I decided to welcome April and the spring season with a new book haul. I've been wanting to get my hands on all four of these books, particularly the feminism texts since March was National Women's History month. They all seem to be incredibly promising reads, hopefully that proves to be true.
Title: The Second Sex
Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Series: Le deuxieme sexe #1-2
Genre: Philosophy; Nonfiction; Politics; Feminism
Goodreads Rating: 4.09/ 5 stars
Pages: 832 ( Paperback )
Publisher: Vintage Books
Published: May 3, 2011 (Original publication: 1949)
Summary: Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness. This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.
I was first introduced to Beauvoir and her work, while I was taking an incredibly engaging philosophy course, two semesters ago. And I haven't been able to get her off my mind since, then. I've heard only good things about this book, so I'm very excited about the prospect of becoming better acquainted with Beauvoir's work, as well as picking up some new personal inspiration.
Title: Rebecca
Author: Daphne du Maurier
Genre: Classics; Fiction; Mystery; Romance; Gothic; Historical Fiction; Suspense; Thriller
Goodreads Rating: 4.2/ 5 stars
Pages: 410 ( Paperback )
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2006 ( Original Publication: May 1938 )
Summary: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten...her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant -- the sinister Mrs. Danvers -- still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of the evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca...for the secrets of Manderley.
Rebecca wasn't referred to me by anyone; I just happened to stumble across the title and it seemed worth the buy. The element of gothic romance reeled in my interest, easily.
Title: Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Genre: Nonfiction; Feminism; Essays
Goodreads Rating: 4.59/ 5 stars
Pages: 80 ( Hardcover )
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: March 7, 2017
Summary: A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response.
Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions--compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive--for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.
I absolutely loved Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists, so I had to buy her latest literary piece on feminism. This might just be one of my majorly anticipated reads of the year.
Title: Women Who Run with the Wolves
Author: Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Genre: Nonfiction; Feminism; Psychology; Spirituality; Fantasy; Mythology; Women's
Goodreads Rating: 4.16/ 5 stars
Pages: 584 ( Paperback )
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: August 22, 1995 ( Original Publication: 1992)
Summary:
Within every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species. For though the gifts of a wild nature belong to us at birth, society's attempt to "civilize" us into rigid roles has muffled the deep, life-giving messages of our own souls. In Women Who Run with the Wolves, Dr. Estés unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, many from her own traditions, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr. Estés has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.
Women Who Run with the Wolves was one of the novels that was out on display at my local Barnes and Noble for National Women's History month; both the title and the cover caught my attention. Both the summary and high rating on Goodreads were as equally compelling, so I'm hoping that I end up loving this read as much as I think I will.
Let me know if you spotted any favorites or any books that you've been looking forward to reading.
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