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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

March Is National Women's History Month

How about reading and reporting back on works written by women that focus on strong, complex, memorable women?

Tell us what you intend to read. Feel free to share what inspires you to read the work and afterwards tell us what you thought about the work. Don't feel limited to fiction; poetry, plays and non-fiction are solid options as well.

8 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

I've recently read Margaret Attwood's Penelopiad, her reworking of the Odyssey from Penelope's point of view. Well worth reading. I also would recommend Marlen Haushofer's novel The Wall for a strong female lead role. One of the best books I've read. Coming up soon for me is Bernadine Evariste's The Emperors Babe, which I'm hoping features a strong female lead!

susan said...

Hi CGP,
Would you tell us something about The Wall and the lead character? What impresses you with Atwood's Penelopiad?

Anonymous said...

If you write poetry at all feel free to post some of your work on my site for others to view and comment on. My link for my site is off of my blog. Peace

signifyinguyana said...

I confess (missed confession Tuesday, but for me any day's a good day to confess), I didn't remember Women's history month until I peeked in at you here.

As a result, I've added BUXTON SPICE by Oonya Kempadoo to my reading list for the month. As always, my choice is influenced by her nationality (she is Guyanese by birth) and by my desire to see what Guyanese writers have to say that can be included in larger literary discourses.

I'll tell you what I think of her later. (Thanks for the reminder.)

Crafty Green Poet said...

HI Susan - The Wall focuses on a woman who is on holiday in the Alps, then wakes up one day to find there is a glass wall separating her from the rest of the world. She's alone with only a cow, a cat and a dog. its a novel about self sufficiency more than anything. Slightly Kafkaesque in its imagining, wonderfully written.

The Penelopiad, I enjoyed because Penelope was a very well realised character, and the whole was delivered with a great sense of humour as well as a lot of insight.

This time I'm going to tick the box to receive follow on comments by email. Sorry, i usually forget to do that and then leave you hanging for days before I get back to your questions...

Anonymous said...

I'm reading Mayra Montero's Dancing to Almendra. I'm amazed at this writer's ability to portray a male character as the protagonist, as well as the macho world of journalism in pre-Castro Cuba, and the world of Mafia bosses in New York. What an imagination.

The protagonist also has an affair with a woman who lost her arm in a freak circus act when she was being sawed in half.

Montero has mastered the device of telling a story within a story. Plus, she's an amazingly prolific writer.

susan said...

Crafty, I'm like you. I forget to check off the response box, too. Thanks Christine for the post. Might check that out.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I've now read Bernadine Evaristo's Emperoro's Babe which is a novel in verse form that follows the life of a young woman in Roman times as she has an affair with the Roman Emperor. She's a very well drawn character, sassy and feisty, creative and entertaining. Where the novel falls down is in the quality of the poetry