It’s that time again!
(I meant to post this yesterday, but ended up falling asleep in a nest of blankets on my kitchen floor instead. I may be ill.)
I didn’t finish all the books I had lined up for Spiritual Health month. Part of that is my fault: I kept adding interesting titles to my list and ended up with over 30 books. I have a problem.
In my defense, the Seattle Public Library refuses to relinquish titles I’ve been waiting on for a month. A MONTH.
While I waited for those books, I kept snagging titles from female authors, like a memoir about marriage by Ann Patchett and a book on pregnancy by Angela Garbes. One copy of Bossypants and several women’s history tomes later, my feminist books outnumbered my spiritual texts.
This month was GOING to be a education month; I took a different route and made this feminist/women’s issues/sisterhood month.
This month will be a bit weird for me, structure-wise: the last three months, I’ve had a strict action plan in place with charts and rewards. I’m keeping the reward bit (nice!) and otherwise focusing on writing lady-themed blog posts. I have a few in the works already.
As for books, this is what I’ll be reading:
- Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, & Rebels by Linda Skeers
Confession: there’s a very real possibility I won’t make it through this book. I checked out a similar tome last month and remembered part way through how much I hate history. Also, I’m happy for women in STEM, but not enough to READ about them!
So, again, I might abandon this book. But Linda Skeers went to the trouble of packaging women’s history with a pretty cover and cutesy illustrations. I might as well TRY. - A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master” by Rachel Held Evans
This book worries me the most because of all the surrounding *ghost voice* COOOOON-TRO-VER-SYYYYYY.
And, quite honestly, I might not be able to read this one. The Seattle Public Library has only one copy and it’s “damaged.”
I am curious to see how Rachel copes with “biblical” mandates, though let me tell you I will NOT be calling anyone master. - The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs
I’ve been eyeing this book and its spear counterpart When Breath Becomes Air for a couple years now. I have a thing for grief memoirs. I watched Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” many a time in junior high. - This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
I’m now wondering if this title isn’t sarcastic. Or maybe Patchett is actually content with her union! Cool! Yes, please! - State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Elizabeth Gilbert has been talking up this book for YEARS and even included a magical anecdote about the story in Big Magic. I’ve been watching its price jump up and down on Amazon for two years now. It’s time to knock it off the list! - The Merry Spinster by [Daniel] Mallory Ortberg
I read Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties last month. I guess I’m not quite done with short-form horror stories. - Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own by Kate Bolick
All the single ladies, put your hands UP. I need this book because a year ago a friend e-mailed me an article that blamed independent single women for the decrease in married sex. SORRY FOR EXISTING. - Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner
I read Winner’s book Real Sex in college and loved her realistic take on sexuality. If Winner once navigated a crisis of faith, I want to know how she handled it. - It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool, Too) by Nora McInerny
I listen to Nora McInerny’s grief podcast almost daily. ADD HER TO THE LIST. - Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen
I’m reading this right now and so far love it. Petersen examines culture’s relationship with women who transgress social norms. She might be turning me into a Kardashian sympathizer. - Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear…and Why by Sadie Doyle
You should know by now I have a culture obsession. YOU MEAN UNSEEN FACTORS INFLUENCE OUR TREATMENT OF MEN AND WOMEN? Gimme more. I mean, less unfair treatment, but more analysis. - Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay
Gay’s essays on rape and rape culture make me so angry. HOW CAN PEOPLE JUSTIFY THIS CRIME? But they do and bad behaviors continue and women get hurt. Enough. Take ’em down, Roxane. - No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol
Woman finds herself still single at 40. Quite honestly, I expect this to happen to me. I would like to be prepared. - I Hate Everyone But You by Allison Raskin and Gaby Dunn
Real-life best friends Raskin and Dunn wrote a YA novel about the struggles of maintaining a close relationship in college. Writing a book like this is my dream and I like hearing from both of these women. I hope this book is good… - Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
I passed up an opportunity to buy this in favor of The Hate U Give (which I still haven’t read.) Solnit’s essays cover the inherent danger in the supposedly-innocent act of mansplaining. More ammunition, PLEASE. - All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft by Geraldine de Ruiter
I can’t stop reading travelogues. I wonder what this says about me. Also, de Ruiter goes into her complicated relationship with her parents. As a woman deepening her relationship with her parents, I CAN RELATE. - Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
The book I’m reading now (see #10) has a great chapter on why so many people hate Hillary Clinton. West expands on the idea of feminine transgression in her book. Having been told to “calm down” many a time, I can’t wait to see West eviscerate modern culture. - You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Princesses, Trainwrecks and Other Man-Made Women by Carina Chocano
You mean to tell me Chocano examines cultural touchstones and destroys labels? THOSE ARE MY TWO FAVORITE THINGS!! - How to Be Married: What I Learned from Real Women on Five Continents about Surviving My First (Really Hard) Year of Marriage by Jo Piazza
I picked this book for the same reason I checked out Angela Garbes’ pregnancy book on a whim. I hear both marriage and pregnancy spoken of as magical, whimsical journeys that gloss over the reality of the hardships both states place on the mind and body. Give me the facts, Jo, no matter how ugly they seem.
On the subject of books written by women, I’ve heard rumors that MAGGIE STIEFVATER IS WRITING A RONAN LYNCH SPIN-OFF TRILOGY. IS THIS TRUE!?!?
I have NO idea when it’ll be released, but I plan on reading that series as soon as it comes out.
THIS IS THE MONTH I HAVE PLANNED. I still have a LOT of spiritual tomes sitting on my To Be Read pile! We’ll see how it goes!
Narrative Paradise 
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