax - how has the July theme read started for you? How is your theme read going? Not sure which book to read? Eager to share your thoughts? We look forward to seeing you over at the July - women and religion/spirituality discussion thread.

I haven't been here for ages. So much has happened, so many threads, my head is spinning...

* waves *
It's nice to see you here Amanda!

Welcome back Amanda - nice to see you :)

just take it one thread at a time. . .

I'm a newbie to this group, and I couldn't find what the theme read is for August. Anyone?? Thanks!

>57 jhedlund: Hello--welcome to the group!! To try to give more people a chance to read and participate, we're trying lengthening the themes to two month. July's theme (women and religion) is actually the theme for July and August. So, you have time to pick a book and join the discussion with us over there!

Great, thanks! Two months does seem like a more forgiving time frame, since I'm sure most of us have tbr piles the size of Mt. Kilamanjaro!

jhedlund, yes, in fact we call them Mount TBR. Welcome!

Hi all,

I just joined today. I was reading this thread, and then had errands to run. I had to pick up books that I had ordered at Borders. Then I stopped by B&N - block apart, since I hadn't been there in so long.

As I was wandering the aisles I saw facing out We Need to Talk About Kevin. I remembered how people talked about it in the thread, and that it was very compelling, So I picked it up. I test read a bit in the store and it seems good,

Not sure I have the time in my reading schedule to do the Orange Prize, but I will look in and pick up interesting books. I am interested in the Theme for Sept/Oct - Historical fiction, which was my first book love.

Ficus -- welcome to the group. I just finished ...Kevin today. It's very intense, not very pleasant but very well written. Will look forward to your thoughts.

Hi,

I'm new to this group and like a previous poster had previously assumed it was all about chick-lit! And now I've missed out on an Orange July ! Oh well, there's always August. And the women/religion discussion sounds great. Must find something to read that isn't about being brought up as a catholic, rejecting the catholic faith in young adulthood and then re-embracing it in later adulthood...for a change!

An extra Hi to those I recognise from the Virago group!

Welcome to the group, Soup! Sounds like some of us will be doing an Orange Summer or even an Orange year, so jump on board.

Hi Soupdragon. This is another great group. Enjoy!

Hi Soupdragon! Glad to have you with us!

#63 Soupdragon, welcome to the group.
# 64 teelgee, I think it's going to be at the very least an Orange Autumn for me.

>67 urania1: Well, Orange Autumn is appropriate for the season.

# 68,

Yes it is (unless you live in Tennessee) where the Big Orange (U of Tennessee football) rules. Once football season starts, orange Santa Clauses and people dressed in orange sweat suits and orange cowperson gear sashay up and down the roads doing violence to aesthetics and eyes. I shouldn't mind if the orange were a tasteful shade of orange, but violent orange . . . ack.

Dropping by after a long absence! I love the Orange July, but, as urania1 said, it might be an Orange Autumn for me! (Especially since July is nearly over!) Ah, then there are those Virago Green Months too! Orange, Green....what's a girl to do!!

I began We need to talk about Kevin last month but put it down. The writing is brilliant and seductive, the story wrenching to say the least. All in good time, perhaps I'll try it again. Has anyone read Shriver's other books?

eta - #53, amandameale, I concur!

ETA - again! Whew! I'm only half-way through the "Orange July" thread and exhausted! With thanks to avaland's Orange pages, I've already read many Orange winners already and own several unread titles. Best get started! But first, back to the OJ thread!

I am a bit like some others and imagined girlybooks to be *girly* books. Not what I would normally read. But I finally got up off my proverbial and actually had a look, and what do I find? Some of the most interesting conversations on LT!

So, looks like you're stuck with me for now!

I have so enjoyed reading the Orange July thread and only wish I had joined in earlier. Even though it is still the middle of winter, down here in Aus, maybe I will feel a little warmer if I join in to your Orange Summer!

>71 judylou: Dang, she found us! And we were so well disguised! ;o)

Seriously, glad you're here judylou!

I'm not that easy to lose ! Thanks for the welcome !

Just thought of posting here the following, in case someone might be interested.

Jhumpa Lahiri will give a talk on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at the Whitman Auditorium (Brooklyn College), 9:45 a.m. to 10:45.
For information (718)951-5847.

. . . and if you can, you should go! I saw Jhumpa Lahiri do a reading and talk at a wonderful independent bookstore in Chicago recently, and it was a wonderful evening.

The Atwoodians group is reading Surfacing for their Oct - Dec group read, if anyone would like to join us.

I'm pissed. Routledge Press published a book last year: Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata, which I wanted to purchase (but no more). It costs $190!!!!! Before shipping and handling!!!!! What gives? Routledge Press used to have reasonably priced scholarly works . . . on a relative scale that is. In the last year or so, they've jumped into the stratosphere. I need scones, tea, chocolate, and consolation.

I am in for scones and chocolate too!!!!!!!!

Scholarly or not $190 is a lot of money.

Take heart, relax and enjoy some home cooked scones from our kitchen!

Might the price increase have something to do with the weak buying-power of the dollar right now? The book you mention is printed in the UK.

As for shipping and handling--rest easy! ;) Routledge offers free shipping and handling for orders over $35.

Julieeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please prepare the guest room for me!
Thank you an see you as soon as my plane lands at Heathrow.
;-))

ETA: I just succumbed to my spendthrift double (the one who goes by the name of Paolina), and ordered a copy of Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker.

Hi there,

I just joined this group after finding it here on LT because the majority of the books I read are by women. Men get in now and then on the nonfiction I read, but I sometimes have to actually remind myself to pick up a novel written by a man.

My TBR list is massive, and I'm sure being here will just add to it. :)

I hope to contribute to discussions (and get over some of my general posting shyness--I tend to be a lurker), and this group looks great!

Welcome! I took a look at your profile and I think you'll feel at home here. You do have a couple of male favorite authors, so you're obviously open-minded. And anyone who loves both spreadsheets and chocolate is OK in my book!

So one way to get over your posting shyness is to hop over to the thread, What books by and/or about women are you reading Sept., and tell us ... :-)

Welcome, celiafrances! You'll have a ball here.

lindasacl spreads chocolate on her spreadsheets and licks it off.

Welcome celiafrances - you will love it here. Please feel at home - we all learn so much from each other and our reading horizons are for ever being expanded, not to mention waist lines due to chocolate, scones etc ...

Thank you for the welcomes.

I've just posted what I've been reading in Sept. on lindsacl's advice and found out we're reading the same book! :)

And I just noticed that you recently added The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to your library. I think you'll find several of us in this group have recently read and enjoyed that one, too!

And one more WELCOME, celiafrances! A woman who has The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in her library must be cool!!!!!
:-))

A warm welcome to you celiafrances - I am sure you will have a great time here!

Ditto on the welcome, celiafrances; I hope you'll enjoy being part of this very varied group (well, charming and crazy too).

Bonjour and welcome, celiafrances. I'm the sane one in the group.

You know, the ones who have to tell you they're sane usually aren't.

I'm jumping in to add my welcome, celiafrances, and I'm not touching the two previous messages with a ten-foot pole!

I'm hoping to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society over vacation--in less than two weeks!!! Hurray!

Is there a Nov/Dec theme read?

I don't think so. Participation has been declining so maybe we need a break?
However, if you have some ideas go ahead and throw them out there.

There is an Australian lit read over on Reading Globally (November) that we could parallel, and somewhere I saw a Canadian lit read scheduled for January. We could just talk about the books written by women writers.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas from me too!

From The Guardian, a short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A Private Experience: Two women caught up in a violent street riot take shelter in an abandoned shop.

Elaine Showalter has a new book out, but also on the Amazon page for the book is featured Ms. Showalter's "Top Ten Books by American Women Writers You Haven't Read (But Should)"

http://www.amazon.com/Jury-Her-Peers-American-Bradstreet/dp/1400041236

Here’s my starting guide to ten extraordinary works of fiction--one from each decade of the twentieth century--that deserve to be much better known.

# The Country of Lost Borders by Mary Hunter Austin (1909)
A moving collection of stories emphasizing the California landscape and the vulnerability of women, especially Native American women who were seduced and abandoned by white men in the Wild West. The memorable final story about a mysterious woman in the desert, “The Walking Woman,” is Austin’s manifesto of female independence, equality, tenderness, and sorrow.

# Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
Gilman’s clever utopian novel imagines three American men on a scientific expedition who hear tales of a “strange and terrible Woman Land in the high distance,” and decide to find and invade it. Expecting to rule over the women, the men are astounded, entranced, and defeated by the resourcefulness of an all-female society.

# The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1924)
Fisher was a prolific novelist, a judge for the Book of the Month Club, and a pioneer of Montessori education in the U.S. She claimed that The Home-Maker was more about children’s rights than women’s rights, but she empathized with all the members of a middle-class family whose lives are being destroyed by the straitjacket of maintaining proper male and female roles. When an accident forces the husband and wife to change places, everyone is much happier. This could be a comic premise--Mr. Mom--but Fisher treats it with seriousness and psychological insight.

# The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger (1934)
Slesinger used her disillusion with the whole cultural spectrum of the 1930s for her sparkling satire of the New York leftwing editors of a radical magazine. The novel is both a penetrating autobiographical portrait of the divided woman intellectual of the decade, painfully torn between party politics and personal emancipation; and a timeless and very funny lampoon of ideologues driven by vanity, political trendiness, and competition.

# The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford (1947)
Stafford was at her best in this powerful coming-of-age novel about a young brother and sister, Ralph and Molly Fawcett, who spend their summers at their grandfather’s ranch in Colorado. While Ralph is being initiated into adventurous manhood, Molly is fiercely and tragically resisting the dull femininity which lies in store for her.

# Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (1953)
The only novel by the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha tells the story of a poor black Chicago housewife, in a lyrical form like that of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, but suffused with anger against racism, war, and the daily small tragedies of black women’s lives. An American classic.

# We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
Long overlooked, Jackson’s masterpiece has been rediscovered in the twenty-first century by writers from Stephen King and Jonathan Lethem to Joyce Carol Oates. A perfectly constructed and spine-chilling example of the female gothic, the novel was among the first great stories of the weird girl, part teenage outcast, part witch, as a dark heroine of American horror.

# The Shadow Knows by Diane Johnson (1974)
While Diane Johnson’s novels about Americans in Paris (such as Le Divorce) have been bestsellers, The Shadow Knows is my favorite among her books. Set in Northern California in the early 1970s, it is about the racial conflict and paranoia of the decade, and, in Johnson’s words, “about persons on the fringe; they happen to be women, and what happens to them is meant to be particular to America in the seventies.”

# Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)
In her first novel, Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Robinson traced the lives of three generations of women in the imaginary Idaho town of Fingerbone, which is surrounded by mountains and next to a dark lake. The narrator, Ruth, and her sister, Lucille, are passed from one family caregiver to another; finally, their aunt Sylvie Fisher, a wanderer and transient, comes back to keep house for them. But Sylvie’s bizarre housekeeping is like something out of a gothic fairy tale, and the sisters find their separate ways to create their own domestic visions.

# Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen (1996)
Gish Jen is one of the funniest and most free-wheeling novelists of the multicultural 90s. In Mona in the Promised Land, whose title plays off a long tradition of Jewish-American immigrant writing, the adolescent Chinese-American heroine Mona Chang is at a new stage of ethnic identity, renaming and self-creation. In their own enclave, she and her high school friends exchange food, music, games, and politics. In the promised land, American girls can change their names, their religions, even re-invent their nationalities.

(Having read her A Literature of Their Own some time ago and skimmed it again in the last few weeks, I am just going to have to have the new one!)

Lois, the new Showalter has been on my Amazon wish list for a while. I am waiting for it to become cheaper.

>99 avaland:: Well I'm lacking with only having read two of those (Herland and We Have Always Lived in the Castle). I have Housekeeping but have yet to read it.

Thanks for the list!

Hey, how does she know I haven't read those? She's right, but how does she know? I have at least heard of most of them though. (printing off yet another list . . . ). Thanks, Lois!

>100 aluvalibri: Isn't it under $20 on Amazon? It's over 600 pages (thus, I want it in hardcover).

>101 spinsterrevival: I have read the same two as you, but have read other novels by Gish Jen. There are certainly a couple of the names on the list I'm not familiar with. I'm picking up the book tomorrow (the store says I have four books in, so I ought to go anyway...)

I am almost convinced, Lois......(not that you have to twist my arm or anything, by the way)

Here's an interview with Showalter about the book:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400041237&view=auq...

Here's Maureen Corrigan review of the book on NPR's "Fresh Air"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101647894

The review is also in text on the page and there is an excerpt of the book there.

The Impac Dublin international literary prize just announced their shortlist and there was not one female-authored book on the list. Not one. What century are we in? (sorry, I just needed a place to come throw some balls against the wall in frustration).

I totally agree with you! Sending a cannonball over!
Are there any females on the panel, I wonder?

#99 - Wow, I'm chagrined that I haven't read a single book on that list. My wishlist is going to get larger (soon it will topple over on me). Perhaps Girlybooks should do a group read of one or two of them this year??

Thanks for sharing!

I have only read Herland when I was on a science fiction spree. I thought it was very good.

>108 jhedlund: I'm now waiting for the UK, AU & CA equivalents of that book...

I started a group for Joyce Carol Oates fans HERE, if anyone is interested. I don't expect it to be very active, but it's nice to be among one's own kind:-)

I've read bits of threads on this group for ages, then "Watched" the group for awhile, and finally bit the bullet and joined (despite the potential dangers of overloading my already-huge to-read list). :) I tend to be especially interested in the Middle East, and in non-fiction, but I like a variety of things and try not to limit myself to one genre, place or time period.

Welcome, Essa -- enjoy!

Pleased to see a "Girlybook" winning the Pulitzer! Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout A very worthy winner IMHO.

welcome, Essa, fresh literary blood is always good!

>114 oldblack: yes, very refreshing.

Hiya ! After occassionally watching the threads in this group I've finally decided to join . Can't wait to add to my TBR pile , lol !

If anyone here is reading through or dipping into Elaine Showalter's A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, I've started a discussion thread for it over on Club Read HERE.

I thought about starting it here, but in the end, I thought (or rather hoped) to have more men participating or watching the thread. Anyway, all are welcome (and I would not be opposed to cross-posting if some preferred a discussion here).

Britain may have its first female poet laureate: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/30/poet-laureate-carol-ann-duffy

Hooray! Her poems are wonderful.

Great news!

It is fantastic news indeed!
I had read her poem "Mrs Scrooge" a while ago, when the Guardian published it, and really really liked it. I am so happy a woman is poet laureate! YAY!!!!!

Love Carol Ann Duffy! Hurray for her! Hurray for us!

Hi everyone. This is a rather last minute appeal. It seems that "The Orchard House" in Concord, MA where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women and where she and her sisters really did perform plays in the dining room and parlor (just as in the book), and where her older sister was married (just like Meg) and where her younger sister (the model for Amy) used the walls and woodwork of the house as her canvas, is in dire shape. (You can find out more about the house here: http://www.concordma.com/blog/2009/05/you-can-still-vote-for-orchard-house-daily...

Until May 17, anyone can vote at the American Express/Partners in Preservation/Greater Boston Initialtive website so that "Orchard House" may receive up to $1 million in preservation grant money. If you're interested in helping go here: http://www.partnersinpreservation.com/boston/index.php, register to vote and vote once daily.

As of now, The Orchard House is pretty far down the list of 25. My family and I visited the house last November. It's a fascinating site, filled not only with memories of Alcott, but also of the local mid-19th century Transcendalist folks, including Bronson Alcott.

I just voted. You might also want to put your message on the Virago Modern Classics' Porch for April and May -- I think there are a lot of Alcott lovers there too.

I voted too.

Thanks, janeajones. I'll give that a try.

Me, too. Wonder if the numbers are changing?

I thought it was interesting that the Boston Cyclorama building is high on the list. Seems it was built to hold the visiting Gettysburg cyclorama--which was just restored last year and mounted in the new Vsitor Center in Gettysburg.

>123 theaelizabet: I was there last October (which is kind of sad because I live about 9 miles away).

Remember that you can vote every day.

I'm feeling kind of sad for the Old North Church (0%).

Great article from the Guardian by Elaine Showalter re: American women novelists today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/09/female-novelists-usa

Thanks avaland - really interesting - I must make time to read it here instead of always waiting for you to post the good bits!!!!

Marilynne Robinson is the unanimous winner of this year's Orange Prize Award for Fiction for Home. Francesca Kay is the winner of the Orange Award for New Writers for An Equal Stillness.

Now that this years Orange Prize Winner has been announced, I'm getting excited about "Orange July". I dont have a copy of the 2009 winner or any on the shortlist, however, in my library I've tagged some of the previous years winners and shortlisted books as "Orange July 2009".
Looking forward to July :-)

Hope I get time to read all of the ones I've tagged.

Looking forward to the discussions on the Orange July 2009 Thread. The Orange January and previous July's threads were great.

I jumped the Orange gun a bit and am reading The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey. Had it on hold at the library and it came sooner than I expected. It was short listed; I've heard great things about it.

Yup, July will be good -- I have about eight books picked out for it!

I'd like to read Home as part of Orange July but haven't read Gilead yet. I understand the two books are related. Does anyone know ... is it important to read Gilead first?

lindsacl, my understanding is the characters overlap but they're not necessarily consecutive reads. I think you can do them independently. (Don't quote me on this though!)

I jumped the gun, too, Teelgee. I recently finished A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne which was one of the Orange Prize winners. I wasn't too sure about it until the last third of the book when it really took off. It wasn't bad. Not up to the standards of We Need to Talk About Kevin or Bel Canto but, still, o.k. I gave it 4 stars.

I recently made a list, to take with me to the bookstore, of the Orange winners, shortlisted books, and longlisted books. The other day I bought Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which is spoken of very favorably on LT.
I also have (and have not yet read):

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Paradise by Toni Morrison
La Cucina by Lily Prior
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
and
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

I won't be able to read all of these in July since I'm a pretty slow reader. I'm going to a bookstore tomorrow (don't you love it when you know you have a trip to the bookstore planned for a certain day?). We'll see which other Orange books I end up with. I'll let you know.

Oh, I need to make a list and start accumulating! I am glad this popped up on my list to remind me.

So, I did end up buying another Orange book, yesterday, at Barnes and Noble. I bought The Outcast by Sadie Jones which was an Orange Shortlist selection.

For Brits only (unless those outside the UK can access programmes on BBC iplayer)...

Elaine Showalter is a guest on today's edition of Start the Week on Radio 4. The website says:

'The title for Elaine Showalter’s latest book, A Jury of Her Peers, comes from a short story written by Susan Glaspell in 1917. The story questions what is meant by our peers, leading Showalter to debate representation in our juries.'

I'm listening and she hasn't been on yet!

mrstreme has created The Orange July 2009 Thread.

Come one and come all, I'd highly recommend this reading event, we've had a great time with the previous ones.

>141 charbutton: Sorry, I missed that Char. btw, one of two Jodi Picoult novels I have read, Plain Truth is a novel also about what is meant by a jury of our peers. In this case, the person on trial is a young Amish woman.

Our dear avaland and a host of LTers and others have created an amazing web-azine, to celebrate works by women authors from all around the world.
It's called Belletrisa and it has it's own LT library, of course ;-)
It is non-profit but I can see my book buying going sky high from now on.
The River Wife is next on my list because I loved The Butterfly Man.

Edited to correct pesky T-stones

There is the start of a discussion here on LT about defining women's literature in case any of you all want to weigh in.

Thanks KimB - I kept meaning to plug Belletrista here. I'll second that it's amazing and wonderful too.

Wow, the Belletrista site looks great! Although I fear for my already over-burdened budget/reading list/day planner. Oh, well ... who needs money. Or sleep. :D

Thanks for sharing the link. :)

Thanks for the plug, gals! *scurries away to get back to working on the 2nd issue*

December is a busy month for one and all, however, I'm already thinking ahead to "Orange January" is it too early to start a thread, do you think?

:-)

KimB, I'm also preparing my list for "Orange January"! I can't see a thread started up yet, but I think now would be a good time to do it. Something to look forward to after the Christmas insanity is over...

I found the Orange January 2010 Thread
Yippee !!!
*stars thread and scurries off to find her pile of Orange listed treasures ;-) *

March is Women's History Month, and I have created a survey especially for readers of women's historical fiction. Would you consider taking a moment to complete my survey? I will let you know the results this week (survey closes on Wednesday).

Thanks for your help! And please spread the word!

I posted the first part of the results for my Women's History Month survey. Thanks for participating!

http://www.examiner.com/x-37241-St-Petersburg-Book-Examiner~y2010m3d7-Results-fr...

I posted Part 2 of the Women's History Month Survey Results today. Thanks all for your help and support with this project!

http://www.examiner.com/x-37241-St-Petersburg-Book-Examiner~y2010m3d8-Results-fr...

I just read that Annie Liebowitz is able to keep her portfolio:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_en_ot/us_annie_leibovitz

I know she's a photographer, not an author, but the idea that an artist could lose control over her own production because of poor investment strategies is horrendous. I know it's happened throughout the centuries, but ...

nO, But i started reading The Break-up Bible. It is super funny and good.

There's a great article assessing various methods of birth control:

http://www.alternet.org/story/145999/unhappy_with_your_birth_control_10_methods_...

PBS Masterpiece Theatre will be running a dramatization of the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction winner, Small Island by Andrea Levy, starting on Sunday. It will also be available for online viewing here from April 19-May 25. There is more info about the production there.

Yay! Thanks, Cariola.

Thanks so much Cariola! Small Island is one of my most favourite Books!

Here's a terrific article about Egyptian author and feminist Nawal el Saadawi published in the Guardian on the 15th.

Also, a short piece on the madwomen of Victorian literature as a warm up for the documentary on BBC Radio 4 at 1130 BST on Tuesday 20 April 2010. Edited to add it will be available later on the BBC iplayer.

Thank you for that wonderfully interesting aticle on Nawal el Saadawi.

~158 Do watch it if you are able as it is a brilliant production.

Thanks for the article about Nawal el Saadawi, avaland. What strength and courage she shows!

And thanks, avaland, for the infor on the BBCiplayer. I'll plan to listen to the program about madwomen.

Thoughtful article about "The Way We Talk about 'Women's Lit' " from the Women's Media Center blog.
It's starting point is the comments made by Orange Prize judging chair Daisy Goodwin about 'misery lit'.

http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/2010/05/exclusive-the-way-we-talk-about-womens...

Not sure I agree with the stuff about books-to-movies, but I thought the bits pulled together about books were interesting.

The article was interesting . But I take offense of the slight of chick lit . Chick lit is popular for one main reason , most people LIKE TO LAUGH ! This overly-criticized genre is usually humor-fiction . Most so-called "serious" readers/critics take cheap shots at humor fiction and chick lit is the current whipping post . I don't want to know a person that avoids books that will put a smile on their face ! Every genre exists because there is an audience for it ! Readers and critics NEED to stop attacking entire genres and their fans . It doesn't impress anyone ! If you don't like a certain genre that's okay , just don't criticize others for enjoying it !

The Alice Hoffman forum is planning a group read. At the moment it looks as if we will be starting with The Probable Future and reading her new one, The Story Sisters at a later date. However, this may change depending on others' wishes.

If you are an Alice Hoffman fan or would be interested in trying her and joining in with the discussion. please join us!

The link is: http://www.librarything.com/topic/28438
Sorry, I still can't do the short, snappy ones. I must go and study Christina's helpful thread again!

What do you think of this? Sounds good to me.

The World Cup has consumed many people's mind – even mine but for reasons far different than others.

First I learned that during the last World Cup domestic violence incidents increased by almost a third. Luckily the West Yorkshire police department launched a program to combat this problem and avoid history from repeating itself.

Now, I've learned of another project that will be launched during the World Cup to combat another horrible crime against women – rape.

A South African doctor, Dr. Sonnet Ehlers, has developed a female condom with jagged rows of teeth like hooks lined inside that attach to a man's penis during penetration. Once the condom has latched onto the perpetrator's penis it cannot be removed without a doctor's help. If a man tries to remove it himself it clasps on even tighter.

Ehlers plans to distribute 30,000 free Rape-aXe condoms in the various South African cities where World Cup games are taking place. After this trial period the condoms will be available for about $2 each.

Some critics have accused Ehlers of inventing a "medieval" device to fight rape but to this she responds:

"Yes, my device may be a medieval, but it's for a medieval deed that has been around for decades. I believe something's got to be done ... and this will make some men rethink before they assault a woman."

The reality is that South Africa has one of the highest rape rates in the world. This is a country where it is estimated that 1 in every 2 women will be raped in their lifetime. Most of these victims too live without any justice as many perpetrators are not convicted – something else Ehlers hopes to change with the new condoms.

Like other critics I also worry of the additional violence women are putting themselves at risk for if they don't escape from the man who has attempted to rape them or the revenge he will seek out on her after the device has been removed. These are very real concerns, but women are so fearful of rape in South Africa that it has been reported that some insert razor blades wrapped in sponges inside their vaginas.

A VERY interesting article in today's NY Times titled "Violence Expert Visits Her Dark Past" and reviews Denial by Jessica Stern (and speaks to the author). But what is more the point is that,—and here Joyce Carol Oates is brought into the essay—it is also a discussion on women being able to write about violence.

I've cross-posted this a few places, so you may come across it again:-) I think this is interesting considering the comments made by one of the Orange Prize judges this year.

On BookTV this weekend 4pm ET Saturday the 26th and repeated. See the schedule here http://www.booktv.org/schedule.aspx

The War on Moms: On Life in a Family Unfriendly Nation

Sharon Lerner
About the Program

Ms. Lerner compares the working parents policies of the U.S. to those of the European social democracies, while examining the impact in America of women having joined the work force en mass. She says that though most families need the income of both parents to stay afloat, corporate and governmental policies in the U.S. don't recognize the additional needs of mothers who hold the fulltime job of primary care of the family, while also working outside the home.

About the Authors
Sharon Lerner

Sharon Lerner was a reporter for the Village Voice and National Public Radio before becoming a senior fellow at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times and The American Prospect.

Great (and important, imo) rant from Lionel Shriver in the Guardian on how publishers both ghettoize women writers and women readers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/sep/02/publishers-ghetto...

#171 Reminds me of the famous quip - the only way for women artists to get into the Metropolitan Museum is to buy a ticket.

So our 80% needs to vote with their credit cards. I do.

>172 dianaleez: I use my $ power too!

"The Hunger Games" vs. "Twilight"
Which young-adult crossover hit series has the most empowered heroine? You'd be surprised

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/09/05/hunger_games_twilight

"Bella at least had the courage of her desire"? What is the author thinking? Bella couldn't be said to have courage because she had no sense of self worth. Agreed Katniss is also willing to sacrifice herself, but the reader does get the impression that there's a self there to sacrifice. I did like the comment about her lack of ambition. Ambition in a woman is never seen as a positive trait. The books would have been more noteworthy if they could have overcome that taboo.

Very interesting articles, Lois. Re: Lionel Shriver's point, I used to avoid books that had that sort of soft-focus, girly cover, until I realized that many times that sort of cover doesn't have anything to do with the book. Books are a big enough business to do some research on what buyers actually want, I would think.

There's a topic in the group Folio Society Devotees entitled Favourite authors vs sex. I sent a message to the man who originated the topic asking if I could quote his post and haven't heard from him, so I'll just paraphrase. He says that if you're trying to find the sex of an LT person who doesn't list it in their profile, if the person has as few as 20% female authors among their listed books she's probably female. Several men wrote in with their percentage of female authors, the highest so far has been 27%. I make a concerted effort to buy and check out books by women, and my percentage of female authors is 61.89. So no wonder the publishing industry is geared toward men, they sell. Is it because readers are prejudiced?

>177 Citizenjoyce:

Interesting. My female authors are at 26%. I will have to work harder also.

k4k

Great article. For some reason I just assumed that the author had more sway over how their book is presented. Call me naive, but to hear of book covers having a soft, girly focus when that is not the story between the covers really rubs me the wrong way, similar to targeted advertising based on my web browser activity of the previous six sites I had visited.

>177 Citizenjoyce: - I am a sucker for stats and your post had me click to go check the male/female stats for my library here on LT. The results:
Percent male: 42.96% : Percent female: 57.04%

Hummm.... and I don't make a concerted effort to pick up books by female authors. I pick up stories that intrigue me.

I'd never noticed that stat.

Male: 180 : Female: 387 : Other/Contested/Unknown: 1 : N/A: 14 : Not set 40

Percent male: 31.75% : Percent female: 68.25%

And 25 of my 40 'not set' are women.

And I do go out of my way to read women authors - I have years of a small town public library and a 1960's university education to make up for.

I read only what interests and/or entertains me.

Oh No! My library is only 39.4% female!! How strange, I'd never really noticed I had more male authors than female! (I don't go out of my way for one author more than another, but I did have the *feeling* that I did at least read 50% female authors. How wrong was I!)

FYI, the link if you want to find out your own proportion: http://www.librarything.com/profile/MEMBERNAME/stats/gender

I figured my male/female parity from counting the books read thus far this year, at last calculation it was around 58%.

I don't forego books by men, but I make a concerted effort to read and buy literature by women.

I know readers who will suggest that they read gender-blind, as if that is some higher moral ground, when actually they are merely vehicles of the status quo. Books written by women are still undervalued, as is the women's experience often written about within them; I'm not content with that. It's hard to know what to do to change the attitudes within society, but doing something is better than doing nothing (and keeps me from pulling my hair out or kicking a wall or something).

This is Linda Holmes' blog on NPR discussing the NYT coverage of books by women.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/09/08/129723564/what-i-learned-from-the-...

Currently, my library is at 59% male, 43% women. Until recently, I never paid the slightest attention to whether an author was male or female. And I suspect that had I taken these stats in the 90s, my percentage of female authors would have been much higher. The three changes that have tipped this over toward the male side have been 1. assigned university reading, 2. a change in my non-fiction tastes, and 3. an effort to read more classics and award winners. I suspect that my ratio will glide over back toward women writers gradually.

#183 what a great article with pertinent links. I particularly liked what Jennifer Weiner said: "It's just interesting to sort of stack them up against a Lorrie Moore or against a Mona Simpson — who write books about families that are seen as excellent books about families," Weiner says. "And then to look at a Jonathan Franzen who writes a book about a family but we are told this is a book about America."

and I have to post this excellent quote from one of the links: http://www.slate.com/id/2265910/pagenum/all/#p2

Weiner seems most concerned about how we, as a literary culture, draw the boundaries around a certain group of books. Let's call this category zeitgeist fiction—commercial fiction that is for some reason deemed worthy of serious analysis, either because of sales (Twilight), cultural impact (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), or surprisingly spry writing (High Fidelity).* Weiner and Picoult raise the following question: Is pop fiction written by men more likely to be lifted out of the "disposable" pile, becoming the kind of cultural objects august institutions like the New York Times feel compelled to pay attention to? And are the commercial genres most commonly associated with male writers and readers—science fiction, legal thriller—more likely to be taken seriously than their female equivalents (chick lit, romance novel)? Or as Weiner puts it, would certain male writers—Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, Carl Hiaasen, or David Nicholls—"be considered chick lit writers if they were girls?"

If even women can be convinced that women's writing is less meaningful than men's writing we have a long way to go toward cultural equality.

>183 dianaleez: Nice blog post, thanks. My rather unscientific counting of reviews in NYTBR over the last couple of years puts the percentage closer to 34%, but we may be including different things, I suppose (for a while I included the small stuff).

>185 Citizenjoyce: that was a great quote. And the answer to the question is "yes". (and to the writer of that quote: pleeeeaaase, we are women, not girls)

Maybe Weiner uses the term girls to decrease it's power like homosexuals using the term queen or fat people finally using the term fat. It's not a word I would use, but it does fit in with the quote, doesn't it?

Someone just claimed on the Favourite authors vs sex thread that in Canada the split between successful male and female authors is 50/50. That sounds lovely if it's true. I wonder how to find out.

But it's all in the definition of 'successful.'

Ah, dianaleez, do you mean writes well but doesn't sell or writes crap that flies off the shelves? I wrote a note to the woman who posted the statistic but no answer so far.

Citizenjoyce, I'm just suggesting that the original poster needs to be explain her terms. Perhaps 'success' is like 'beauty' and it's in the eye of the beholder.

Afterall, my mother thinks I'm successful!

The last time I did the stats from the Giller & Governer General Awards the gender parity of the winners was no better than most and it seems it and the Australian Miles Franklin were a bit worse than the Booker or Pulitzer. however, this was a couple of years ago...(might be on an old thread in the Prizes Group.

Her answer was 2 equal lists of male and female writers that she thought were successful. So it was kind of the way we thought of our own books until statistical analyses showed differently. Alas Canadians are probably just as sexually constrained as the rest of the English peaking - or non Emglish speaking world.

#192> The Miles Franklin shortlist for 2009 was all blokes! Very disappointing. But it does seem to have been an anomaly to be *that* biassed, most years have at least one woman on the shortlist.

2010: Two women; four men. (33%)
2009: No women; five men. (0%)
2008: One woman; four men. (25%)
2007: Three women; one man. (75%)
2006: Three women; two men. (60%)
2005: Three women; two men. (60%)
2004: Two women; four men. (33%)
2003: Four women; two men. (66%)
2002: One woman; four men. (20%)
2001: Two women; five men. (29%)

Sorry. Got all number-crunchy. :)

(Edited for clarity.)

>194 wookiebender: total that's 39/61%, however, in that same period only 2 women actually won the award (Alexis Wright and Shirley Hazzard)(2/10 = 20%). 20% is very sad when you consider that writers like Kate Grenville and Gail Jones have never won this.

In last year's Giller Prize (Canada), 10 of the 12 longlisted writers were women, but it was one of the two men who won. From 2001 - 2009, only 2 women were winners (2/9 = 22% = also very sad)

In the US: The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2001 - 2010, 3/10 = 30% (only marginally better - but 2009 is notable for awarding to a book written by a woman with a woman protagonist - Olive Kitteridge. And The National Book Award is 3/9 = 33% (the last five winners have been male)

The Booker (UK), 2001 - 2009, winners 3/9 = 33%

The Impac Dublin Award has not awarded to a woman in the last 10 years.

I would also argue that women win more often when they write about men, although this pattern is easier to see when studying the last 20 or 30 years in any one award. OK, just since 2000:

The Pulitzer: Olive Kitteridge, March and Gilead
National Book Award: Three Junes, The Great Fire and News from Paraguay
The Booker: Wolf Hall, The Gathering, The Inheritance of Loss

Of these Olive Kitteridge, The News from Paraguay and The Gathering have female protagonists or narrators. The Inheritance of Loss's narrative is sort of split between Sai (girl) and Biju (young man)

If I may semi-digress? My personal hot button is being assured by a kindly person that the 'fight is now over; women won.'

I took a foreign film class at the local university a few years ago and the professor made that statement. I asked him what percentage of his fellow department chairs in arts and sciences were women. zilch.

wheee...now that that's off my ample chest, I'll quit griping. But it was fun.

>196 dianaleez: Yes, I bet he'd like us to believe that. Good for you for speaking up. Don't ever stop.

From the Guardian today. Orange (sponsor of the Orange Prize for Fiction) will drop the New Writers Award:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/14/orange-ditches-award-for-new-writers...

#195> Ah, yes, it's a different story if you look at winners, I didn't think of that. Interesting what you say about women writing about men, I'm going to keep that in the back of my mind, I think...

(Sorry for the late reply!)

#199, It could be good to see a new author introduced every month. I hope it won't just be on Facebook.

A new author...a friend...wrote Loving Purity, a historical romance for anyone looking for a new author.

Where were we having that conversation about cover art? women's bodies...etc. It occurred to me today while working with the cover images for Belletrista's New & Notables that books do not have men's faces (closeups) and nude bodies (art or otherwise) on them. They will have men at a distance though. I'm sure there are exceptions...

Lois, now I'm going to look at all the covers of the books scattered around the house. The Finkler question, which is very much focused on 3 males, fits your thesis - the cover has a hat and a PLO scarf on a coatstand.

Edited because I was blurting my current girlybook in the wrong thread!

Check out my update about Orange January 2011!

(Pardon the repost!)

Yahoo, I got a cheap copy of The Boy Next Door or Lottery at a second hand store, so I'll be ready.

>204 mrstreme:: an update on Jill's update: it's now Orange January! Anyone interested in reading Orange Prize winners or nominees is welcome to join the fun over in the Orange January/July Group.

Egyptian doctor, author & feminist Nawal El Saadawi speaks about the revolution in Egypt

"Now, almost age 80, I have lived to witness and participate in the Egyptian Revolution of 25 January 2011.

I am writing this Sunday morning 6 February 2011. For 12 days and nights now, millions of Egyptian women and men, Muslims and Christians, people of all ideologies and beliefs—the Egyptian people—have continued to unite under the banner of spontaneous popular revolution. They unite against the existing corrupt, tyrannical system, rotten from the head to the feet of the modern Pharaoh. His throne is sticky with the blood of the people, as his ruling party releases thugs to kill the young, and parliament’s deputies forge fake laws, while trading in land and women, drugs and bribes. His so-called educated elite long ago sold its pens and conscience, misleading public opinion, all for the interests of positions in government, large or small.

But this revolution has launched young women, men, and even children from their homes, driving them forward, protecting each other. So the old order is falling..." (See the link above to read more)

I like this:
We do not want the new-formed Committee of the Elders of the Revolution, imposing their ideas on us. They are opportunists who did not participate here with us, suffer here with us. They arrive now from Europe or America, Egyptians who have lived their lives outside the homeland, come now to assume the leadership of the revolution. To them we say: ‘We lead the revolution, having among us our own “Elders” of young people aged thirty or forty or fifty years; we have specialists in all scientific, political, economic and other fields.’”

That's always the difficulty with revolutions. They start out being for the people and end up being for the new tyrants. Let's hope this time it works.

Orange July is just around the corner! Orange July is when you make a personal commitment to read at least one book that has won or been nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

If you're interested in participating, please visit the Orange January/July LibraryThing group to learn more. Here's a direct link to the Orange July 2011 thread.

(Please pardon the repost!)

fantasy is not real reality is...in that case i would like to know how?

Orange January 2012 is right around the corner! Orange January is when you pledge to read at least one book that has won or been nominated for the Orange Prize. Come join the fun! Here's the discussion thread to get you started!

LOL, I think I am the only who posts here!

Orange July is just around the corner! Orange July is a biannual reading event where people around the world commit to reading at least one Orange Prize winner or nominee. We hope you'll join the fun.

We have a LibraryThing group dedicated to this reading event, and you can check out my blog post for complete event details.

Thanks for your support and feel free to spread the word!