Dana’s Summer Book List

For my Summer Book List I will be focusing my recommendation on fiction. The books that I have selected for this list will either deal with feminist issues of have feminist undertones and themes. I am going to try and make my summer book list a series of posts that feature reviews and links that will go up over the next four months rather than as a one off list list.

My first recommendation is The Weetzie Bad Books by Francesca Lia Block. The first Weetzie Bat Book (Weetzie Bat) was published in 1989 and the sixth and latest addition to the series, Necklace of Kisses came out in 2005. These days the first five books are sold in a single volume that goes by the name of Dangerous Angels and it can usually be found at Chapters.

I discovered The Weetzie Bat Books a decade ago through an online interview that gurl.com did with Francesca Lia Block. I did a bit of Googling and came up with this, although I have no idea if it is the same interview that caught my attention a babillion years ago. The next time I was in Calgary with my mom after reading the interview I made her stop at Chapters and I picked up a copy of Dangerous Angles. I finished the books by the next day and I can honestly say that they are still some of my favorites.

Recently I was listening to Bitch Media’s newest podcast initiative, Read My Bitch when my beloved Weetzie Bat was mentioned. This podcast featured Kjerstin Johnson reading Monica T. Nolan article “Harriet and Claudia, where have you gone? Notes on the gender divide in children’s literature” that was printed in issue 15 (winter 2002) of Bitch Magazine. The article discusses the lack of good YA fiction that features female protagonist and cites The Weetzie Bat Books as being one exception to this rule.

The series is a sort of magical contemporary fairytale with beautiful imagery and a poetic writing style. While the books are feature this slinkster cool aesthetic they also tackle some heavy issues. If you haven’t read them yet I would highly recommend this series.

<3’s

P.S. I just got my hands on a copy of Necklace of Kisses and will post a review on it soon.

FBC Summer Reading: Ain't I a Woman - Black Women and Feminism

Bell Hook's Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism

"This landmark work challenges every accepted notion about the nature of black women's lives. All progressive struggles are significant only when taking place within a feminist movement, which states that race class & sex are immutable facts of exist."

I've been meaning to read Bell Hooks for a while now, and as we haven't really discussed the exclusion of black women in second-wave feminism, it would definitely bring up some interesting ideas to reflect on. Other possible books by Bell Hooks we could read this summer are, "Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics," "Feminist Theory from Margin to Center,"Communion: The Female Search for Love."

FBC Summer Reading: Gender Trouble

Judith Butler's Gender Trouble

"Since its publication in 1990, Gender Trouble has become one of the key works of contemporary feminist theory, and an essential work for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the politics of sexuality in culture. This is the text where Judith Butler began to advance the ideas that would go on to take life as "performativity theory," as well as some of the first articulations of the possibility for subversive gender practices, and she writes in her preface to the 10th anniversary edition released in 1999 that one point of Gender Trouble was "not to prescribe a new gendered way of life [...] but to open up the field of possibility for gender [...]" Widely taught, and widely debated, Gender Trouble continues to offer a powerful critique of heteronormativity and of the function of gender in the modern world."

FBC Summer Reading: The Bell Jar

I've already read this novel two times, heavily relating to it as a teenager. I feel it would be interesting to discuss as a group because of how autobiographical the story is and because of the immense feminist following Sylvia Plath had after her death and the feminist loathing of her husband, Ted Hughes.

"Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity."

We could even look at some of her poems like "Daddy."

FBC Summer Reading: Orlando

My first summer reading suggestion for the FBC is 'Orlando' by Virginia Woolf.

"Written for Virginia Woolf's intimate friend, the charismatic, bisexual, writer Vita Sackville-West, Orlando is a playful mock 'biography' of a chameleon-like historical figure who changes sex and identity at will. First masculine, then feminine, Orlando begins life as a young sixteenth-century nobleman, then gallops through three centuries to end up as a woman writer in Virginia Woolf's present day."

FBC Summer Reading!

With another year of art school under our belt, we can now enjoy four whole months of freedom!

I figured with all of the extra time we’ve got, why not keep the book club going throughout the summer? So that’s what we’re going to do folks. Keep it going.

Over the next two weeks, feel free to post some books/short-stories/magazine articles/movies/etc you think the FBC should be looking at over the course of the summer. Depending on the number of blogger responses to the posted submissions, we’ll decide as a group what books we should be reading and discussing this summer over the blog and in person. Submit whatever you’d like!

Also… I recently joined GoodReads, and recommend it for keeping track of the books you’ve been reading, and finding new books!

Happy reading!

I think that this is worth reiterating

Justin Waddell was nice enough to post this little bit of awesomeness to the FBC face book page. It’s about how Anya Liftig, a young performance artist in New York, played stare down with Marina Abramovic during her performance the artist is present at MoMA. I have a bit of an infatuation with Marina Abramovic, and I think that Liftig’s idea was brilliant. Worth a read.

Also, if your not in the know, just search Feminist Bookclub on facebook to find us 