Baby Boomers
Women born between 1945 and 1964 who write about and are interested in contributing material about their lives- then and now.
Tell ME Which Book To Buy For International Women's Day!
Tonight, on the eve of International Women's Day, I decided to turn to my own bookshelves and take some inventory. (First problem: I need to buy more bookshelves.) I knew I wasn't understocked when it came to books by women writers, but I suspected my shelves were predominantly stocked with books written in English, or, at their most exotic, works translated from European languages.As it turns out, predominantly doesn't begin to cover it. I am a certified bookaholic, but tonight I was dismayed to discover that my addiction has primarily consisted of devouring books written almost exclusively by Western writers. (I am currently enraptured by Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles) Given my deeply held belief that we are not only the stories we tell, but the stories we read, this represents nothing less than a gaping hole in my understanding of this world. I need to read more books written by women who live in places other than Europe and the U.S. And I need you to help me get started.
So today, in honor of International Women's Day, please post your favorite book written by a woman writer from a country other than your own on your She Writes page, and help me write my shopping list. (I'm going to start be revisiting Jean Casella's fabulous blogpost, "Lost (and Found) In Translation: Top Ten Books by International Wom...," and by picking up the anthology co-edited by new She Writer Elizabeth Nunez, Stories from Blue Latitudes: Carribbean Women Writers At Home and A...). Tag it "international women", include it in your "what brings you here" feed, Tweet it, Facebook it, and through your example inspire everyone in your world to do the same.
Most powerful of all, however, if you can, do one, wonderful thing more: join me in buying a book, or borrowing a book (or a whole bunch of books) written by a woman from a country different from your own. She Writes has members from more than thirty countries, including Egypt, Columbia, Mexico, Iran, the Netherlands, Germany and Qatar. We are international in our membership, and tomorrow we should be international in our spirit and our actions. I know that many other actions will be taking place tomorrow to honor the day -- please share your participation in them with our community, too. Days like tomorrow are good days. They are days that raise our consciousness and call us to act. I, for one, am looking forward to connecting with women around the world by supporting their efforts as writers, and learning from their stories. I hope you will, too.
Comment
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Comment by Barbara A. Atkins on March 11, 2010 at 12:47pm -
BLUE LATITUDES by Elizabeth Nunez is a collection of 26 short stories from female Caribbean writers known and unknown. The authors tell about life in the Caribbean, the dissent and unrest on their islands, they tell of love, sexual exploitation, family life and abuse. The stories are vividly told and are rich with the details Caribbean writers are so adept at doing in their writings.
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Comment by Barbara A. Atkins on March 11, 2010 at 12:45pm
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BLUE LATITUDES by Elizabeth Nunez. This is a collection of 26 short stories from female Caribbean writers known and unknown. The authors tell about life in the Caribbean, the dissent and unrest on their islands, they tell of love, sexual exploitation, family life and abuse. The stories are vividly told and are rich with the details Caribbean writers are so adept at doing in their writings.
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Comment by Rebecca Fjelland Davis on March 11, 2010 at 9:20am -
Ditto to Isabel Allende! I'm reading her Zorro right now, and it's as wonderful as the rest.
Also, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria is spectacular. She's been called the "next Chinua Achebe." Purple Hibiscus and Half a Yellow Sun are both breath-taking books.
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Comment by Anne Manyak on March 10, 2010 at 9:45am -
House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende (born in Peru, raised in Chile), as well as all of her other novels (Eva Luna, Daughter of Fortune, Portrait in Sepia, and more), and autobiography, My Invented Country; http://www.isabelallende.com/
Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia
Under the Royal Palms, by Alma Flor Ada (a great read for teaching at the middle school level)
Eva Peron, by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, a much needed woman's perspective about Eva
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Comment by Kim Steutermann Rogers on March 9, 2010 at 7:13pm -
I'll add Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
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Comment by Toni D. Weymouth on March 9, 2010 at 12:11pm -
I like The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, the story about a woman in Eastern Europe in search of 15th century's Vlad the Impaler and the truth about his connection to her family's past.
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Comment by Kira Gould on March 9, 2010 at 9:57am -
I recommend Wangari Maathai's memoir, Unbowed. And also work by Jill Ker Conway... and of course Vandana Shiva's critical works on food. This is all nonfiction.
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Comment by Ellen Maguire on March 8, 2010 at 9:00pm -
I recommend SWAMP ANGEL, by Canadian author Ethel Wilson (first published in 1954). (http://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Angel-New-Canadian-Library/dp/0771089589). The novel is set in British Columbia and follows Maggie Lloyd, who leaves Vancouver - and a lousy second marriage - to work in a fishing lodge.
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Comment by Ramola D on March 8, 2010 at 8:48pm -
This is fabulous--I have to run out and buy/borrow/steal all these books now! I'd recommend The Time of the Doves, by Merce Rodoreda--exquisite writing, story, narrative--set during the Spanish Civil War by a Catalan writer; Sandra Cisneros introduced me to this book, she said in her interview with me some years ago this was one of the books she could return to, to re-center or situate herself; it's become that for me too.
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Comment by Jacki Zehner on March 8, 2010 at 8:36pm
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I agree with the last comment! Kamy how about a resource section of some sorts that can capture lists like these. You all rock!
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