The election of our first woman president was a momentous occasion, and I decided to commemorate the milestone by reading a lot of books by female authors this year.
Oh, wait…
Turns out, we didn’t elect a woman president. (Well, WE did, but the Electoral College chose someone else, but that’s another story…) I’m not going to let that deter me, though; I’m still going to read a lot of books by women this year, including my first five, listed below.
My standard goal is to read 25 books in a year. I haven’t reached that goal lately, but I think I’m going to stretch it this year, and try to read 25 books BY WOMEN. In addition to a few by men. So I’m really challenging myself, but I’ve discovered that I can get through thrillers and mysteries pretty quickly, and there’s certainly no shortage of books in that genre by women I’d like to read, so I think it’s doable. And even if I don’t make it, I don’t think I’ll die trying.
Another thing about my reading lately: I normally try to alternate my books, one novel followed by one nonfiction. Lately, though, I’m finding the real world’s nonfiction—or maybe I should put that in quotes, like “nonfiction”—is a little too much to take, so I’ve been taking refuge in fiction. It’s been all novels so far this year, and that will probably continue for at least the next couple of books. I did get a couple of enticing (and male-written) nonfiction books for Christmas, though, so both of these trends will be broken at some point, probably later this spring.
In any case, here are my first five books of 2017:
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. This is actually a novella, I guess (but when you’re stretching your goals, novellas can count as books).
I chose to start off my feminist-reading year with this 100-year-old book by an author from St. Louis. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it did feel, well, a little dated.
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown. In addition to books written by women, another reading theme of mine, lately, is gay/lesbian books. As a straight guy, it’s an area I haven’t explored much in my reading, but I’ve been working on remedying that over the last six months or so. As is true of all of us, I have a lot of friends who are gay, almost certainly more than I realize. A couple of them have mentioned this book as a classic of lesbianism, so I hunted for it and found it through the library.
I enjoyed the book. It’s basically a coming-of-age story, starring a full-of-life protagonist who knows what she wants and generally ends up getting it.
Salvage The Bones by Jessmyn Ward. This one had been on my “want to read” list for a long time, mainly because it was a National Book Award winner about Hurricane Katrina, an event I remember vividly although I didn’t experience it personally. The book is about a poor family living in coastal Mississippi in the days leading up to and including the hurricane, a time during which the protagonist, a 14-year-old girl, learns she’s pregnant. The family tries to prepare for the coming storm, while she tries to keep her secret. The drama builds and by the time I was halfway through the book, I didn’t want to put it down. Fair warning: there is a fairly intense scene of dogfighting in the book which will certainly bother some readers.
The River At Night by Erica Ferencik. I’m not generally a reader of thrillers, but I was in the mood for a quick, intense read. So, while at the library dropping off Salvage The Bones, I took a look through the New Releases rack and found this one. I’m kind of a sucker for books (or movies or music) with bodies of water in the title, so it didn’t take long for me to decide it would be my next read. It was a good choice.
Four friends, all women, head to Maine for a whitewater adventure on an uncharted river. They have a guide who has run the river a few times before, but some of the women have doubts about him. Safe to say, their inexperience catches up with them, and they have to deal with a lot of unexpected hazards along the way. I found it very well-plotted and well-written, and I read it in about five days, which is extremely rare for me. I’ll be reading more in this genre this year.
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. This is this third book by Barbara Kingsolver that I’ve read. (Flight Behavior and The Poisonwood Bible were the first two.) I’m always impressed by her descriptions of nature; “place” is always a key element in her books, although maybe a little less so in this one than the other two. And I also love her ability to create unique, memorable characters. This was her first novel, but her voice was already well developed. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work.
*****
An interesting (for me, anyway) note: four of these five books came from the library. I’ve been a booster and a trustee of our local library for years, but, oddly, more often than not I end up buying books for my Kindle rather than checking them out of the library. Well, I’m making a conscious effort to use the library more, and saving some money in the process!
*****
Usually, at this point, I list five more books, my best guess at the next five I’ll be reading. Rather than go out on that particular limb, though (I don’t think I’ve ever gotten it right; inevitably, some other book strikes my fancy or suddenly becomes available or something), here are some books that I have my eyes on to read in the coming months. My next reads will certainly include some of these, probably not all:
The Woman In Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware.
In The Woods, by Tana French
Consenting Adult, by Laura Hobson
The Roundhouse, by Louise Erdrich
Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg
Illumination Night, by Alice Hoffman
Land of Enchantment, by Leigh Stein
*****
As always, if you’re interested in keeping up with what I read in real time—rather than waiting for me to write about it here in Shoulblog—you can friend me up on Goodreads. I’m always interested in recommendations for books to read.
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