Here in Baja Sur, 'm in a women's book group--of one Mexican woman and the rest white gringas--where we read books by Latinas. This focus has been wonderful and edifying.
Yes. Reyna Grande’s historical novel about the Mexican-American War and her memoir about her parents leaving Mexico for “el otro lado.” And Silvia Vasquez-Lavado's memoir about being the first queer Peruvian woman to summit Mt. Everest.
I write about those books (and a few others) in 2 recent pieces on my Stack, one about recommended memoirs and one about fiction.
I've just checked my "to be read" pile and they are all women. And my bookshelves are about half and half now. Though I do think that has happened as I've got older. But I don't read enough non-white authors or LBGTQ+ writers so need to rectify that.
If I didn't know the author it would be the cover that drew me and I do think, again as I've got older, I don't like things that, from the cover, look as if they will be gory or bleak. Though a lot of what I read is bleak but the cover has drawn me in some how
I remember when my daughter studies English Lit is was mainly male writers. They did do the Brontës but a lot of what they explored was their father and brother's influences, how living on the York moors would have affected their writing. I've just recently read somewhere that the sisters went to London!!! Well that never came up in A level Lit!!!
I would say that 98% of what I read when I was in school was work by men and now, 98% of what I read is work by women ~ I can read the tea leaves of my Western education, but should I expand my current canon to
include more men? Maybe?
Still.
I read what I read because it moves me, and there aren't as many male authors that I've found that are making that cut.
Yes I think many women have read their fair quotient of men by the time they have left school. We could probably read only women now and it would still be balanced :)
I realized my bias when I avoided reading Kim Stanley Robinson's books for longer than I should have. I started to wonder why I was avoiding them and I realized that I didn't think a woman could or would write well on the subject (which is as absurd as it reads). I realized that I had some latent bias that I was barely conscious of, that was keeping me from reading women authors (at least in this genre). The irony here is that I was about 3/4s through "The Ministry of the Future" (a brilliant book, btw), when I realized that Kim Stanley Robinson is a male. I was foolish on so many fronts here that it is incredibly embarrassing and humbling.
A moral (there are many) from this story is that without examining our own biases or having someone like you point them out in this piece, you may never realize that you are carrying around latent biases even if you believe yourself to be an enlightened male, married to a brilliant female writer, it is easy to get things very, very, wrong.
I run an all male book group (it is intentionally all men because we are acutely aware of how rare male friendships are later in life...this might be the wrong decision but it is the decision we've made). We pick books more or less on topics we are interested in and more or less alternate between fiction and non-fiction. We haven't been intentional about author diversity at all and the topics we read about are traditionally male (monetary theory, cyber-humanism / consciousness, obscure wars, population growth in the pacific, etc.) so I was relatively pleased when I just checked that out of the 11 books we've read, we have read 4 books by women authors (36%). Obviously, this isn't great but considering the topics and the people selecting them, we have fairly good diversity.
Thank you for being the voice of our conscience. We will be adding more women and more people of color to our books.
James, I appreciate your honesty and self reflection so much. You are absolutely right that we all have unconscious biases and my hope with this piece was to nudge readers to maybe make them conscious. Your response is exactly that. I also love that you have a men's book group!! I'd love to hear about more of those. Thanks again for being so honest in your response.
Here in Baja Sur, 'm in a women's book group--of one Mexican woman and the rest white gringas--where we read books by Latinas. This focus has been wonderful and edifying.
I love that! Any that you have particularly loved?
Yes. Reyna Grande’s historical novel about the Mexican-American War and her memoir about her parents leaving Mexico for “el otro lado.” And Silvia Vasquez-Lavado's memoir about being the first queer Peruvian woman to summit Mt. Everest.
I write about those books (and a few others) in 2 recent pieces on my Stack, one about recommended memoirs and one about fiction.
Thanks so much for these generous recommendations and I look forward to reading your substack, Kate!
My pleasure. I’m a book pusher/cheerleader! I’m glad we’ve connected here.
I've just checked my "to be read" pile and they are all women. And my bookshelves are about half and half now. Though I do think that has happened as I've got older. But I don't read enough non-white authors or LBGTQ+ writers so need to rectify that.
If I didn't know the author it would be the cover that drew me and I do think, again as I've got older, I don't like things that, from the cover, look as if they will be gory or bleak. Though a lot of what I read is bleak but the cover has drawn me in some how
I remember when my daughter studies English Lit is was mainly male writers. They did do the Brontës but a lot of what they explored was their father and brother's influences, how living on the York moors would have affected their writing. I've just recently read somewhere that the sisters went to London!!! Well that never came up in A level Lit!!!
I love this reflection and realisation about where your reading could be broader and yes we are so influenced by covers!
Re English Lit, yes I messaged a friend that I went to school with and we couldn't think of one woman that we studied.
I would say that 98% of what I read when I was in school was work by men and now, 98% of what I read is work by women ~ I can read the tea leaves of my Western education, but should I expand my current canon to
include more men? Maybe?
Still.
I read what I read because it moves me, and there aren't as many male authors that I've found that are making that cut.
Yes I think many women have read their fair quotient of men by the time they have left school. We could probably read only women now and it would still be balanced :)
I realized my bias when I avoided reading Kim Stanley Robinson's books for longer than I should have. I started to wonder why I was avoiding them and I realized that I didn't think a woman could or would write well on the subject (which is as absurd as it reads). I realized that I had some latent bias that I was barely conscious of, that was keeping me from reading women authors (at least in this genre). The irony here is that I was about 3/4s through "The Ministry of the Future" (a brilliant book, btw), when I realized that Kim Stanley Robinson is a male. I was foolish on so many fronts here that it is incredibly embarrassing and humbling.
A moral (there are many) from this story is that without examining our own biases or having someone like you point them out in this piece, you may never realize that you are carrying around latent biases even if you believe yourself to be an enlightened male, married to a brilliant female writer, it is easy to get things very, very, wrong.
I run an all male book group (it is intentionally all men because we are acutely aware of how rare male friendships are later in life...this might be the wrong decision but it is the decision we've made). We pick books more or less on topics we are interested in and more or less alternate between fiction and non-fiction. We haven't been intentional about author diversity at all and the topics we read about are traditionally male (monetary theory, cyber-humanism / consciousness, obscure wars, population growth in the pacific, etc.) so I was relatively pleased when I just checked that out of the 11 books we've read, we have read 4 books by women authors (36%). Obviously, this isn't great but considering the topics and the people selecting them, we have fairly good diversity.
Thank you for being the voice of our conscience. We will be adding more women and more people of color to our books.
James, I appreciate your honesty and self reflection so much. You are absolutely right that we all have unconscious biases and my hope with this piece was to nudge readers to maybe make them conscious. Your response is exactly that. I also love that you have a men's book group!! I'd love to hear about more of those. Thanks again for being so honest in your response.
I recently started reading a book called Invisible Women that touches upon exactly what you're talking about - have you read it?
Yes, such an amazing book!