Favorites, of sorts

Since this is my blog, and my way of expressing my thoughts, I thought I’d give myself the freedom to write about what I actually want to write about. Today that something is books. I’ve chosen my favourite books that are written by women who are accomplished in the fields that I feel I’d like to work in e.g. journalism and the entertainment industry.

I’ve already written a piece on literary canon vs. young adult literature and I’m not going to re-iterate my point any further than just saying that these books are ones that I have discovered within the past few years, and ones that I currently hold close to my heart, my “classics”. There’ll be no Harry Potter or Eragon on this list, as this is my attempt at introducing some of my favourites that are not totally guessable. I’m pretty sure me hyping the Harry Potter books on this blog would be like going around telling people the sky is blue. We are all aware they are good books, just like the sky is blue and grass is green. Now enjoy my self-indulgent descriptions of awesome words between covers.

How To Be a Woman – Caitlin Moran

Recommended to me by my essay supervisor in my second year of high school, this book has made me laugh out loud, which is impressive as usually I just sort of exhale through my nose at funny things. Part-memoir part-“funny advice about life”, which is a genre that is on this list more than once, this book is a delightful example of using humour to bring forward issues that women face as they grow up from childhood to being women. With chapters like “I Don’t Know What to Call My Breasts” and “I Encounter Some Sexism”, the balance of opinions and experiences is perfect, and it makes for an entertaining yet educating read.  You do not have to be a woman to read this book, but you do have to be ok with words like “vagina” and “period”. All of you “ew tampon”-folk might have to skip this one, as Caitlin does not tiptoe around the issues.

Favourite quote: “You can tell whether some misogynistic societal pressure is being exerted on women by calmly enquiring, ‘And are the men doing this, as well?’ If they aren’t, chances are you’re dealing with what we strident feminists refer to as ‘some total fucking bullshit’.”

Bad Feminist – Roxane Gay

A book my brother, who told me he just searched “feminism” on amazon and picked the book at the top of the list, gave me for Christmas last year, Bad Feminist is a collection of essays that has challenged me. Roxane is neither white, nor thin, nor straight, which meant that the variety of her writings included pieces on race, and LGBT issues, which I greatly enjoyed. I try my best not to be a “white feminist” and this book was perfect for learning while enjoying the experience of being educated by someone who actually knows what they are talking about, and has personal experience. Bad Feminist contains sections on Gender & Sexuality, Race & Entertainment, as well as a separate section on Politics, Gender & Race. Despite how boring it may sound, her pieces are actually quite funny. A lot of the content is relatable even to someone like me who is at least ten years younger than the author. Roxane touches on movies like The Hunger Games & Django Unchained, misogyny in the music industry a la Robin Thicke & Chris Brown, and her semi-competitive Scrabble hobby. Honestly this book is both delightful and hard to read at times, as I recognized some of my own past mistakes while reading it. Would recommend to anyone who can say the word “feminist” without rolling their eyes,laughing, fake-gagging or making some other joke out of it.

Favourite quote: “Its hard not to feel humourless, as a woman and as a feminist, to recognize misogyny in its many forms, and know you’re not imagining things. Its hard to be told to lighten up because if you lighten up any more you’re going to float the fuck away.”

Bossypants – Tina Fey

This book was something that was referenced on the back cover of How to Be a Woman, and seeing as I knew who Tina Fey was and enjoyed her writing and acting, I decided to buy it. This was a good decision. While Moran’s book was chock full of references to British life and jokes that you might not understand if you are not aware of particular things in the UK, Bossypants included some American things that I did search just to understand what she was talking about. Besides this though, the book was an absolute delight to read. Bossypants is more of a memoir than the previous two books, but still managed to make it hard to put it down. Fey’s rise to where she is now was inspiring to read, and her candid thoughts on things like fame and motherhood were honest, which made the entire book feel very genuine. A good read for anyone interested even mildly in knowing about Tina Fey or making it in comedy as a woman, I’d suggest this book as a plane/train/other kind of transport-book as it makes time fly by so fast you will be at your destination before you realize time has passed.

Favourite quote: “It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good. I don’t like Chinese food, but  I don’t write articles trying to prove it doesn’t exist.”

I hope some of you decide to take a look at any of these books, because I’d love for the joy they’ve given me to be passed on. Currently I’m reading Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, and The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer, though I’ve not gotten far enough in either to recommend them to anyone just yet.

I read online that intrusive thoughts could be seen as the annoying kid in the back of the class shouting bullshit at the teacher. My brain is telling me no one cares about my thoughts on anything really, but I’m going fight that. This is me telling the annoying kid to shut the hell up.

Becks