Girls, girls, girls! I mean women.

Years ago I had a conversation with my brother-in-law. He said the most shocking thing that I have ever heard. We were in Halfprice books. He said, "I don't read women." He didn't read women authors. To this day the baldfaced openness of that statement astounds me. Now I don't know if that is still true of him, if he was being hyperbolic at the time, or if his attitude has changed, that's not important. What is important is that it was very freeing for me. I had been laboring to want to like women authors and failing. I could read the occasional Margaret Atwood book - if it was short. I read freely for about three years - mostly men - but since reading Mating, which was written by a man with a strong female narrator and point of view I've had a change of heart. The contrast of male writer and female narrator made me think very deeply about the sex of the authors I read. I have been missing a lot by not reading women. Since my conversation with my brother in law I've read few women and haven't made an effort to work women authors - or authors of any particular stripe - into my reading menu. Until now.

My goal for 2010 is to read only women authors. The whole year. Now I know you might be thinking that it's patronizing, and it is. But it's also going to be a fun experiment. My hope isn't to like every book that lands on my plate but rather to attempt to read women without the pressure of any one woman author standing in for all others. If I simply can't get into a book, there is always another waiting in the wings.

I will only complete books by women authors, but I am still free to read magazines and articles and whatever else comes along by who ever, of whatever sex, writes it. This doesn't apply to reference either, I'm still going to read Dr. Sears Baby Book (that it's a child-rearing guide written by a man is something I am not even going to try to unpack).


I like fiction. I'm not looking to read the best management books by women, for example, but even my non-fiction will be women. I do want to taste the some of the best books by women authors, but I'm not in any way interested in gender theory or women's studies or any other academic viewpoint of reading. I want to read classics and and also modern. I'd like to find living authors that I like. The best analogy would be to cuisine - I'd like to find a cuisine of women authors (please don't unpack that it's a consumption metaphor). Every cuisine has appetizers and entrees, desserts and snacks. This is what I'd like to uncover.

To kick off the new year I've started with Pat Barker's Regeneration. That's staying close to home for me - a modern British Booker winner - that's just what I look for.

The only requirements for the year are Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf. Northhanger Abby has been suggested and To the Lighthouse seems like a good one.

What else have I on my plate?

Banality of Evil
Little House on the Prairie
Queen Bees and Wannabes

Who's our Wodehouse?
Our Twain?
Our David Foster Wallace?

Any other thoughts?

What should I read that my daughters should read? YA recommends are fine but please leave your J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer at the door. I'm still an illiterate bougie snob.