Biblio File

Women in Print: A Reading List from Open Book Night by Elizabeth Waters, AskNYPLApril 1, 2016

At our March Open Book Night readers recommended a wide variety of books by favorite women authors, from contemporary fiction to older favorites, even questioning the authorship of a great classic of Western literature. We also gained some insight into authentic 1950s American cooking thanks to one reader’s research in NYPL’s extensive cookbook collection. Open Book Night meets at the Mid-Manhattan Library on the second Friday evening of the month from 6 to 7. We’d love to hear your book recommendations in person next Friday, April 8! And please feel free to add your suggestions to this reading list in the comments section below. 

A Reading List from Open Book Night

Our first reader couldn’t praise Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie enough. She found this novel about a Nigerian immigrant in the United States to be very tender, and also funny as it described her struggles and resilience. She was especially struck by the character’s experience of being seen as different because of her race for the first time. An immigrant herself, Rosa felt she learned a great deal about the experiences of another group of people. Americanah won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

Our next reader recommended a classic, The Good Earth, written by Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck in 1931. She suggested revisiting this multi-generational saga set in early 20th century China since many American students were assigned to read it in school at an age when they could not fully appreciate the book. As Buck was the daughter of American missionaries who grew up in China, this reader also mentioned the importance of reading Chinese fiction written by Chinese authors to get a different perspective. As it happens, a reader from China who came to Open Book Night last month highly recommended the historical epics of Geling Yan, a very popular author in China.

A Reading List from Open Book Night

Was The Odyssey really written by a woman? One of our readers strongly believes this must be the case. He is not the first to suggest this. In 1897 Samuel Butler published The Authoress of the Odyssey, which argued that the text attributed to Homer was in fact written by a woman in Sicily. Our reader suggested that the gods of the Odyssey are not the warlike gods of the Illiad, its women are portrayed as stronger characters, and he was sure that the character of the faithful Odysseus could never have been conjured up by a man.

In an article in the online journal Classics@, Mary Ebbot examines Butler’s Authoress of the Odyssey: Gendered Readings of Homer, Then and Now.  Historian Adam Nicolson, the author of Why Homer Matters, explained his belief that an entire culture, not a single individual wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey in an interview in National Geographic last year. I’m not qualified to weigh in on the Homer authorship question, but this seems a good moment to also recommend Margaret Atwood’s hilarious retelling of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective, The Penelopiad.

A Reading List from Open Book Night

From fiction and epic poetry we moved to memoir. Our next reader shared a book he found to be inspirational, Singing Lessons: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Hope, and Healing by Judy Collins, published in 1998. The singer describes many areas and periods of her life in the book, but the parts that touched Cecil most were those where Collins deals with her son’s suicide. He was struck by how preparing for concerts and performing ultimately acted as a form of therapy for her and brought her out of a severe depression. Judy Collins’s more recent memoir is available to borrow from the Library, as are many of her albums. You could also download a few songs from Freegal Music.

Our next reader’s recommendation returned us to fiction set in ancient Rome, Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, originally published in French in 1951. Ana Maria wrote that “It’s a nice and funny history book about the famous Roman emperor. The writer makes you feel you’re in the ancient Roman Empire and how Hadrian feels about his experiences as emperor and as a person.” A prolific novelist and essayist, Marguerite Yourcenar was the first woman elected to the Académie Française. Writing in The New Yorker in 2005, Joan Acocella noted, "If you want to know what “ancient Roman” really means, in terms of war and religion and love and parties, read Memoirs of Hadrian."

From ancient Rome we went to futuristic fairy tales.  Melissa recommended Cinder, the first book in Marisa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles, which features a highly resourceful cyborg in a non-traditional retelling of Cinderella. She appreciates how the Lunar Chronicles revisit classic fairy tale heroines, endowing them with greater agency.  More retold and empowered Cinderellas can be found on this Ten YA Retellings of Cinderella booklist from Lilian Calix.

We discussed books and dinner with our next reader, who had recently read The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith with his book club. When it falls to him to host the dinner and discussion for the group once a year, Roger aims to create a menu that reflects the work to be discussed. He told us about a Sicilian menu he had created when they discussed The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa but said it was much more challenging to come up with a menu to match The Price of Salt. He noted any food or drink mentioned in his novel and then visited The Schwarzman Building to consult American cookbooks from the 1950s so that he could prepare and serve the roast beef, jellied vegetable ring, and other dishes as they would have been at the time. Our culinary reader mentioned that he found 1950s New York City to be an essential character in Highsmith’s story of the love affair between Therese, an aspiring designer, and Carol, a women separating from her husband. The 2015 film, Carol, was adapted from The Price of Salt.

Finally, I recommended The Signature of All Things, a gloriously sprawling novel by Elizabeth Gilbert, published in 2013. I was completely engrossed in the life of Alma Whittaker, a woman born into wealth in 1800, who becomes the world’s foremost expert on moss. Sounds gripping, I know but it is! Alma searches for the very mechanisms of life through botany, but must ultimately examine the engine of her own desires, exploring emotional and spiritual worlds as well as the physical one. I appreciated the extensive research Gilbert drew upon in rendering the 19th century scientific mind and botanical world as well as the wonderful array of supporting characters.

And now from botany to health... Is there a book that helped you to find creativity, to try a new food, or to start a new morning routine? Have you made a change to your life based on a book you read? Our theme for Open Book Night next week is FEELING HEALTHY. Come share a book that gives you positive energy on Friday, April 8! 

Upcoming Open Book Nights

Past Open Book Nights

Click to see the list of books discussed.

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