BOOKMARKS | spring 2008
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Shakespeare’s Wife
By Germaine Greer
(HarperCollins)
Feminist provocateur Greer challenges
history's tendency to hate the wives of
prominent men. Delving into Elizabethan
culture and literature, she paints a complex
portrait of Shakespeare's wife, Ann Hathaway,
suggesting that the Bard's willing his widow
his "second-best bed" may not have been
the insult it seems.
Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Like a singer who doesn't clutter the melody
with superfluous melismas, Lahiri tells
straightforward narratives rooted in her experience
as a Bengali American. These eight
pitch-perfect, not-so-short stories of various
familial relationships are both universal and revealing of modern Indian mores.
Standing Up to the Madness:
Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times
By Amy Goodman and David Goodman
(Hyperion)
"Democracy Now!" radio host Amy Goodman
and her investigative-journalist brother celebrate
ordinary people fighting for democracy
in post-9/11 America: librarians resisting the
PATRIOT Act, students rebelling against the
censorship of their play on Iraq and psychologists
pushing for a ban on torture.
I See Black People: The Rise and Fall
of African American-Owned Television
and Radio
By Kristal Brent Zook
(Nation Books)
Appalled that minorities, though a third of the
national population, own only 3 percent of TV
and radio stations, Zook interviewed the
handful of black media owners to find out how
the marginalized can take back the airwaves.
A Crime So Monstrous:
Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery
By E. Benjamin Skinner
(Free Press)
Journalist Skinner talked his way into slave
markets on five continents to meet some of
the estimated 27 million people worldwide
forced to work for no pay. He also takes us
inside the nascent U.S. abolitionist movement,
an uneasy alliance of evangelical
Christians and progressives.
It’s a Jungle Out There: The Feminist
Survival Guide to Politically Inhospitable Environments
By Amanda Marcotte
(Seal Press)
For any feminist ever at a loss for words,
Marcotte offers no-nonsense advice
on handling sexism with aplomb and deadly
humor, from confronting the pay gap
to defusing conservative relatives.
The Ten-Year Nap
By Meg Wolitzer
(Riverhead Books)
Four New York City professionals try to
redefine their lives after 10 years of "opting
out" of the workforce in favor of full-time
motherhood. Wolitzer's novel deftly explores
gender roles and stereotypes, turning a compassionate
lens on the choices women make
and the costs that must be paid.
Welcome to Shirley:
A Memoir from an Atomic Town
By Kelly McMasters
(PublicAffairs)
McMasters recalls both the delights of her
Long Island childhood and the unrelenting
toll of cancer and other diseases on local
families. In novelistic fashion, the author reveals
the probable, unforgivable cause:
Shirley was situated next door to a nuclear
reactor.
The Bishop’s Daughter: A Memoir
By Honor Moore
(W.W. Norton & Company)
Acclaimed poet Moore chronicles her father's
double life as an esteemed Episcopal bishop
and closeted bisexual, in what is ultimately
the story of father and daughter coming to
understand each other.
The Women’s Warrior Society
By Lois Beardslee
(University of Arizona Press)
The Native American women in these lyrical
vignettes have molded themselves into fierce
"she-wolves" as they stare down daily racism.
The Writing Circle
By Rozena Maart
(TSAR Publications)
Using rotating perspectives, Maart shows
how the women in a South African writing
group react when one of them is raped. As
they help her cope, they're forced
past boundaries of friendship to confront
apartheid and class.
The Year She Disappeared
By Ann Harleman
(University of Texas Press)
Novelist Harleman crafts a remarkable story
of a woman who takes her 4-year-old
granddaughter cross-country into a life of
hiding from a possibly sexually abusive father.
Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration
By Marcia Ann Gillespie, Rosa Johnson
Butler and Richard A. Long;
foreword by Oprah Winfrey
(Doubleday)
Honoring the 80th birthday of the "people's
poet," her friends and family -- including
former Ms. editor in chief Gillespie -- offer a biographical homage to this much-revered
woman. |
