Rebecca Traister delves into the history of women’s anger and how it has motivated them and pushed them to fight for their beliefs. It also examines how society feels about women’s anger, and that women are often punished for daring to show their emotions, especially if that emotion is perceived as negative. Men are viewed as powerful and authoritative if they get mad – they’re allowed to, it’s expected, and it must be coming from a reasonable place. When a woman shows her anger she’s […]
“If you can’t win the game, you have to cheat.”
Have you read Mackenzi Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue? If not, stop reading this review and go read that. This is the sequel, and both books are utterly delightful and disarming. This book is the second in The Montague Siblings series (or duology? there are only two of them) and the story belongs to Felicity, the more sensible and academic of the two. Gentleman’s Guide made it clear that Felicity has more interest in science and medicine than domesticity and society and in her […]
poetry that hurts to heal
I haven’t read a book of poetry in a long time, and this was a perfect way to get back into it. I used to love writing and reading poetry, especially in high school. I was even published once, in our lit mag. This is the type of poetry I have always loved, and I wish Amanda Lovelace had come into my life sooner. This slight and powerful book of poetry is based on Amanda’s life and while simply written, contains such multitudes of feeling […]
Shocking that 19th century men didn’t like this novel!
The Awakening is considered by many to be an American classic and a forerunner of modern feminist literature. Yet when it was published in 1899, it received more negative criticism than positive, leading author Kate Chopin to dedicate her talents to writing short stories exclusively for the remainder of her life. Given that most journalists and literary critics in the late 19th century were men, the chilly reception shouldn’t be surprising. The Awakening is about a married woman named Edna Pontellier who, while spending her summer on Grand […]