Read Women discussion

✅1. Substitute 1. Published by a small press
✅2. Author is of African descent, living anywhere
3. Fairy Tales and/or Retellings
✅4. Speculative Fiction
✅5. In translation
✅6. LGBTQ+ Theme and/or Author
✅7. Author over 50
✅8. Substitute 2. 1001 BBYD
✅9. Nature and/or the Environment
✅10. Author is of indigenous descent
✅11. Neurodivergence - author, main character or subject matter
✅12. Author is of Asian descent, living anywhere
✅13. MENA - Author born in or resides in/story takes place predominately in a MENA country
✅14. Feminism or feminist perspective
✅15. Substitute 4. The Caribbean
16. Immigration/displacement (F or NF)
✅17. Author is a contributor to Margaret Busby Daughters of Africa
18. Memoir or biography
✅19. Monsters of any kind - Stalin, those living under the bed, fantastic, historical...
✅20. Ancient World – the subject can be a (real) heroine of the ancient world, or the novel takes place in ancient times, or the author is a woman writing about ancient history, culture etc.

1) A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid for prompt 17 (daughters of africa contributor)

2) Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch for prompt 10 - indigenous descent

3) The Madwoman of Serrano by Dina Salústio for prompt 5 - translation

4) The Raven's Children by Yulia Yakovleva 19 (monsters - Stalin)

5) Love Medicine for substitute 2 - BBYD

6) An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon for promot 6 - LGBTQIA

7) The Sentence by Louise Erdrich for prompt 7 - author over 50

8) Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson for prompt 4 - speculative fiction

9) When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo for substitute 4 - the carribean

10) The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson for prompt 9 the environment

11) Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi for prompt 13. MENA country

12) Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger for substitute 1. Small press

13) White Horse by Yan Ge for prompt 12. Author of Asian descent

I saw your 3* rating for White Horse. Any additional thoughts on what you liked, didn't like, deemed, "meh"...?

I am so impressed with your varied readings - and it's only April! May whatever conditions are allowing you to experience all of these continue throughout 2022.

What an interesting list you got here Hannah!

Thank you both. I have mixed feelings about white horse. There was good writing and I loved the illustrations but I feel like it only skimmed the surface. It raised some interesting issues but then moved on too quickly. Some more depth could have made it a really good book. It was a tiny pocket sized book with only 80ish pages which I didn't realise when I ordered it online. I feel I lost a lot of cultural references, the meaning of the white horse completely eluded me.

Hannah wrote: "Thank you both. I have mixed feelings about white horse. There was good writing and I loved the illustrations but I feel like it only skimmed the surface. It raised some interesting issues but then..."

This is really helpful, Hannah, and thanks for sharing it. Your comment resonates with me because I'm doing a better job of finishing shorter (under 160 pages) books than longer ones; however, the ever-present risk is the one you flag here - that an author will choose a topic that is simply too large to address at the right level of depth in so few words.

14) Galatea by Madeline Miller for prompt 20 - Ancient world

15) The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki for prompt 11 - neurodivergence

16) Dawn by Octavia E. Butler for prompt 2 - author of African descent

17) The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini for prompt 24 - feminist perspective