We have brains: books
we have brains for this week:
It’s officially summer and hopefully you’ve had a chance to lay outside with a good book. What’s your all time favorite feminist book (fiction/non)? Do you have a fave feminist character? Is she/he obviously feminist? Is it a character from childhood? If it’s not obvious why the book and/or character is feminist, tell us why you think they are feminist. How do you go about finding your feminist reading?
Once again I have to tout the Virago Modern Classics collection. Virago is publisher of books “by and about women” and they have been my best source of feminist fiction for the past 15+ years.
The Virago books were originally black paperbacks then were pine green and now are this kind of annoying tacky grass green. They publish women-authored books that are important either because of their literary influence, their political stance, or because they had an impact on popular thinking in their time. Through this fabulous series I’ve discovered amazing coming of age stories about girls, such as Antonia White’s amazing quartet, Saraband by Eliot Bliss, and Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book. I found authors that were to become favorites including Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress), Barbara Comyns, and E. H. Young.
I’ve gotten nearly all my green books from second-hand stores. I know that they’re still being published but I like finding them accidentally tucked in a bargain bin or hiding under a stack of bad romances. Many of them are now out of print but are worth checking out at your library.
wow…one more book item to look for in my used bookstore hunts! thanks.