I came across this meme about women authors and followed it around and around and around. This particular one is from Knits with Cats.I'm a bit dismayed at the amount of tantalizing things on this list that I haven't read. It also says a lot about the current state of my life how many of the ones I've read I read more than a decade ago, not to mention the high number that I haven't heard of. I've added explanatory notes where I just couldn't help but make a comment. Oh, and I hope you all do this one, too.
Instructions: Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've been wanting/might like to read. ??Place question marks by any titles/authors you've never heard of. Put an asterisk if you've read something else by the same author. And put a + beside anything you add.
Allcott, Louisa May–Little Women I always wanted to be more like Jo. I'm not really like any of them.
Allende, Isabel–The House of the Spirits
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Atwood, Margaret–Cat's Eye* I've read The Handmaid's Tale more than once.
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bambara, Toni Cade–Salt Eaters
Bank, Melissa-Girls' Guide To Hunting And Fishing
Barnes, Djuna–Nightwoodde??
Beauvoir, Simone–The Second Sex
Blume, Judy–Are You There God? It's Me Margaret* She was one of my all-time favorite authors when I was in primary school, and afterwards. My biggest memory was Forever being passed around junior high school with the 'dirty' bits earmarked. I'd love to read her again to see how it resonates with my adult self.
Burnett, Frances–The Secret Garden Loved it as a kid. Love it still. Read it periodically.
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre I read the first part several times before I made it all the way through.
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights I've tried, but I just can't make it.
Buck, Pearl S.–The Good Earth One of my childhood favorites - we had the Reader's Digest Condensed version. I read the full thing as an adult.
Byatt, A.S.–Possession
Cather, Willa–My Antonia
Chopin, Kate–The Awakening I have no idea why I still haven't read this.
Christie, Agatha–Murder on the Orient Express* I can never remember which ones I've read, and will sometimes read through one again, not sure I've read it before for most of the story.
Cisneros, Sandra–The House on Mango Street*
Clinton, Hillary Rodham–Living History
Cooper, Anna Julia–A Voice From the South??
Danticat, Edwidge–Breath, Eyes, Memory??
Davis, Angela–Women, Culture, and Politics
Desai, Anita–Clear Light of Day
Diamant, Anita-The Red Tent
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems Bold for the ones I've read, and italicized for the rest.
Duncan, Lois–I Know What You Did Last Summer
DuMaurier, Daphne–Rebecca
Eliot, George–Middlemarch
Emecheta, Buchi–Second Class Citizen??
Erdrich, Louise–Tracks
Esquivel, Laura–Like Water for Chocolate
Fielding, Helen-Bridget Jones's Diary* This is a classic. The sequel was o.k. The detective story that came after was a pure waste of time.
Flagg, Fannie–Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
Frank, Anne–Diary of a Young Girl My childhood copy I read repeatedly, so much so that pages were falling off the back.
Gedge, Pauline-Child Of The Morning??
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins–The Yellow Wallpaper One of the best short stories ever, good even after it's been gruesomely deconstructed in an undergraduate literature class.
Gordimer, Nadine–July's People
Grafton, Sue–S is for Silence* Kinsey Millhone is a truly special detective, but her early novels are much more compelling than later ones, from what I've read.
Hamilton, Edith–Mythology
Highsmith, Patricia–The Talented Mr. Ripley
hooks, bell–Bone Black* I haven't read this, but I enjoy her more academic writing.
Hurston, Zora Neale–Dust Tracks on the Road
Jacobs, Harriet–Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Jackson, Helen Hunt–Ramona
Jackson, Shirley–The Haunting of Hill House
Jong, Erica–Fear of Flying* I loved Fanny when I was about 13 (ooh, that sounds a bit risque, especially in British). I tried to read it again recently, but couldn't get into it.
Keene, Carolyn–The Nancy Drew Mysteries (any of them) I aimed to read them all when I was young, but only read maybe 5 or so. I'd like to reread them to see how they've aged, but have the feeling Nancy would annoy me.
Kidd, Sue Monk–The Secret Life of Bees
Kincaid, Jamaica–Lucy
Kingsolver, Barbara–The Poisonwood Bible
Kingston, Maxine Hong–The Woman Warrior
Klein, Naomi-No Logo
Larsen, Nella–Passing??
Laurence, Margaret-The Stone Angel
L'Engle, Madeleine–A Wrinkle in Time* I don't remember reading this. I remember reading another book by L'Engle where the main character has a problem with his mitochondria. That's all I remember. Apparently, that means I've read this.
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness*
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Lessing, Doris–The Golden Notebook
Lively, Penelope–Moon Tiger??
Lorde, Audre–The Cancer Journals
Martin, Ann M.–The Babysitters Club Series (any of them) I'm a bit too old for these.
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts??
Markandaya, Kamala–Nectar in a Sieve
Marshall, Paule–Brown Girl, Brownstones??
Mccullough, Colleen-The Thorn Birds
McDonald, Anne-Marie-Fall On Your Knees??
Mitchell, Margaret–Gone with the Wind I'm not sure I finished this, but I know I came close.
Montgomery, Lucy–Anne of Green Gables
Morgan, Joan–When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost??
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon*
Murasaki, Lady Shikibu–The Tale of Genji
Munro, Alice–Lives of Girls and Women Some, no many of her short stories haunt me.
Murdoch, Iris–Severed Head
Naylor, Gloria–Mama Day
Niffenegger, Audrey–The Time Traveller's Wife I have a review of this on my blog somewhere. To summarize, it started off amazing, and by the end was excruciating. And says all the wrong things about women's lives when there are not men it them.
Nin, Anais-Little Birds
Oates, Joyce Carol–We Were the Mulvaneys
O'Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find Totally different when read from a Catholic perspective. I'm not Catholic, but I pretend I am (sort of) when I read this.
Piercy, Marge–Woman on the Edge of Time??
Picoult, Jodi–My Sister's Keeper??
Plath, Sylvia–The Bell Jar
Porter, Katharine Anne–Ship of Fools
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Rand, Ayn–The Fountainhead I was really into this as an undergraduate. I don't believe I'd be so now.
Ray, Rachel–365: No Repeats I'd never heard of her until my last visit to the states, when I saw a bit of one of her programs. I believe she was making meatloaf.
Rhys, Jean–Wide Sargasso Sea
Rice, Anne-Interview With A Vampire* Very influential book for me in my late teens/early twenties.
Robinson, Marilynne–Housekeeping??
Rocha, Sharon–For Laci??
Sebold, Alice–The Lovely Bones??
Sexton, Anne-Transformations*++ Everyone should read these fairy tales to their children. And to themselves.
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Shields, Carol-The Stone Diaries* I recommend Larry's Party.
Smith, Betty–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Smith, Zadie–White Teeth
Spark, Muriel–The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Spyri, Johanna–Heidi Another childhood favorite that I still like.
Strout, Elizabeth–Amy and Isabelle??
Steel, Danielle–The House* I don't really know, but I'm sure I must have read something by her.
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Tannen, Deborah–You're Wearing That*
Tyler, Anne-The Accidental Tourist
Ulrich, Laurel–A Midwife's Tale??
Urquhart, Jane–Away??
Walker, Alice–The Temple of My Familiar
Waters, Sarah-Tipping the Velvet*++ She's one of my favorites. I added this one because it's the first, but I strongly considered adding Affinity, as I felt so completely traumatized after having read it.
Welty, Eudora–One Writer's Beginnings
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
Wilder, Laura Ingalls–Little House in the Big Woods* I read the whole series as a kid, multiple times. A couple of these were also falling apart after repeated viewings.
Winterson, Jeanette-Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit* I want to like her, I really do. Maybe I didn't start with the right thing, but what I read was so insufferably self-centered and untalented, that I can't imagine anything else she does would be better. Although if I see this one in a library, I will probably give it a go anyway.
Wolf, Naomi-The Beauty Myth
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Woolf, Virginia–A Room of One's Own
Banana Yoshimoto-Kitchen
22 kommentarer:
Here's my list:
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
Nyarlor, gloria - Mama Day
Wollstonecraft, Mary–A Vindication of the Rights of Women
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
the sad things: 1) I studied literature for five years of my life and have only read five of the books off tha tlist 2) most of them were not voluntary reads (as in they were assignments in high school or college).
Mama Day read like a Terry Pratchett novel, one fo the Discworld ones about the Lancre witches, except the sassy raunchy old woman with lots of daughters-in-law and grandkids was black instead of scottish.
Frankenstein was brilliant. I've read that one for pleasure and for school several times.
Mary Wollstoncraft-Shelley's Vindication of the Rights of Women is outdated and shoved down the throat of literature majors until they're ready to swill beer and act like cheauvanist pigs, even the female ones.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird in high school and don't really remember anything about it.
Utrolig interessant. Denne listen skal jeg gjøre om en måneds tid:-) Jeg leste ut Sarah Waters "The Night Watch" i går. NYDELIG bok, men veldig vemodig. Kan du gjøre med en tjeneste? Hvordan ville du oversatt "Guds gode grenser" til engelsk?
i am going to do this meme. I like it very much. I am going through my books,so as not to forget any female writer i love.
Thanks Kimananda.
What a fantastic list! I am not even going to admit how few of those books I have read but you have given me lots of books to check out. Since I am only reading for pleasure now this will be delightful. It is a nice tribute to women.
ps. My copy of The Diary of Anne Frank was also falling apart. I was obsessed with her story when I was a teen. I remember when I first moved to Germany years later looking at all the houses around the city of Berlin thinking to myself: how did her family do it? How could they live in a tiny attic and be hidden for so long?
OH! How I loved Little House in the Big Woods! That's a great list you have and it's really varied! What are you reading now?
Thanks for the exercise. My list (strictly of reads): Funny thing is, except for Friedan's, I never thought of myself as reading "women authors." They were just good books.
Angelou, Maya–I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Austen, Jane–Emma
Bronte, Charlotte–Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily–Wuthering Heights
Chopin, Kate–The Awakening
Dickinson, Emily–Collected Poems
Eliot, George–Middlemarch
Friedan, Betty–The Feminine Mystique
L'Engle, Madeleine - A Wrinkle in Time
Le Guin, Ursula K.–The Left Hand of Darkness
Lee, Harper–To Kill a Mockingbird
McCullers, Carson–The Member of the Wedding
McMillan, Terry–Disappearing Acts
Morrison, Toni–Song of Solomon*
Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Traveller's Wife
O'Connor, Flannery–A Good Man is Hard to Find
Proulx, E. Annie–The Shipping News
Shelley, Mary–Frankenstein
Shields, Carol-The Stone Diaries
Tan, Amy–The Joy Luck Club
Wharton, Edith–Age of Innocence
oooo you better read House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende! I have read that book so many times and loved the characters so intensely, it is as if I've lived the story myself.
Seriously. Read it.
There is much to be said for a good book.
How many of those books that you read as a kid did you read by light of a flashlight under the covers? Or at your desk while you were supposed to be doing your homework? Just wondering...
If you want to read Judy Blume again, try her book, "Wifey," written for adults, not kids. You will not have to search for the "naughty bits."
I haven't read most of those but I also think this list is more accurate for english-speaking people, most of the authors write in english or are internationally known...it'd leave out a lot of Iberian literature.
But there's a lot of those I want to read too, it was nice seeing your list :)
Kimananda says: The Yellow Wallpaper One of the best short stories ever, good even after it's been gruesomely deconstructed in an undergraduate literature class.
Hilarious and my experience also.
First list like this where I've seen Tipping the Velvet mentioned...dryer buzzer calls....or I'd write more.
I got your postcard today! Thank you, it was really quick, wasn't it? :)
I hope you get mine soon ;)
some amazing books there!
Maddy, you are well read! I look forward to hearing what you think of Frankenstein.
Morose, I think that the hallmark of lit majors is not being as well read as we think we should be. And you're doing a good job of selling me on Mama Day.
Cammy, your list is fabulous, and you've added some authors whom I'll need to check out when I have the time.
Connie, I'll have to check Rebecca out. I don't know much about DuMaurier.
HB, hvad betyder 'guds gode grenser'? Jeg kan ikke oversætte det fordi jeg ikke kan forstå det! Og jeg vil sikkert læse den nye Sarah Waters når jeg har lidt mere tid.
Chloe, I look forward to seeing your list.
Daphnewood, I think you can visit the place where Anne Frank was hiding...I've always imagined it as not actually that small, as it was actually an unused small bit of her father's office building, if I remember correctly.
Etchen, right now I'm reading the occasional article on tagging, blogging, and the long tail. :-) I'd much rather read Sarah Water's new novel, to be honest.
Mr. American, I'll have to check her out. She sounds cool.
Sangroncito, let me know what you end up reading!
Day, it is, isn't it?
Hank, you are a very well read dog. And for a guy dog, you've read a lot of female authors. I'm impressed!
Leslie, I will...just as soon as I have time. I've been meaning to for a long time.
Jack, I totally agree.
Ms. Mous, actually some of them I read from my sleeping bag, placed near enough to the door so that I could open the door just enough that the light from the hall would illuminate a tiny strip of the book I was reading (maybe a couple of words worth)...and then I'd move the book back and forth to read. And then, when my Mom would turn off the hall light and go to bed, I'd sneak out and turn the light back on and continue reading.
Ms. Mood, you're right. I considered adding Florbela Espanca and Clarice Lispector, and then decided that I'd keep it with English language author.
Mary, were you also an English lit major? And I decided to add Tipping the Velvet just because Sarah Waters is so totally absorbingly cool. I figure if Rachel Ray can be on the list, then anything goes.
Blue, I may try to re-read the Fountainhead then. I really did really really like it the first time.
Ms. Mood, that was quick...I just sent it on Saturday, and didn't really expect it to get there even this week!
Vesper, yes! That's why I felt that I had to do this meme myself.
I just finished The Time Traveler's Wife about an hour ago. You didn't like it? It had me sobbing out loud by the end. Luckily I'm home alone.
I liked it greatly...but the idea that our heroine literally lives her life for a man...her whole childhood waiting for him to arrive, her adulthood with him, and then totally unable to continue her own life after him. I found that far too disturbing, and it detracted from the whole thing for me. Even a bit of spine in that woman, and the whole true love and destiny thing would have come together for me, and I'd probably still be crying over it periodically. But it didn't work that way. I realize that mine is the minority opinion on this.
mama day was probably the best thing i got out of that postmodern american lit class, short of Slaughterhouse Five.
oh, yeah, The Awakening was forced upon me in a lit-theory class or three, serving only to reaffirm my dislike of whiny feminist literature.
my big beef with it is that it's so myopic, painting men and patriarchal society as the opressive Norsefire-party fascist badguys without really addressing the fact that lots of women were complicit in the very cultures that opressed them - they reinforced its norms and played its games and whatnot.
The real problem is not men or patriarchy or women or feminism. the real problem, as a lot of HP Lovecraft's nonfiction points out, is humans.
Good point. I agree that Clare did not have much spine......I hope she didn't spend 40 years obsessing about him showing up again, but the details are sparse,unfortunatly. Her fixation on reproducing annoyed me as well.
To be fair, though, Henry's dad never recovered from the loss of Henry's mom, so it's not just the women behaving pathetically.:-)
Morose, good point re: the Lovecraft point. Humans cause many more problems than either men or women alone. ;-)
I'm glad there's someone who hates the end of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' as much as I do. I didn't find getting there as much of a struggle as you did but I certainly wanted to throw the book across the train carriage at that point. Shame, a terribe ending to an otherwise enjoyable novel.
James, I must admit, I read the last bits very quickly. That saved me from throwing a library book across the room and possibly damaging it.
I'm waaaay late commenting on this (your "Easter Reading" blog entry) but just wanted to say that Gilman, Charlotte Perkins "The Yellow Wallpaper" is up on Miette's Bedtime Story as a podcast if you ever feel the urge to listen to it instead of reading it again - and she does a lovely job of reading it.
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