Reflecting on last month’s celebration of Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day, I looked through my bookshelves at some of the books written by women about women. I fingered the spines of a few and flipped through the pages of others. Each title evoked a memory, a lesson learned, an inspiration received; a few elicited a tear.
This month, I’d like to share with you a few of the books that have moved, inspired, and touched my life. They are the voices of fellow-women across the globe; sisters, friends, women.
African American
To Be Young Gifted and Black – Lorraine Hansberry, Signet, 1970 ISBN 0-451-15952-7. Best known for her play, A Raisin in the Sun, this is her autobiography of the black experience in mid- 20th century America.
Taking the Arrow out of the Heart – Alice Walker, Ink Atria 2018, ISBN 978-1-5011-7952-5.
Author’s poems in Spanish and English. (especially her poem, Hope is a woman who has lost her fear on page 159).
Native American
Sister Nations: Native Voices, ed. Heid E. Erdrich & Laura Tohe, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002 ISBN 0-87351-428-9. Anthology of Native American Women writers.
The Ways of My Grandmothers – Beverly Hungry Wolf, Quill Press, 1982 ISBN-978-0-688-00471-2. A tribute to the women of the Blackfoot Indians.
American
First Ladies of the Republic – Jeanne E. Abrams, NYU Press, 2018 ISBN: 978-147-988-6531.
The experience of the White House and politics from the perspective of the wives of the first three American Presidents.
China
Women of the Silk – Gail Tsukiyama. St. Martin’s Press, 1991 ISBN: 0-312-064-659.
Silk workers in 1926 Chinese village; their hopes, dreams, and struggles.
Cuban-American
Everything I kept/Todo Lo Que Guarde – Ruth Behar. Swan Isle Press, 2018. ISBN: 97809972-28724. Bi-lingual Spanish/English edition.
Poems of womanhood, fear, surrender, and life.
Dominican Republic
In The Time of The Butterflies – Julia Alvarez, Algonquin books, 2010. ISBN: 978-1565129764.
The story of the Mirabal sisters and their fight against the dictator Trujillo.
Japan
The Strangeness of Beauty: A Novel – Lydia Yuri Minatoya. Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0-393-321140-1.
A woman returns to the home of her estranged mother in Japan on the verge of World War II.
To Live and To Write: Selections by Japanese Women Writers 1913-1938 – ed. Yukiko Tanaka. The Seal Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-931188-43-1.
Nine leading women writers of Japan spanning twenty-five years and their emerging voices on feminist consciousness.
Israel
In Her Own Voice: An Illuminated Book of Prayers – Enya Tamar Keshet. Maggid Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-965-526-036-6.
The voices of Jewish women and their prayers and longings from birth through death. The art work is stunning.
Poland
On the Niemen – Eliza Orzeszkowa. ISBN: 978-09-888-59296.
A woman’s story of abandonment, impoverishment, social justice, the effects of war and the emancipation of women. In the 1900s, the author was a top contender with Leo Tolstoy for the Nobel Prize. Neither won.
I can never have too many books; always room for 1, 2,3, or more…. So, what are some titles that are special to you?
See you next time on May 22nd!
Veronica Jorge
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Below is an excerpt from one of our 2024 mentees, Veronica Jorge, from her project, Crushed Like Sugarcane, based on her Chinese ancestor, Zhou Zhijian, who left China to work in the sugarcane fields of Cuba where he was enslaved. In this portion, newly arrived and unwilling to accept the situation, he decides to escape:
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The painter stares at the canvas waiting for an image to appear. Patiently, he waits until a faint imprint of a landscape or a face emerges. He then grabs a brush and dabs it into the paint on his palette, making haste to reach the canvas with his brush to capture the image.
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I can’t think of a better way to welcome Spring and celebrate Earth Day than with a new book, especially one about nature and the earth, and following after Women’s History Month.
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For centuries and throughout the entire world women have made valuable contributions in the arts, sciences, culture, academics, politics, the armed forces, etc. Too many women and too many areas to name without slighting any one person, field or region. Every March during Women’s History Month we commemorate their achievements.
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Don’t be fooled by the title. This is not a book about morality or religion. Far from it. It’s all about….MURDER.
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