false 16 567 423 true 5627399 read 0 true 3497394 currently-reading 144 true 3497393 to-read 339 false 4015700 read-for-fun 141 false 3869182 nonfiction 141 false 4015652 read-postcollege 140 false 4015650 read-in-college 139 false 3498095 fiction 124 false 3800440 dead-white-men 121 false 3497662 classics 86 false 4015649 read-in-high-school 84 false 3497663 science-fiction 81 false 3918245 brit 73 false 3498807 fantasy 67 false 4025225 adventure 62 false 3917532 americana 56 false 4015699 read-for-school 55 false 4498030 favorites 52 false 3498808 historical-fiction 48 false 3497664 feminist-literature 44 false 4129493 families 44 false 3497928 cultural-criticism 43 false 3524297 graphic-novels 43 false 3497667 history 34 false 3513916 poetry 30 false 3497904 memoir 30 false 3800441 50s 29 false 3498870 religion 28 false 3959948 2007 27 false 3497905 psychology 27 false 3917530 drama 26 false 3800870 renaissance 25 false 3497669 dystopia 25 false 3917697 epic 25 false 3800446 80s 25 false 3800447 90s 24 false 3497644 humor 24 false 3800772 victorian 23 false 4016146 space-opera 23 false 4016414 superheroes 22 false 4015647 read-as-a-child 22 false 3710999 philosophy 22 false 3800442 60s 22 false 4016192 time-travel-and-alternate-dimension 21 false 3498809 alternate-history 21 false 3498860 romance 19 false 3800445 70s 19 false 4016165 postapocalyptic 18 false 3917710 myths-and-legends 18 false 3984686 race-and-racism 18 false 3497906 autism 16 false 4016377 allegory 16 false 3498874 social-justice 16 false 3959945 2008 16 false 3917661 absurdism-surrealism 15 false 3497657 geopolitics 15 false 5383986 shakespeare 15 false 3497900 short-stories 15 false 4025248 sea-stories 14 false 3961474 postcolonial 14 false 4378514 hugo-winners 14 false 3918242 greece-and-rome 13 false 3616640 margaret-atwood 13 false 4310517 steven-brust 13 false 4378513 pulitzer-winners 12 false 3917694 knights 12 false 3800769 30s 11 false 3918248 russian 11 false 3497898 sustainable-living 10 false 3498879 indigenous 10 false 3498697 science 10 false 3497555 economics 10 false 3497670 utopia 10 false 3800867 modernist 10 false 3918251 french 10 false 3497901 mystery 10 false 4015648 read-in-middle-school 9 false 3497668 current-events 9 false 3502336 biography 9 false 3497924 animal-rights 8 false 3984741 slavery 8 false 3498873 environment 8 false 4498031 great-american-novel 7 false 3550833 sociology 7 false 4016203 robots 7 false 4807716 really-quick-reads 7 false 5379223 elves-and-fairies 7 false 3497929 technology 7 false 3711000 essays 6 false 3800766 40s 6 false 4016415 vampires 6 false 3800873 cyberpunk 6 false 3917678 magic-realism 6 false 3918252 german 5 false 3917693 medieval 5 false 3498092 anthology 5 false 4129564 genetic-engineering 5 false 3800868 enlightenment 5 false 4015727 life-changing 5 false 3497653 international-relations http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71957601 to: July's People (Paperback) by Nadine Gordimer
bookshelves: fiction, geopolitics, postcolonial, race-and-racism, read-for-fun, read-postcollege
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34772960 to: The Second Sex (Paperback) by Simone de Beauvoir
bookshelves: 50s, classics, feminist-literature, french, nonfiction, philosophy
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/46795078 to: The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (Perennial Classics) by Steven Pinker
bookshelves: nonfiction, psychology, science
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/34336916 to: Pornography: Men Possessing Women (Paperback) by Andrea Dworkin
bookshelves: 80s, feminist-literature, nonfiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/52263553 to: Life And Death (Hardcover) by Andrea Dworkin
bookshelves: essays, feminist-literature, nonfiction, read-for-fun, read-postcollege
This book is more a collection of short essays and speeches than a cohesive whole. Each piece still has the intensity and moral clarity I've come to expect from Dworkin, but they feel transient and off-the-cuff; topical rather than profound. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/52262476 The Book of the City of Ladies (Paperback) by Christine de Pizan
bookshelves: allegory, classics, feminist-literature, french, history, medieval, philosophy
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/52260743 to: How to Watch TV News (Paperback) by Neil Postman
bookshelves: 90s, cultural-criticism, nonfiction, read-for-fun, read-postcollege, technology
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/52153118 to: Amazon: A Novel (Paperback) by Barbara G. Walker
bookshelves: feminist-literature, historical-fiction, myths-and-legends, read-for-fun, read-postcollege, really-quick-reads, time-travel-and-alternate-dimension
I saw this book in a used bookstore and loved the premise --- a real-life Amazon warrior being magically transported into our time and commenting on our society --- so much that I devoured the book eagerly.

It reads quickly, probably due in a large part to the simple and straightforward style in which it is written. (It's written from the amazon's point of view, and she is illiterate and, though insightful and smart, fairly naive and uncomplicated. Her sentences are mostly short, plain and powerful, and her narrative is linear and straightforward.)

The best parts of it (for me) were where it most resembled Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, in which a similar (albeit reversed) culture clash takes place between male explorers and the amazonian natives of a hidden all-female society. The amazon is amazed and appalled at the men and women she encounters, who each appear to her stunted and incomplete.

Sadly, there was a lot less of this culture-clash narrative than I would have liked --- the author seems to breeze through those parts so she can get on with the part of the novel that most interested her: the obsessively detailed descriptions of Goddess worship as practiced by the amazon and those modern-day women she influences. I found those parts of the book boring, and I expect you will too unless you have a particular interest in Goddess spirituality. ]]>