A journey to collect 500 20th century novels by women
Today is Veterans’ Day here in the U.S., and it certainly was an eventful one here. Brian was off work, since he’s a federal worker, but I had to go to work. He met me for lunch and was helpfully going to spend the afternoon re-framing a large poster I have of a Waterhouse painting. …
Hi there, friends in book-land. I do still have a blog, I promise! It’s just been, well, hibernating through the summer and fall. It would appear that buying your first house, moving, and adopting your first cat all take up a good deal of your time, and there’s not much left for blog-writing! But the …
Something funny happened to me when I was reading Ellen Glasgow’s Virginia. First of all, I think I’ve mentioned before on this blog that I don’t read summaries of books before I start them, so I try to go in with as little knowledge of the book as possible. So all I knew about this …
I was very intent using this blog post to continue my saga of going on and on about how wonderful Dorothy Canfield Fisher is, but then I took a road trip from Baltimore to Montgomery, AL (by way of the Florida coast) with my dad, and now all I want to talk about is Flannery …
Do I still remember how to write about books? I certainly hope I’m not too rusty. Especially because the book I want to write about is so, so dear to me now that I’ve finished it. And it’s the kind of book I really started this blog to discover – a novel written by a …
I had known, or at any rate was capable of knowing, that Toni Morrison was our greatest living writer prior to reading Paradise. But certainly I am not capable of denying it now. As I had mentioned before in my prior post, I had been dragging my feet about finishing the remaining Morrison books I …
I’ve been sitting around for days pondering what to say about Zora Neale Hurston’s debut, Jonah’s Gourd Vine. What to say about the beginning of a dazzling literary journey? What to say about this spectacular, clever, frustrating, hysterical, singular writer at the start of her career? I knew that Jonah’s Gourd Vine was partly autobiographical, …
Today is a special day on the calendar for women’s literature: it is both Toni’s Morrison’s and Audre Lorde’s birthday. This year, Ms. Morrison is celebrating her 88th. If Ms. Lorde were still with us, she would be turning 85. Both 20th century icons; while my women’s library focuses more on fiction and novels (Toni …
First of all, I hope wherever you are on this planet, you’re enjoying weather better than the revolting mix of sleet, freezing rain, and ice that the greater Baltimore region has been “enjoying” this week. Snow I’ll welcome, but nobody likes ice and freezing rain. The only good thing about such weather is that it …
Oh, Sybylla Melvyn! I adore you. You name is added my list of favorite literary young heroines, below Anne Shirley, Josephine March, and Elizabeth Bennett. My Brilliant Career, published in 1901 and written by Miles Franklin when she was, unbelievably, a teenager, is a perceptive coming-of-age tale partially set on Sybylla’s father’s austere dairy farm …
