November CATWoman: Feminist and LGBTQ Books

   
   

Welcome to the November CATWoman, where we'll be exploring feminist and LGBTQ literature!

A good place to start for fiction feminist books is the list of works published by Virago, who states that its mission is to "champion women's voices." You can peruse the entire list of Virago Modern Classics or see a list of LT members' favourite VMCs. Another publisher whose mission is similar to Virago's is Persephone and you can see a list of all books here.

Non-fiction books on feminism include:
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
I Call Myself A Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty edited by Victoria Pepe
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley

Some books by LGBTQ authors or about LGBTQ themes include:
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Non-fiction books by LGBTQ authors or with LGBTQ themes include:
Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Elizabeth Coyote
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Seriously … I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres

These books are just a sampling, to give you some ideas. There are a lot of other great books that fit this month's theme. Please share your suggestions with us!

Please record your selections on our Wiki page:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2017CC_CATWoman#November

I have two possibilities here, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and The Evolution of Ethan Poe (no touchstone) by Robin Reardon

>2 Robertgreaves: I really enjoyed Fun Home!

I came up with a few, the first one is the most likely for me next month:

Ripley's Game / Patricia Highsmith
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir / Liz Prince
Are You My Mother / Alison Bechdel

Funny that 2/3 for me are graphic novels!

I'm going to start with Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques, and if I have time later in the month go on to Moranthology by Caitlin Moran.

>2 Robertgreaves: >4 LibraryCin: >5 Jackie_K: Thanks for the suggestions!

>4 LibraryCin: Yes, there are a lot of good graphic novel options for this category!

I have so many on my TBR that will fit this category. Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening is near the top. I would like to read Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America a new publication of essays around today's issues. I also have several books by Jeanette Winterson and also Janet Mock, both LBGT+ authors. Hmmm, where to begin. First, finish October challenges, then there's the new granddaughter coming in a couple weeks that could derail (in a happy way) all of my November reading.

I'm excited about this month's theme. Will have to poke around my tbr for the right book or two.

I'm planning to read The Evening Chorus by lesbian writer Helen Humphreys. Other books by Humphreys that I've read The Lost Garden, Coventry and The Frozen Thames were excellent.

I've earmarked Moranifesto for this challenge. Hoping I'll have time to get to it this year! Time seems to be passing a lot more quickly for some reason.

According to a list on Goodreads, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is considered a feminist book. Right now, that's the one I'm planning on reading.

>11 LittleTaiko: While pedants will say its pre-feminist, it has a wonderfully drawn strong woman as the main character. It's a fantastic choice! (Can you tell it's one of my favorite books of all time?)

>7 beebeereads: You have some excellent options there! A new granddaughter is indeed a happy reason to have your reading derailed!

>9 VivienneR: Humphreys is a good suggestion. I'd read Coventry several years ago and liked it very much.

>10 rabbitprincess: Good choice. I hope you do find time for it this month and let us know how you like it.

>11 LittleTaiko: I agree with >12 RidgewayGirl: that this is a great choice. I'm happy to go with a broad definition of "feminist".

I am going to read Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman. I chose this from my shelves by checking the tags which read "feminest fiction", "gender studies", and "woman's literature".

Well, nuts. Since Stacy mentioned choosing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, all I want to do is reread that book.

I will probably read Harriet Martineau on Women by Harriet Martineau, edited by Gayle Graham Yates and possibly Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller (which I have tried to read in the past).

I'll try to finish Fun Home by Alison Bechtel. I've earmarked Laurie Penny for this topic as well. And there is also The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer on the shelf...

I just noticed that my copy of Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina, a member of Pussy Riot, would fit very nicely with this theme.

>18 RidgewayGirl: I've got that on my wishlist.

>14 DeltaQueen50: >16 sallylou61: >17 sushicat: >18 RidgewayGirl: Lots of great recommendations for me to browse through! I'm happy that this CATWoman category encompasses a good deal of non-fiction as well as fiction.

I've got two books checked out from the library that may fit this category: Roxanne Gay's Hunger: a memoir of my body and I was told to come alone: my journey behind the lines of jihad by Souad Mekhennet.

A bridge between October's AlphaKIT and this month's CATWoman is The Child's Child by Barbara Vine.

My review:

Grace Easton and her brother Andrew inherit their grandmother's house and decide to live there together, each taking half of the house. When Andrew's partner James Derain moves in with Andrew, Grace finds parallels and echoes in their situation with a book she is reading for a publisher friend -- a novel that was unpublishable when it was written in the 1950s due to its subject matter of the life of a gay man in the 1920s -- to see if it is good enough to publish now (2011).

This was Ruth Rendell's last book as Barbara Vine and although both the modern story and the book within the book carried me along quite nicely it didn't have the nail-biting suspense as doom approaches which I associate with her earlier work.

Another outstanding book by Helen Humphreys. This one rated 5 stars.

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys

Humphreys has taken three actual events from WWII and woven them into this tender story. What makes this exceptional is Humphreys' beautifully eloquent writing that doesn't have one expendable word. The nature stories, that Humphreys is so at ease with, combined with those of her human characters, somehow reflect life, not a fictionalized version of it. This is yet another way to tell a war story. Highly recommended.

>21 markon: Good choices. The one by Mekhennet looks especially interesting.

>22 Robertgreaves: Looks interesting. I don't think I've read any of Rendell's works as Barbara Vine, but I recently finished one of her Wexford novels that would also fit into this month's themes, as one of the themes is Wexford's daughter's interest in the Women's Liberation movement of the 60's.

>23 VivienneR: Nice review. Taking a BB for this one!

My first book for this challenge is The Break by Katherena Vermette. The story, which starts off with a violent assault and the police investigation associated with it, examines the relationships among the mostly female members of an Indigenous family in Manitoba, Canada. The novel looks at a number of First Nations issues but mostly at violence against women and the many challenges the victims face. I found this book, which was a Canada Reads selection this year, to be very well written. I would definitely recommend it!

Don't forget to add your books to our Wiki page:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2017CC_CATWoman#November

COMPLETD Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

My review:

A lesbian's memories of her father, who, she found out shortly before he died, was gay.

Not what I was expecting. The blurb gave me the impression that it would be more humorous and that there was some sort of mystery about her father's death (suicide or accident?), which would be solved. I found the characters' habit of interpreting everything through the prism of "The Great Gatsby" and "Ulysses" irritating more than enlightening. I came in with high hopes, but meh.

>27 Robertgreaves: Aw, that's too bad. I quite enjoyed the book when I read it a few months back.

Finished a book that I think would fit here - I'll Have What She's Having. It's about Nora Ephron and how with three great romantic comedies she was able to stake our her place in a predominately male world. If you're a fan of When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, or You've Got Mail then I would recommend this book to you mainly for the wonderful behind the scenes stories about the making of the movies. It's really a miracle that movies get made at all - such a convoluted process with way too many egos involved.

I'm about a third of the way through The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and really enjoying it.

Oh, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is on my Kindle awaiting me - maybe I will try to squeeze it in this month.

I have finished reading Harriet Martineau on Women edited by Gayle Graham Yates. An Englishwoman, Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) throughout her life wrote on "the woman question" which was the 19th century term for feminism. Ms. Yates wrote a general introduction on Ms. Martineau's life and views, and then provided examples of Ms. Martineau's writings under the categories of: women's equal rights, women's education, American women (Ms. Martineau spent two years touring America and then wrote about it with special reference to antislavery and women), portraits of women (Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Fuller, and Florence Nightingale plus women in hareems and women in Ireland), on economic, social, and political issues (including working women and women and divorce), and women's campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts of 1866 and 1869, which allowed police to arrest any woman they expected to be prostitutes. Ms. Yates wrote introductions to each section in which she explained the content and significant of the documents included in the section.

>27 Robertgreaves: That's too bad. I might try it sometime anyhow, as I enjoy graphic novels.

>29 LittleTaiko: "Too many egos involved" ... that sounds like some work environments I've encountered in the past! :) Anyhow, this seems like an interesting book.

>30 leslie.98: This is one I've been wanting to read too, but I don't think I'll be able to fit it in this month.

>31 sallylou61: An excellent choice for this month's theme! Thanks for the review.

I've posted the December CATwoman thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/275256.

I have just finished Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Shulman for this theme. Orignally published in 1972 this is a sardonic coming-of-age tale about a white, middle-class girl and was highly touted by the Women's Liberation Movement. Although a little dated, the book still resonates with readers today as a measuring stick that shows us how far we have come with woman's issues and yet, how far we still have to go.

Finished Redefining Realness I found her story powerful and interesting to read. I do not like to critique memoirs because it feels like a judgment of the person. I could not give high marks to the book because I felt her insights were stated and restated so many times. The points are well worth emphasizing but I feel like she gained my support from the beginning and I didn't need to be constantly convinced of how hard it is to be trans in this world. Her story speaks for itself. I would recommend to anyone trying to understand the struggle.

Ripley's Game / Patricia Highsmith
3.5 stars

This is the third book in the Tom Ripley series. At least at the start of the book, there is not much focus on Tom, himself. He manages to get involved in the life of a man, Jonathan, who has a disease and isn’t sure how long he is going to live. Jonathan is convinced to help murder someone… then is asked to do it again.

I think I liked this one better than the 2nd book (or what I remember of it!). To be honest, at least in the first half, I was bored when the focus was more on Tom’s life at home with his wife, Heloise, whom I find very boring. I have no interest in their lives. I found following Jonathan and his story much more interesting, and when Tom got more involved with Jonathan, that ramped up my interest. Part of the book was a little more edge-of-your-seat (or my seat, anyway!), I thought. But, I didn’t think the end was realistic… or, realism aside, it wasn’t in character (not Tom’s or Jonathan’s character, but Simone’s charater, Jonathan’s wife). So, overall, it was a “good” read for me.

I read Juliet Jacques' Trans: A Memoir for this month's theme. I liked how, despite the title, this wasn't just a straightforward memoir, but she also sites her story in the wider cultural context of debates in academia and the media around trans identity. I also found the sections where she talked about telling her parents she was intending to transition, and their growing acceptance, really moving.

Wish I would have thought to recommend this one at the start of the month:

Annabel / Kathleen Winter

>34 DeltaQueen50: Indeed, it's interesting to read feminist books from that period. We take so much for granted these days and forget the struggles from even a few decades ago.

>35 beebeereads: This sounds like an interesting book. I agree that people can misinterpret criticisms of the writing (as opposed to the author's story) in a memoir.

>36 LibraryCin: Nice review. I've been meaning to read the first book in this series for a long time.

>37 Jackie_K: Great choice for this month's theme. Thanks for the recommendation.

>38 LibraryCin: I really liked Annabel myself!

I'm currently reading Lynda Archer's Tears in the Grass, a nominee for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, about a First Nations woman searching for a daughter who had been taken away from her.

Just an FYI for this group. I listened to an excellent podcast this morning that might interest people learning about transgender issues.

http://www.smartestpersonintheroom.com/show-notes/

Look for Episode 27

I finished Summer by Edith Wharton who is a VMC author, however this is not a Virago Modern Classic. A beautifully written novella about a young woman adopted by a family living in a poor New England town, who has a love affair with an educated young man from the big city; you know it can't end well for her!

Finally finished Fun Home. Don’t know why this took me so long. In the aftermath of her father’s suicide (or accident), Bechdel revisits her memories of him, trying to make sense of their relationship, what role their sexuality had and what his death was all about.

I read Mary Renault's debut novel Purposes of love which is a VMC and also has a lesbian among the nurses.

>40 beebeereads: Thanks for the link. The episodes look interesting.

>41 LisaMorr: I have to confess I've never read any Wharton but I should remedy that. This one looks like a good one.

>42 sushicat: Graphic novels are usually quick reads but this one sounds like it deals with some pretty heavy subjects and not one to zip through.

>43 MissWatson: This must have been a very progressive book for its time!

I finished Tears in the Grass, mentioned in my earlier post, and thought it was quite good.

I also finished Lumberjanes, Volume 3: A Terrible Plan. Lumberjanes is a comic series about a group of girls at a summer camp that suffers from strange supernatural phenomena. It shows smart, strong and resourceful girls and also features LGBT characters.

>44 mathgirl40: It is written as if affairs between single women living in females-only environments were a normal thing. The way the nurses' training and work life are arranged are anything but progressive.

I probably won't finish it before the end of November, but I'm half way through Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things To Me and it's perfect for this theme. It's a series of essays, some of which she's added postscripts to to update from the year they were originally published. The first one (the Men Explain Things To Me essay that gives the collection its title) was originally written in 2008, she added the postscript in 2014 when the book was published, and oh man she could write a blistering post-postscript this year too.

Having read Harriet Martineau on Women by Martineau (1802-1876) an English feminist earlier this month, I have just finished reading Woman in the Nineteenth Century by Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), an early American feminist. Martineau and Fuller knew each other's works, and referred to each other in these writings. Woman in the Nineteenth Century is a book I have had since living in Michigan in the early 1980s; I had started it several times; this time I read the whole book. Unfortunately, this edition, published by Norton in 1971, lacked notes explaining the text (and fell apart as I read it). The company published a revised, annotated edition in 1997, which would have been much more meaningful to read. Fuller's account, which is an expansion of an article published in The Dial (a magazine) in 1843 is written as a long, long essay (179 p.) in 1844. It lacks chapters or any real breaks in the account; the topic is merely given on the top of all the odd numbered pages. Fuller writes about women's place in society in history as seen through various myths (gods and goddesses in ancient times) and written works, most of which were written by men. This is where annotations would be especially useful in describing who the people and characters she mentions are. She also writes about how women should go about trying to improve the position of women. She writes a lot about marriage; she emphasizes that men and women should be equal in marriage. "That is the very fault of marriage, and of the present relation between the sexes, that the woman does (in italics) belong to the man, instead of forming a whole with him." (p. 176). The book describes upper class women; very little mention is made of the lower classes.

>46 Jackie_K: The postscripts sound like an interesting addition. I wonder what some other authors of well-known feminist works would say about them today.

>47 sallylou61: Thanks for the excellent review. I applaud you for reading these very early feminist works, which do sound like they are challenging to read without annotations by knowledgeable historians.

Thanks, everyone, for participating in November's CATWoman challenge. I've enjoyed the conversations and got hit with a number of book bullets. Unfortunately, it looks like we're still unable to edit the Wiki but hopefully, we'll remember to add our books later, when it's functional again.

Even though the challenge is officially over, please feel free to continue posting your reviews and comments on this theme!

>48 mathgirl40: Unfortunately, it looks like we're still unable to edit the Wiki but hopefully, we'll remember to add our books later, when it's functional again.

I have kept a list of what books of mine need to be added to which wikis. Hopefully they'll be fixed soon!

>49 LibraryCin: Yes, let's hope that's the case. I've also kept a list of my books to add to the various Wiki pages.

It looks like we are back in business with the Wiki! If you still remember what you'd read in November, please add it to the Wiki here:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2017CC_CATWoman#November