Women

Mama Ruby

2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Women /

I picked Mama Ruby from the shelf at the library because I thought it looked interesting. I didn’t think I’d get to read it because I’m so far behind on my stacks – but TW said it was good so I decided to deviate from my plan and read it.

It was… ok.

I’ve never read The Upper Room, which this was a prequel to. Maybe I’d have liked Mama Ruby better if I’d read it and been wondering about the history of the characters in that? I don’t know. I just didn’t find myself liking any of the characters.  

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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

A couple of months ago, I was flipping through Michelle’s Bitch magazine and you won’t be surprised to hear that there were several book reviews that caught my eye. The book I had to reserve right then was The Blue Tattoo. The cover, with a picture of Olive Oatman is fabulous. And, since captivity stories have never been my thing, I didn’t know anything about Olive – the Oatman massacre only barely registered as being one of those covered wagons traveling west things gone very, very wrong.

I’m glad I read this. It was super interesting – I just Olive had told us more and had been able to tell us more of her story, without being influenced by men (and society?)  Fascinating. I cannot imagine what that would have been like – not just the massacre or even living with the Mohave for five years, but the re-entry. That… that might have been worse than all of it put together.

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The Twelfth Enchantment

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

It took me days and days and days to read The Twelfth Enchantment, which is weird since it’s written by the author of The Coffee Trader and Conspiracy of Paper (both books I really enjoyed.)  I was just too busy and too exhausted to read more than a couple of chapters each night – until last night when I was 100 pages from finishing and just couldn’t put it down until I found out how Lucy managed in the end.  (That’s how I would normally have read this book, had it been a more normal week. This is a great book to read straight through…)

(Oh – one other weird thing might have kept me from being able to read this book quickly… I’m reading another paranormal type of book on my iPhone while waiting in the car for kid pick up or waiting for a phone meeting to start… and we’re listening to a paranormal type of book on audio while we’re driving. The three sometimes blended together and I found myself mixing up monsters or supporting characters and having to stop and think about which book I was actually reading, lol. I don’t recommend reading three paranormal books at the same darn time.)

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Normal Gets You Nowhere

2011, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

Michelle-belle is a big Kelly Cutrone fan. I can take her or leave her. I mean, she’s ok –  smart, strong, talented. I like that. I just find her a little… much. I’m a fan of “freaks” and normal can be so boring – unless you’re part of a family full of freaks which means normal IS freaky. Heh.

The most interesting thing about Normal Gets You Nowhere is that it caused me to think of some really weird things like… how come there are no male supermodels? (patriarchy, duh) And just how do you define “supermodel”?  (I spent a lot of time reading about supermodels last night just because of of Kelly Cutrone.)  Also, might I suggest Kelly Cutrone check out Scarleteen for future reference or when a waiter’s daughter asks her how to give a handjob.

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Rereading Women

2011, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Women /

I picked up Rereading Women because I thought Michelle might find it interesting. She did but she didn’t read every essay and now that I’ve been reading it for a couple of days, I see way. Feminist theory – oy. Interesting stuff but it can be pretty dry. The first and last essays in the book were the best or maybe I was just more enthusiastic about the specific topics covered in those two? (Collaboration and becoming feminists and mother rites.)

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The Kitchen Daughter

2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Women /

The Kitchen Daughter is about a young woman with Aspergers. She lived with her parents … until they died in a freak accident while on vacation. She’s left with a younger sister who doesn’t think she can live on her own… no friends… no job… she just cooks and when she cooks, sometimes ghosts come to visit. Real ghosts. I mean as real as ghosts can be?  You know what I mean, right?

It’s a good book – I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at first, but I definitely did. I even liked the ending. And the cover is fabulous.

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Bitter Bitch

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Feminism, Fiction, Women /

Who could pass up a book titled Bitter Bitch? Not me, that’s for sure – maybe because I am one? And I have good reason to be – so do you. So does the main character – a Swedish woman who rants about the patriarchy more than anyone I’ve ever read.

The book doesn’t always read like a novel – it reads more like a feminist rant that you might find on… well a blog. Or in a women’s studies class. It’s got just enough of novel in it that it doesn’t read like a textbook and that makes it just about perfect for anyone who feels like a good bitter bitch session about the patriarchy.

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Slow Love

2011, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction, Women /

I was looking forward to reading Slow Love because I was interested in what happened to Dominique Browning after Conde Naste closed Home & Garden — but the book didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

I can’t decide whether it was my expectations that were the problem or the book itself.

I expected to find, if not inspiration, at least something significant to think about and I didn’t get either of those things. Instead, I found myself wondering why I was reading a book about a smart, powerful woman wallowing around for a year after a job loss. Why I was reading a book about a smart, powerful woman in a really bad relationship that she didn’t seem to realize (or care?) was bad.

There just wasn’t anything inspiring for me. Sleep all day – no. Sell a house in the NYC suburbs and move to a second house in Rhode Island – no. Bake cookies and muffins – no. Pine away over a relationship that was never going to work out – no. The whole idea of “Slow Love”, which Browning does a good job of talking about on her blog (which I love, by the way), never really came through for me.

If I step back and think about it more as memoir and less as inspirational memoir, I like the book better – so maybe it was my expectations and not the book, after all?

Read more about Slow Love in the BlogHer Book Club and join the Slow Love discussions.

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Sisterhood Everlasting (The Final Book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series)

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I cannot write about Sisterhood Everlasting without giving away spoilers – thankfully, Sassymonkey created a Sisterhood Everlasting spoiler thread on BlogHer.com. If you want to hear me rant, click over to that discussion.

I just cannot believe that this is the book Brashares gave us.

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