literary hoohah
I was particularly excited to read this biography of Agrippina the Younger for a couple of reasons: I had only vaguely heard of her and was keen to know more about a real Roman woman, and I also pledged to support this book on its publisher's website. As you may know, Unbound is a crowd-funding… Continue reading Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon (2018)
I bought my copy of Jane Austen at Home while on holiday in Devon, when I ran out of reading material (first time in my life that I only packed one book, silly me). I ended up reading it mostly after the holiday, but starting it in picturesque Devon only added to my joy at… Continue reading Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley (2017)
I saw this book at a conference last year, and it sat on my reading list for months until I received it for my birthday in January. I was a bit apprehensive about reading it as I knew it wouldn't exactly be a light read, and the paperback is 429 pages (not counting the appendix,… Continue reading The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (2016)
Like most people, I am familiar with the term 'mansplaining'. I've also heard a fair bit of excitement about Rebecca Solnit as an interesting writer. Her essay Men Explain Things to Me is the origin of the term, something I only learned seeing the word in circulation - when it first became a thing there… Continue reading Men Explain Things to Me and Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit (2014)
I've read three of Shirley Jackson's novels, so it only felt right to try some of her short stories; and after all, The Lottery is heralded as one of the most brilliant (and controversial) in the genre. At first, some of these stories reminded me Truman Capote's with their edge of uncertainty and fear underlying… Continue reading The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson (1949)
I do indeed. Specifically for my feminism/women reading list. I have recently compiled reading lists of the books I most want to read out of the huge list I have on GoodReads, and realised that I actually don't have that many on feminism/women/gender. This is an area that I find fascinating and I feel like… Continue reading I Need Recommendations!
I recently read a book called The Undertaker’s Daughter. It is the memoir of a woman, Kate Mayfield, whose father was indeed an undertaker. She grew up in a ‘funeral home’, as they call them in the States, and was thought of for a long time as the daughter of the undertaker and not much else.… Continue reading More Than A Daughter: The Problem With Simplifying Women
2014 is officially The Year of Reading Women, thanks to the ReadWomen campaign (you can follow on Twitter here), and the growing disgruntlement among the reading community at the ratio of men to women winning literary awards and being featured in publications like the LRB. Gender has been an ongoing issue in the literary world… Continue reading Reading Women… And Men
