Lea’s Comments (group member since Jan 04, 2017)

Lea’s comments from the 2022 ONTD Reading Challenge group.

This month, we're reading a fantasy book written by a woman!

J.K. Rowling
Robin Hobb
Katherine Arden
Diana Wynne Jones
Catherynne M. Valente
N.K. Jemisin
Ursula K. Le Guin - note: her Earthsea series is fantasy, but most of her other books are sci-fi.
Naomi Novik
V.E. Schwab
Nnedi Okorafor
Yangsze Choo
Maggie Stiefvater
Sofia Samatar
Elizabeth Bear
Martha Wells
Juliet Marillier
Megan Whalen Turner
Laini Taylor
Lois McMaster Bujold
Susanna Clarke
Anne McCaffrey

[I'll come back to this post with lists of recs]

I do recommend, once the reader is finished with the book, to take a look at the book's wikipedia page and read up on its themes (it's a very short section).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Have...

I didn't know anything about Shirley Jackson and so it helped to know what she had in mind when writing the story, what she based it on, her personal context, etc. It really made me understand the book a lot better and to appreciate the story more.

I'm interested in The Moonstone, Rebecca, Never Let Me Go, and The Dinner. So I guess I'll see what I'm in the mood for in April.

I really recommend His Bloody Project to anyone looking for immersive historical fiction/murder mystery. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is hilarious. The Remains of the Day is gorgeous and heartbreaking (also historical fiction).

I can't think of a good reason at all!

Most definitely, anolinde. She did create the Regency romance genre, which is of course a hugely popular (not to mention lucrative) genre nowadays. And til this day romance writers are still borrowing from her stories.

Sarah, I'm not sure these books really adhere to the spirit of this month's challenge lol. The task is to read a book by a female author (etc, etc), by which we meant a writer by trade, who is considered influential because of the things she wrote. Clinton is a politician, her impact on the world is not for being the writer of Hard Choices but for her political career. I'm sorry!

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Ooo, thank you Katie!!

So the wiki tells me there are 2 versions of Frankenstein, an original one and one revised by Mary Shelley. Which one did you /will you read??

Here are two different lists of 50 influential books by Anglo/American women writers. They don't come with explanations, and I think the For Books' Sake list is better, but the comments that readers left on The Guardian list are worth taking a look at.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
http://forbookssake.net/2013/02/11/to...

@Eve, I think Kindred is more science-fiction since it has to do with time travel. It would be a great pick for March imo (and it's an excellent book).

@Rubal, thank you for the list! Lots of great names there.

Read a book by a female author who is considered to be influential and has had a significant impact in literature, culture and/or society.

I will update this topic with various resources. Please share any you find also!

10 inspiring female writers you need to read - The Guardian recommends 10 influential women authors, with various resources explaining their impact and where you should begin by reading their work. Includes Doris Lessing, Ursula Le Guin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Clarice Lispector, Elena Ferrante, and more.

20 Most Influential Women Authors Of All Time - this list includes Mary Shelley, Maya Angelou, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe and more.

10 Women Who Changed Sci-Fi - A BBC list. Includes Connie Willis, Octavia Butler, Anne McCaffrey and more.

13 Female Authors Who Have Broken Barriers - This list by Bustle includes Sappho, Gabriela Mistral, Agatha Christie, Alice Walker and more.

15 Books That Changed Women Forever - this is a list by Elle of books written by women, that "were culture bombs that sparked discussion and challenged mainstream beliefs at the time in which they were written". Includes Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique), Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women), Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex), and more.

I am currently reading História do Brasil Nação by the historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. I don't believe this was translated. But I'm going to read other books for this challenge as well.

New rec: The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles.

Also the post is up: https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com...

1808: The Flight of the Emperor is pretty fun, fast-paced non-fiction if you like history.

for fiction, it's harder to find something really light-hearted that has been translated. machado de assis is known in brazil for his biting wit and irony though, and his books are not depressing at all, they are mostly black comedy, like 'the alienist' and 'epitaph of a small winner'

I'm having a super busy month, so I'm glad I had the option to read something light/fast like Where'd You Go, Bernadette. It'll probably be the only book I read for fun this month.

Unfortunately I didn't like it. It was fine until the ending, which I thought was a cop-out. Lots of people did some very bad things and there are no real consequences for the sake of a lukewarm happy ending. It's not really something I'd recommend. But Cate Blanchett is going to be perfect for the main role.

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City - this book was a National Book Award Finalist

Brazil: A Biography - The author is one of the greatest living Brazilian historians.

For adventure buffs, there's Exploration Fawcett. Colonel Fawcett was a British nut who wanted to "discover" a lost city in the Amazon, which for some reason he thought would be populated by white people. Anyway he went missing and his son compiled his documents to make this book, which was a best-seller. There were lots of expeditions to try to discover what happened to him, including one in which Ian Fleming's brother participated in (HIS book about it is Brazilian Adventure). And the latest book about it is The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon which as you know became a movie recently. I haven't read these Fawcett books but I know some people might be interested in the whole thing.

Penguin has some EXCELLENT recs here (except for Paulo Coelho): https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/fi...

The book Nemesis: One Man and the Battle For Rio is a good rec for people who like true crime.

The website Five Books has, well, 5 recs for this month, here: https://fivebooks.com/best-books/larr...

Out of this list I would draw attention to the book Child of the Dark: The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus, which is a memoir written in 1960, by a poor black woman who lived in a favela. It was a huge sensation at the time, and then it was forgotten for a while, but now it's coming back. Universities are putting it on their required reading list again.

And another really good book (and there's a Penguin edition now so it's easy to find) is Backlands: The Canudos Campaign, if you like history and journalistic non-fiction.

I read Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I didn't like it. The story is really mediocre.

On the other hand, Cate Blanchett really is perfect for the main role.

It’s February, which means Carnaval in Brazil. Millions of people (including celebs) from all over the world flock to Rio, Recife, Salvador, São Paulo and other iconic cities to celebrate. This month, we invite you to Come to Brazil by reading books by Brazilian authors or that are about or set in Brazil (fiction or non-fiction).

Here's an ONTD post recommending some Brazilian books

More recs:
The Complete Stories - Clarice Lispector (she is amazing btw)
Epitaph of a Small Winner - a novel by Machado de Assis (King of Brazilian lit tbh), new translation
The Alienist - this is a novella by Machado de Assis. The translation is very good.
A Chapter of Hats: Selected Stories - short stories by Machado de Assis, new translation
The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão - Martha Batalha (contemporary lit)