500 Great Books By Women discussion

A placeholder for filling things in.

BINGO Completed 7/28/20: 25/25

B I N G O
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X X X X

B
1 1900s (year of publication) - The Squire - Enid Bagnold (completed 6/15/20)
2 sci fi - The Last Man - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (completed 2/24/20)
3 Latin America (author country of origin) - The Book of Lamentations - Rosario Castellanos (completed 4/24/20)
4 queer (theme/author) - Diving Into the Wreck - Adrienne Rich (completed 6/1/20)
5 potential classic (published after 1969) - Oreo - Fran Ross (completed 2/17/20)

I
1 translation (not from English) - Valentine - Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin (completed 5/26/20)
2 play - Wit - Margaret Edson (completed 7/28/20)
3 disability (theme/author) - The World I Live In - Helen Keller (completed 3/10/20)
4 pre-1800s (year of publication) - As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan - Lady Sarashina (completed 6/3/20)
5 novella (less than 200 pages (subject to change)) - Maria Zef - Paola Drigo (completed 4/10/20)

N
1 2000s (year of publication) - Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - Z.Z. Packer (completed 2/3/20)
2 long read (600+ pages) - East Lynne - Ellen Wood (completed 5/5/20)
3 free space - Zofloya - Charlotte Dacre (completed 2/10/20)
4 less than 1,000 ratings - The Shutter of Snow - Emily Holmes Coleman (completed 1/6/20)
5 fantasy - The Etched City - K.J. Bishop (completed 1/10/20)

G
1 1800s (year of publication) - Marcella - Mary Augusta Ward (completed 6/13/20)
2 nobel prize laureate (doesn't have to be for lit) - Selected Poems - Gabriela Mistral (completed 6/8/20)
3 Africa (author country of origin) - When Rain Clouds Gather - Bessie Head (completed 5/29/20)
4 fewer than 5,000 ratings - Sexual Politics - Kate Millett (completed 3/25/20)
5 mystery/thriller - Dark Places - Gillian Flynn (completed 2/20/20)

O
1 Less than 10,000 ratings - Near to the Wild Heart - Clarice Lispector (completed 4/8/20)
2 Asia (author country of origin) - The River Ki - Sawako Ariyoshi (completed 1/21/20)
3 poetry - Sonnets from the Portuguese - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (completed 3/23/20)
4 nonfiction - I Am the Most Interesting Book of All: The Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff, Vol. 1 - Marie Bashkirtseff (completed 5/27/20)
5 short story collection - A Haunted House and Other Short Stories - Virginia Woolf (completed 1/16/20)

I wish I could be more specific in more of these categories, but I have to see what the situation is like with my other 2020 reading challenges before I can do anything else here. And so I wait...

And I filled this in with classics bingo in mind so ideally I would only have to overlap 4-5 books to fill out a card there. My goal for that group is a card with only Women authors and hopefully it works out.

A very admirable goal, Brina. I'm actually gradually segueing back into reading books by white men for my own purposes (I've only delved into them for school assignments for the past few years), so I've made a stipulation that, if I have a fitting book from that demographic already on hand for a Bingo category and I'd have to go out of my way to procure something else, I'll go ahead and slot it in. It's high time I started clearing out that particular backlog anyway.

I see I’m not alone. My issue is that I read a lot of history and somehow the award winning books are mainly written by men. I try to compensate by mainly reading fiction by women of all colors but I have a few by white men that I’ve put aside as well for this reason. Hopefully, the three I have in mind will fit in a bingo category so I can use them.

Now that the rest of my challenges have been revealed, I can start committing to works here. Stay tuned.

I’ve never heard of Rosario Castellanos so I investigated. It seems like most Hispanics gave the book 3.5-4.5 stars whereas gringos and others outside of the US gave the book 2-3. I’m looking forward to your review so I can use it for future challenges.

Brina wrote: "I’ve never heard of Rosario Castellanos so I investigated. It seems like most Hispanics gave the book 3.5-4.5 stars whereas gringos and others outside of the US gave the book 2-3. I’m looking forwa..."

Good to hear, Brina. I came across her name in various esteemed places, so when a copy of this work showed up at a sale, I snatched it. If nothing else, it'll give me reading cred.

What’s surprising to me is that I read many Latin American women writers and her name never came up. Oh, and I found an 1870s book that should hold my interest.

Finalized my list for now (the free space will take care of itself). Now 2020 just needs to come.

I've completed N4 and posted my review above.

I've completed N5 and posted my review above.

I've completed O5 and posted my review above.

I've completed O2 and posted my review above.

I've finished N1 and linked to my review above.

Enjoyed your review, Aubrey--especially the non-objectiveness of it. (I get a better idea of what I'd think through those types of revelations.) I'll continue putting this off for now.

Kathleen wrote: "Enjoyed your review, Aubrey--especially the non-objectiveness of it. (I get a better idea of what I'd think through those types of revelations.) I'll continue putting this off for now."

Thanks, Kathleen. I suppose 'exhaustively explicated honesty' would be a better term for my objectivity. In any case, glad it helped.

Wow, you are a fast reader! XD Sorry to see that none have been amazing yet, at least for this challenge, but hopefully some of uour future reads will be! :)

Erin wrote: "Wow, you are a fast reader! XD Sorry to see that none have been amazing yet, at least for this challenge, but hopefully some of uour future reads will be! :)"

Ha ha, people keep saying I'm reading quickly despite Three Kingdoms bogging me down, so I suppose I'll have to start believing it. And yeah, the Woolf treated me nicely, but nothing magnificent so far. I still have a number of works to get to, though, so hopefully something satisfies my predilections by the end of the year.

Alas, Zofloya was not nearly as queer as I had first assumed, so I shall have to read something else for that (oh woe is me ;) ). I'll be moving the first work to my free space and put Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich in its place.

I've knocked out B5, N3, and G5 since my last post and have linked to my reviews above. I could get a bingo at this point with just one more work, but I don't want to resort to the shorter (or the longer, for that matter) works just yet.

Swapped out 'Beggars in Spain' for Shelley's 'The Last Man' to make things more a tad more efficient (TLM works for a lot more of my other reading challenges than does BiS).

I've finished B2 and linked to my review above.

I've finished I3, my first in that column, and linked to my review above.

Aubrey wrote: "I've finished I3, my first in that column, and linked to my review above."

Great progress and thank you for sharing your reviews! =D Having already read a biography and/or Helen Keller’s early autobiography long ago, I might have overlooked The World I Live In but I really love reading that gives me a different perspective!

Erin wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "I've finished I3, my first in that column, and linked to my review above."

Great progress and thank you for sharing your reviews! =D Having already read a biography and/or Helen Kel..."

Thank you to you as well, Erin. I do highly recommend it, as it really brings a frequently one-dimensionally portrayed historical woman figure to life.

I've finished G4 and linked to my review above.

First bingo on the last row! Huzzah!

Aubrey wrote: "First bingo on the last row! Huzzah!"

Congratulations! =)

Erin wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "First bingo on the last row! Huzzah!"

Congratulations! =)"

Thanks! And ha, only took filling sixty percent of the board to get there. Typical.

Two more bingos made and six more books to go, with three of them currently on the reading docket. A lot of the ones left are real shorties, so I'll probably have this finished up in June.

One work to go, and an extremely short one of that. I'd like to finish some longer works I have going for other challenges first, but I see myself finishing this up in early July. And then? Perhaps some planning of a mini event for Women in Translation Month is in order.

Great! Looking forward to the mini event.

Samy wrote: "Great! Looking forward to the mini event."

Thanks, Samy. It's probably going to be nothing more than setting up a group challenge and letting people pick how many books by women in translation they want to try to read, but I plan to set up a thread in the next few weeks so I can see people's plans.

I've started Wit by Margaret Edson for I2, my final Bingo slot.

Aubrey wrote: "I've started Wit by Margaret Edson for I2, my final Bingo slot."

And in finishing that, I've officially finished my Reading Women Bingo 2020 challenge. I hope everyone's gotten as much good reading out of this event as I have. Next up: Women in Translation Month 2020.

Aubrey wrote: "I've started Wit by Margaret Edson for I2, my final Bingo slot."

Congratulations on your blackout, Aubrey! =D

Erin wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "I've started Wit by Margaret Edson for I2, my final Bingo slot."

Congratulations on your blackout, Aubrey! =D"

Thanks Erin!

Congrats on completing this, and with so many intriguing books. Great work!

Kathleen wrote: "Congrats on completing this, and with so many intriguing books. Great work!"

Thanks Kathleen! I hope your own reading is going well.