Female authors are becoming more popular in the literature community. Just this past week, 10 out of 15 authors named on the New York Times Bestsellers Fiction list were women. The Scoop decided to sit down with Dr. Katie Gilbert, a professor at Drury University who teaches English classes, including the course Women Writers. She was the former director of Women and Gender Studies and currently serves as the director of the Humanities and Ethics Center at Drury. Dr. Gilbert gave us her opinion on the top eight books written by women and why people should read them.
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: “I think this book is really important because it is the story of a woman who goes through the process of growing up, faces a number of struggles, and overcomes them. She is a complex, passionate heroine. I think [the book] has complexity to it but it also has this kind of deep psychological complex female character in the nineteenth century.” Jane Eyre follows the life of young Jane after she is hired by Edward Rochester and her struggles with secrets and love.
7. Wild by Cheryl Strayed: “I would recommend this book for two reasons: again it deals with resilience and overcoming obstacles and the idea of a journey. The writing is mind boggling good. It is beautiful― the language itself and the structure of the different chapters is so moving and poetic. The aesthetic experience of reading it is such an amazing one. Here, you see a female character thrive after having to face really serious challenges. Also, the mother-daughter relationship is really important.” Wild is a memoir about one woman’s journey to find herself all while hiking the challenging Pacific Crest Trail in California.
6. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood: “One of the reasons I love teaching this book is that Atwood has always argued it’s not science-fiction, it’s a dystopia but with an actual possible end point for our society. So, it is both dystopian but gets us to think so much about women’s bodies and how much control women really have over them. It gets us to think about the present by imagining an end point in a future.” The Handmaid’s Tale explores the lives of women in a near-future society where they are used only for their bodies for procreation.
5. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: “I would recommend this book because I found it to be transformative in thinking about celebrating life in the face of challenges. I think it’s incredibly important that young white women also read books by women of color and this is a good one to start with. Hurston was such an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance.” Their Eyes Were Watching God is about an African American woman in the 1930s and her struggle between relationships, independence, and identity.i90
4. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr: “Mary Karr is so funny. She paints these pictures from childhood to adulthood that are so brutal at times for their truth but also often hilarious,quirky, and strange. I feel she is a writer who really gets us to think about what it’s like to write our truths unhindered in an honest way that could really be exposing but with beautiful writing.” This memoir follows Karr’s childhood in Texas living with a hard-drinking father, charismatic mother, and head-strong sister.
3. Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks: “bell hooks is an African American literary and cultural critic. She’s just foundational. She gets us thinking about race and feminism. Feminism is a movement that is about liberating people in general from constrictions and stereotypes. It is just a great book for young people to read, especially if they’re skeptical or uncertain about feminism. hooks beautifully helps us see all its possibilities.” Feminism is for Everybody encourages readers to look for a brighter future when it comes to racism and feminism in this thought-provoking volume.
2. Citizen by Claudia Rankine: “This is a collection of poems. Rankine is an African American poet who really tackles race and politics head on. Her collection is extraordinary for crystallizing moments of experience and feeling through language, and in some cases imagery. She incorporates visuals to get at the experience of what it’s like to navigate the United States as a black citizen. It is incredibly eye-opening and equal parts painful and beautiful.” Citizen‘s collection of poems and pictures focuses on racism in today’s contemporary, “post-race” society.
1. Anything written by Roxane Gay or Rebecca Solnit: “Roxane Gay is very popular right now and often talks about her experience with sexual abuse and her struggles with her own body. Rebecca Solnit is the person who has been credited with coining the term ‘mansplaining’ and does a great job of talking about women in politics. These are two writers that I feel would be interesting to read right now because they are really tapping into moments in our current culture that are cutting-edge in the present.” Gay’s most memorable works are Bad Feminist and Hunger. Solint is known for her work of essays titled Men Explain Things to Me.
