 I read bell hooks’s Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981), with audiobook narration by Adenrele Ojo.
When I was an undergraduate, we learned that the first wave of feminism (focused on women’s suffrage) and the second wave of feminism (focused on women’s liberation) served middle and upper class white women to the exclusion of others. By the time I came along as a Women’s Studies major in the early 2000s, the curriculum had a strong focus on inclusivity. Those gains are due in no small part to hooks. Though the term intersectionality wasn’t yet in the scholarly parlance, hooks anchored Ain’t I a Woman on the intersection of race and sex, with class and labor making frequent appearances. Three takeaways: One. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, like so many early feminists, was anti-slavery but not anti-racist. She wanted Black people free from chains on religious grounds, but she did not think of them as equals. I know we covered this when I was in college, but either they weren’t emphatic enough or I distorted the message. It would have been in character for me to tamp it down, to apologize for her (she meant well, she was doing the best she could for the time, etc.). Nope. Lady was a straight-up racist. Abolitionists can be racist. Two. The labor forces have changed so much, so quickly. I was born in the year hooks published the book, 1981. hooks devotes ample time to the idea of women in the workforce, because that was still one of the big social questions of the time. Yet it already seemed hopelessly outdated when I was growing up, the idea of women staying at home, expecting a man to provide for them. Capitalism was happy to assist with that social change. That sped things along. Laborers who earn less but control more of the household spending decisions? Let’s flood the workforce with them! Final takeaway: then, as now, our social movements cannot afford to exclude people’s needs. “Let’s fix patriarchy first, and then we’ll focus on sexism. Let’s solve poverty first, and then we’ll worry about accessibility.” No. We lift up everyone or we lift up no one.
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In 2023, I went into business as a fulltime editor. I worked on two dissertations, three scholarly monographs, and thirteen novels, none of which I’ll be discussing here. This \ post is about books I chose to read, not books I got paid to read. One unforeseen drawback to editing professionally: I have less enthusiasm for pleasure reading in my off time. I’m more likely to reach for music than audiobooks these days. But I still managed more than one book per week, and I would like to take the opportunity—I would like to take every opportunity—to mention that one of those books was War and Peace. Total books read: 78. That’s 60 books I chose to read, plus another 18 I edited or indexed professionally. For the rest of this post, we’re just going to focus on those 60. Age levels:
Books that were published in 2023: 6
Nonfiction: 20 Fiction: 40. That feels about right, a two-to-one fiction-to-nonfiction ratio. Genres: (as some books have more than one genre, total exceeds 60)
Fiction:
Miscellaneous:
Best books of the year:  A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders This is a collection of Russian short stories and literary criticism. Do you understand how hard it is for me to get people to read this book? It is so good though. So good. It is the all the joy of studying writers and stories with none of the Foucault.  The Address Book, Deirdre Mask
Here’s another hard sell: a nonfiction book about street addresses! It is captivating, though. Truly. I’ve never thought so much about street names or numbers or how that influences our lives. This is sociology + data nerdery. Also, important thing to note, people in England use filthy names for their streets. They just do not care. Best audiobook narrators: Roger Clark, The Searcher (Tana French). Tana French remains my favorite contemporary crime writer. This was my first time enjoying one of her novels as an audiobook. Clark does authentic Irish and American accents throughout. Frazer Douglas, Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller). The sensuality of this man’s voice needs a warning label. Various: A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (George Saunders). Saunders narrates the literary criticism part of this book, but the stories themselves are read by various actors:
Themes:
K. J. Parker: Is he still the best? I will never stop banging this drum. Tom Holt is always terrific and so is his pseudonym, K. J. Parker. Honorable mentions:
All the books I read, sorted by genre: Nonfiction Business Cather, Karin and Dick Margulis. The Paper It's Written On, 2018 Fishman, Stephen. Deduct It! Lower Your Small Business Taxes, 2023 Pakroo, Peri H. The Small Business Start-Up Kit, 2018 Grammar and editing Dreyer, Benjamin. Dreyer's English, 2019 Harnby, Louise. Business Planning for Editorial Freelancers, 2013 Saller, Carol Fisher. The Subversive Copyeditor, 2016 Health and wellness Albright, Mary Beth. Eat and Flourish, 2022 Murthy, Vivek. Together, 2020 History Burton-Hill, Clemency. Year of Wonder, 2017 Cleves, Rachel Hope. Charity and Sylvia, 2014 De Madariaga, Isabel. Politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia, 1998 Figes, Orlando. The Story of Russia, 2022 Hartnett, Lynne Ann. Understanding Russia, 2018 Kytle, Ethan J. and Blain Roberts. Denmark Vesey's Garden, 2018 Rosslyn, Wendy. Women and Gender in 18th-Century Russia, 2003 Sexton, Jared Yates. The Midnight Kingdom, 2023 Twitty, Michael W. The Cooking Gene, 2018 Literary criticism Saunders, George. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, 2021 Meditation Nhất Hạnh, Thích. The Miracle of Mindfulness, 1975 Selassie, Sebene. You Belong, 2020 Social science Gottschall, Jonathan. The Storytelling Animal, 2012 Mask, Deirdre. The Address Book, 2020 Perry, Benjamin. Cry, Baby, 2023 Fiction Crime Braithwaite, Oyinkan. My Sister, the Serial Killer, 2018 Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926 French, Tana. The Searcher, 2020 Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills, 1996 Tudor, C. J. The Chalk Man, 2018 Winters, Ben H. The Last Policeman, 2012 Fantasy Abercrombie, Joe. Half a King, 2014 Abercrombie, Joe. Half a War, 2015 Abercrombie, Joe. Half a World, 2015 Klune, T. J. Under the Whispering Door, 2021 Lee, Thomas D. Perilous Times, 2023 Nix, Garth. Sabriel, 1994 Vo, Nghi. The Empress of Salt and Fortune, 2020 Vo, Nghi. Into the Riverlands, 2022 Vo, Nghi. Mammoths at the Gates, 2023 Vo, Nghi. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, 2020 Weeks, Brent. Beyond the Shadows, 2008 Weeks, Brent. Shadow's Edge, 2008 Weeks, Brent. The Way of Shadows, 2008 Folk tales Afanasyev, Alexander Nikolaievitch. Russian Folk Tales, 1980 Horror Barron, Laird. The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, 2018 Bradbury, Ray. The Halloween Tree, 1972 Literary fiction Backman, Fredrik. A Man Called Ove, 2019 Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958 Coupland, Douglas. Life After God, 1994 Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers, 1836 Haynes, Natalie. Stone Blind, 2022 Miller, Madeline. Song of Achilles, 2011 Tolstoy, Lev. War and Peace, 1867 Science fiction Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979 Banks, Iain M. Consider Phlebas, 1987 Delaney, Samuel R. Babel-17, 1966 Holt, Tom. When It's a Jar, 2013 Le Guin, Ursula K. The Lathe of Heaven, 1971 North, Claire. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 2014 O'Brien, Robert C. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, 1971 Wells, Martha. System Collapse, 2023 |
Book talks
When Covid first hit, I started doing book talks on social media as a way to keep in touch with people. I never got out of the habit. I don't discuss books by my clients, and if I don't like a book, I won't discuss it at all. While I will sometimes focus on craft or offer gentle critical perspectives, as a matter of professional courtesy, I don't trash writers. Unless they're dead. Then the gloves come off. Archives
March 2024
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