500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide

Rating:
Summary: FOR ALL AVID READERS
Review: This is a must buy for all serious readers of women's works. Since PRINCESS was required reading in my high school class, its been my favorite book, and I was pleased to see that the contributors recognized the "can't put it down" greatness of this modern day story about a Saudi Arabian princess. Then I saw LITTLE WOMEN, a favorite book from my childhood... This book not only introduced me to authors I was unaware of, but verified my own favorites, LOUISA MAY ALCOTT and JEAN SASSON and MARY SHELLY. I'm checking them off one by one. I hope these writers provide us with a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: FOR ALL AVID READERS
Review: This is a must buy for all serious readers of women's works. Since PRINCESS was required reading in my high school class, its been my favorite book, and I was pleased to see that the contributors recognized the "can't put it down" greatness of this modern day story about a Saudi Arabian princess. Then I saw LITTLE WOMEN, a favorite book from my childhood... This book not only introduced me to authors I was unaware of, but verified my own favorites, LOUISA MAY ALCOTT and JEAN SASSON and MARY SHELLY. I'm checking them off one by one. I hope these writers provide us with a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Reference Book for Women Readers
Review: To truly appreciate this gem of a book, you must be female. It takes you on a journey through womens literature that is in print, so that you will know the great diversity available. While you may wonder why some titles are not there, you will also be trying to locate titles you have never heard of. Because women authors tend to get so little publicity for their work, hopefully this special book will become a classic reference guide for all women readers.

Rating:
Summary: Don't like mopping the screen with Barbie's Hairbrush
Review: [...]

Summaries served like appetizers for what might be a bookstore or library binge, you won't get lost or lose your interest because there are 7 indexes (listed in order of appearance); Index of titles, Authors, Date, Genre, Region and Country, About People of Color in the U.S., Lesbian and Gay People.

Not only that, the reader's guide is broken into themes like Art, Choices, Conflicting Cultures, Ethics, Families, Friendships and Interactions, Growing Old, Growing Up, Heritage, Identity, Imagined Worlds, Mothers and Mothering, Observations, Pioneers and Seekers, Places and Homes, Power, Trials and Adversity, Violence, Ways of Knowing, Wives, Lovers and Partners, and Work.

Descriptions never become monotonous because 30 contributors, in their unique writing styles, have given life to each literature synopsis. You can read the contributor's initial under any given synopsis and then look them up in the back of the reader's guide to learn more about them.

I like the way important historical details are revealed in context to the literature being described. My readers guide shows me that Radclyffe Hall self-published her book entitled "The Well of Loneliness" (1928) and sold 2,000 copies of her book in its first year of publication.

I could also tell right away from one particular description, that I would enjoy reading the non-fiction book entitled "Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution" (1993) in which the author, Edith T. Mirante "...exposes the United States government's donation of chemicals that eradicate opium poppies but also destroy the vegetation, pollute the rivers, and kill and injure the people." It sounds like now, instead of giving charity in the form of dollars, the U.S. is giving charity in the form of Agent Orange.

It sounds a lot like the Depleted Uranium that the U.S. has recently "donated" to Iraq. Meanwhile, I'm sure everyone is thinking, "Oh, how generous. You've overthrown a cruel dictator of a weak and impoverished country by dropping a bunch of radioactive waste that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years so that the Iraqi people can learn about freedom while they and everyone they know and love dies of cancer and families watch their children be born without limbs."

Naturally, being the political pundit that I am, I searched for more titles that could hydrate my cranial pool and found "Exile in the Promised Land" (1990), a memoir by Marcia Freedman. The description of her memoir enthralled me. The juxtaposition of personal details and political plight peaked my interest as I learned that Marcia, who had immigrated to Israel from the U.S. became an elected member of Knesset and a progressive voice for Palestinian autonomy. "Within four years she became a founding member of Israel's women's movement, fulfilling a need based on personal discoveries... `that anatomy need not be destiny; that anger is a rational response to oppression...'".


This book satisfies anyone who has a need for diversity. Not only do the titles featured within span the timeline (as early as 1300 A.D.) there are also plenty of titles that span borders like "On the Golden Porch" (1987), translated from Russian and "Distant View of a Minaret" (1983) translated from Arabic.

The only attribute I did wish for in the reader's guide while skimming titles was some sort of symbol that could have visually identified award winning books and authors. For example, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) by Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize. Question: How do I find other books within the guide that have won prizes? Answer: I flip through every page and skim line by line. They could have either created another index for award-winning books or noted the entry with some sort of symbol like a small, ¼ inch star.

With a tool like this, you can focus and grow your knowledge more affectively. For instance, if you want to learn about Chinese culture by reading literature you would have 8 titles to chose from, and while you're at it you might as well visit Australia (11 titles) and then hop on over to Mexico (7 titles) and so on, until you have gone through all 500 options available to you.

I wanted to buy Mom a gift. So, rather than mop the screen with Barbie's hairbrush on Amazon, I consulted my trusty reader's guide, �� Great Books by Women" and honed in on the Mothers and Mothering section; she loves to read about that stuff. And there it was, "A Mom's Life" (1991), a memoir by Kathryn Grody. Next, I ventured to Amazon to make a quick purchase. Now, what use to take an hour, because of my guide, only took 5 minutes.

That just goes to show you that this reader's guide does more than just fiction novels. Also, in addition to memoirs and fiction, it does non-fiction, journals, short story collections, essay collections, oral history, autobiography, biography, folk tales, even if it doesn't do windows.