Briana - 30 Books in 2016

[Briana]

So after going through years of not really reading anything - something completely against my nature -- I decided to try reading 30 books in 2016. To make this a little more specific for myself, I also decided that I will only be reading female authors this year. Some of these books are taken from Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf group on GoodReads and some of these are books I picked on my own. Wish me luck!

1) My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
2) Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
3) How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
4) Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
5) The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
6) A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor
7) The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
8) Girl at War by Sara Nović
9) Dora: A Headcase by Lidia Yuknavitch

[Briana]

Read from January 13 to March 02, 2016

For whatever reason, I struggled to finish this book. In retrospect, I don't think it has anything to do with Steinem's writing or the material covered. I think I struggled to finish this book simply because it had been so long since I sat down to read that I ran into an assortment of issues: discipline, making time, attention span.

Steinem is one of America's prominent feminist thinkers activists and I picked up with book under the assumption that I would be reading all about feminism, all the time. Feminism and Steinem's work takes a bit of a backseat, letting traveling take center stage. I found this to be a little alienating for me because I have lived in one town for my entire life and I have no knowledge base for what being a professional wanderer is like.

The reading experience feels like a breezy conversation between friends over coffee or lunch. Steinem skips stones across the water surface of her life, only occasionally submerging the reader into something deeper. She talks about the importance of civic engagement, how the Betty Friedan-led First Wave Feminists sought to undermine the Second Wave Feminists, and the way traveling is in her blood.

It's a good read and I think I will re-read it at some point but I do not think it does Steinem justice as an introduction to her work. My own preconceived notions about the book's direction and difficulty readjusting to life as a reader completely detracted from my ability to enjoy this piece.