Malola's Challenge

[Malola]

Hi, guys...
This is me using this thread for organising purpourses.

I've set 60 books for the year, at least 30 women's works:
1. Poemas
2. Milk and Honey
3. Live or Die
4. Poems of Passion
5. Averno
6. Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
7. Letters of Emily Dickinson
8. Selected Letters
9. Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West: Love Letters
10. A Raisin in the Sun
11. Monologos de La Vagina (Yeah, not to fond to read this one. I keep on reading it sort becomes too "in yo face" and mostly exploitative and leaning towards shock value... but I'm happy to be proven wrong.)
12. In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play
13. Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943
14. Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats
15. Yo seré la última
16. One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal
17. Manifesto Cyborg
18. Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms
19. War's Unwomanly Face
20. Intention
21. The Secret Garden
22. Una habitación propia
23. Sleep Smarter: Evening Habits And Sleeping Tips To Get More Energized, Productive And Healthy The Next Day
24. Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
25. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
26. Hidden Figures
27. Más allá de la filosofía: escritos sobre cultura, arte y literatura
28. The Story of an Hour
29. Por qué las mujeres disfrutan más del sexo bajo el socialismo
30. La rueda de la vida
31. The Heart of the New Thought
32. Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices
33. Bingo Love
34. Who Are You?: Poems and Inspirational Writings About a Journey to Rediscovering Self
35. A Year Spent Lost: A Collection of Poetry
36. Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
37. Letters of a Woman Homesteader
38. Woman and the New Race
39. A Father of Women and Other Poems
40. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

Yes, I'm well aware there's only a couple of women of colour. I accept suggestions and recommendations. XD

Cheers!!
=P

[Jasper]

This is a great list! As for recommendations, Helen Oyeyemi is a great queer author of color; Gingerbread is one of my all time favorites. There is also the book Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly if you're interested in WoC and tech.

[Malola]

Thanks, Jasper!!
I'll look into both of them. I know about the film (Hidden Figures); it might be a good opportunity to cross and compare two different media. :D

And thanks for the Gingerbread recommendation as well. You read my mind. I've been trying to get into more LGBTQ authors.
Out of all the authors I've put, I'm only sure that Dickinson, Woolf, Sackville-West and Roughgarden are not cishet. I may have to research the other women's bio. =P

[Malola]

25. I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.

I'm about to finish that book and I struggle remembering.
Audiobooks are definitely NOT my thing. :v
With that said, I have to applaud to the narrator voice tone.

EDIT: Just finished. It was good.
I liked the voice of the narrator. I can't help but to feel bad for Oswald Patton.
McNamara definitely had a sharp mind.

[Crazytourists_books]

About the vagina monologues, I have the complete opposite opinion. I think it is not enough "in your face". I wanted it to be bolder, louder. And I wanted less nicknames about the vagina. But when it was written, it was a breaking ceilings

[Malola]

Crazytourists_books wrote: "About the vagina monologues, I have the complete opposite opinion. I think it is not enough "in your face". I wanted it to be bolder, louder. And I wanted less nicknames about the vagina. But when ..."

Huh... That's interesting.
I may want to cross some words with you when I read it. I love to hear/read different possitions.

[Malola]

28. The Story of an Hour.

Ah-mazing. Just wonderful.
Unbelievable how much Chopin can say in such a short space.

It's about how our (philosophical) intuitions take us to the depths of self-reflection.
Her description of grief is on point, not to say the train of thought (but told from the outside) of the protagonist.

[Crazytourists_books]

I'll be happy to discuss about the Monologues Malola, any time :)

[Malola]

29. Por qué las mujeres disfrutan más del sexo bajo el socialismo.
(Kristen R. Ghodsee's Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence.)

Quite interesting.
Although I was somewhat skeptical about the main premise (and still have a couple of objections), overall I think PhD. Ghodsee does appropriately support her conclusion.

She encouraged me to delve into the texts of Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin and Aleksandra Kollontai.
On the negative side, I do think there is some lack of organisation in the presentation; but at the end of the day PhD. Ghodsee speaks in general terms. She does not pretend to give a fixed recipe of how to achieve X, she simply postulates that the greater economic equality, the less need to use sex in a transactional way.

[Malola]

22. Una habitación propia.
(Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.)

Brilliant. Effing BRILLIANT.

It has been a happy discovery to note the lucidity with which Woolf writes, at the same time I can't help but notice how... ironic (?) of such a situation is considering her chronic depression (bipolar disorder type I?).

Now, Woolf is clearly committed to intellectual honesty to the point that she openly mentions her biases as she notices them.
Her fish/thought analogy of hers reminded me of the imagery in two Emily Dickinson poems: Hope Is The Thing with Feathers and Grief Is a Mouse.

After her rant about how in fact a woman with the excellence of William Shakespeare CANNOT exist... uff... she perfectly dissects the essence of the problem of sexism hidden behind the thin veil of sexual dimorphism. Unfortunately, a good number of times these differences (perfectly obvious, publicly there... in view and plain sight for of all us to see) become the perfect excuse to diminish the "other" and prevent them from growing.

Mindblowing... and not because what she says is not obvious, but because of the SOBRIETY, solemnity and dignity with which she says it.
She also gives a good number of authors to read (she postulates them as examples, more than anything else) and she encourages women to write regardless of the result.

A thousand pens are ready to suggest what you should do and what effect you will have.

To write, women! The obstacles are coming, but we have the pens.

[Malola]

30. La rueda de la vida.
(Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' The Wheel of Life.)

I'm literally divided in half and half. XD

The good:
i) Very good use of the language. It's not "poetic", the perfection of how PhD. Kübler-Ross presents her ideas didn't bring tears to my eyes, but she's clear on the message.
ii) In the first two parts she mentions a very interesting life. Clearly this lady was a dynamo.
iii) Very good demonstration of a heart convinced that helping the other is a fundamental duty of all of us.
iv) Listening to the other has clearly been a cornerstone of her work. It is moving how she has managed to make others resignify certain distressing circumstances and thus help them to continue with their lives.
v) Some of the stories she narrates (including the one about the boy who gives his younger brother his bicycle or the one about the blessed soil of Poland) moved me to tears. Experiences like those are humbling, even for the reader.

The bad and... rare extremely rare/bizarre, impossible to believe:
i) It is complete nonsense what she maintains about the entities that visit her, ghosts, spirits and so on. Being an atheist, naturalist and skeptic myself, the lack of academic rigor that she presents when justifying her "investigations" of the afterlife is beyond me. If it weren't for PhD. Kübler-Ross being very well respected in her field, she would frankly say that this lady needed a… psychiatrist.
(I think if anything, it shows that a highly intelligent, formally educated person can harbor particularly stupid and wacky ideas. Let the first stone be cast by those who don't believe nonsense.)
ii) Considering the above, I cannot fathom that with THREE of her collaborators having confessed that they were the "entities", PhD. Kübler-Ross continued to believe in such paranormal/supernatural events. Shouldn't she have considered the possibility that it is hallucinations?
iii) Her reluctance to accept the possible misbehabiour of B. (her collaborator who was a medium) makes her, in my eyes extremely irresponsible and frankly immoral. If she had already heard rumours, wasn't it her duty to investigate? Why did she have to wait so long to believe the women (many of whom had been sexually abused before) who were accusing him of sexual misconduct?
iv) Her determinism, although at times "adorable", at times I found it unpleasant and perhaps even dangerous and irresponsible. While I am rational in trusting my senses and intuitions, it is also necessary and prudent for me to have checks and balances. Hence, her determinism at times seemed to be a defense against accepting her own errors, limitations and failures in judgment as a consequence of a complete absence of... checks and balances. It did not seem to me that she wanted to take responsibility for her fault for her divorce, but "it was her husband who wanted a divorce" and it did not seem to me that she took seriously the issue of sexual harassment/abuse by B. until very late.
Ironically, as a psychiatrist, part of her job is precisely to help people take responsibility for their actions.
v) Her anti-assisted suicide position, although I think she has the right to have any position she wants, unfortunately I think that what it only does is to unnecessarily extend the suffering of others.
vi) If death is something happy and good, I don't understand why assisted suicide is wrong. She affirms that there is something that we have to teach the rest and something that we have to learn. But where do these obligations ("have to") come from? How does she know that her moral obligation is not to help people die faster, but painlessly?
As I said... her determinism (which crashes with her position of free will) seems like a defense.

Anyway... The book, in general, was good ... but given that the second half seemed so... strange and nonsensical (quite literally "otherworldly"), I must lower the book's points.

[Malola]

21. The Secret Garden.

I love the ability to grow that FHB gives the children of the story.
The way the garden and the healing powers of nature make the children blossom was perfectly described and it definitely touched a soft spot in me. (Then again, I'm all for trekking/hiking. XD )

I wasn't too fond of the descriptors she uses for Archivald given that he wasn't just a coward, but he was clearly depressed and unable to move from his bereavement and grief.

Overall it was lovely. As for the morale of the story, I do think it's a good lesson for children and adults alike that we all have space for improvement, enjoyment, fun and happiness... and that nature has "Magic", it's transformative and it allows us to discover it... and us in her. <3

[Malola]

23. Sleep Smarter: Evening Habits And Sleeping Tips To Get More Energized, Productive And Healthy The Next Day.

Too obvious.
Bordeline tautological.

[Malola]

31. The Heart of the New Thought.

No foundation whatsoever (read: ontology and epistemology) for such philosophy (which by default I find annoying); however overall the book was nice. (It actually reminded me somewhat of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations with the assertions she makes.)

The meditation part (breathing exercises, habits of mind, power of thought) stroke a chord.
I reject the appeals to a god/higher power, but still it's worth reading.

[Malola]

4. Poems of Passion.

Oh, you who read some song that I have sung,
What know you of the soul from whence it sprung?

Great command of her words and the rhythm was just amazing.
The first half was great. It showed melancholy, gravitas, depth in love... The description of the overwhelming beauty (yuugen) of nature was on point.
Some poems really jumped out, they embrace you in an uplifting kind of way (it's the cadence and pacing). At times a bit (melo)dramatic, but I think she wanted to punch the reader with the rhythm and her choice of words while keeping the 'proper' way of doing poetry. (On a side note: Emily Dickinson was really a revolutionary by not adscribing to traditional rules of poetry.)
The second half... I'm not sure how they're poems of passion. I think it's a bit of a stretch there, but to a degree they fit the theme.

[Malola]

5. Averno.

Well, this has left me somehow with a little existential crisis... but I'm not sure exactly why. There's a sinister idea that pervasively lingers throughout her poems. Glück writes about Death, Scatology, Lost and so on with certainty... and authority yet... softness.

All your life, you wait for the propitious time.
Then the propitious time
reveals itself as action taken.

Some of her really strike me as pearls of everlasting wisdom.

A disaster like this
leaves no mark on the earth.
(...)
Once the earth decides to have no memory
time seems in a way meaningless.

The pointlessness of life... things get destroyed, there's no memory... time does seem meaningless. I guess I can only be sure of my own subjective experience, so I shall take action and make sure that "propitious times" happen.

Also, it was quite interesting the two versions of Persephone The Wanderer (from both the perspective of the girl and the mother)... and the Myth of Devotion (which is told from the perspective of Hades).
It definitely had me thinking.

The only thing I found odd, I guess, is that I'm not sure what's the point in poetry that could pretty much be prose. It has no rhymes and the rhythm and cadence don't seem to suggest anything. (I might be mistaken since I did say there's something sinister in her poetry.) If it lacks rhymes and rhythm, why preferring that type of format over... plain prose?

[Malola]

32. Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices

Wow... Just WOW... I mean, it's Sylvia Plath. Could anyone read/listen anything she wrote and not be moved?

I suggest you listen the poem which, after all, was written to be read out loud, (see:
https://archive.org/details/pacifica_... ) WHILE reading it (see: https://utmedhumanities.wordpress.com... ).

I made the mistake of just listening the first time, so I got lost with the voices.
Listening (which was Plath's aim) AND reading it will allow you to not miss cues and clues. This, of course, is important because the poem connects each of the women through the experience of pregnancy: the all go to the same maternity ward of a hospital for different reasons, so it narrates three very different perspectives.

The deshumanisation of the women, the loneliness of the act and how isolating those experiences are, the 'atrocity' of birth and so on were beautifully presented. The yuxtaposition of nature, both unfertile and fertile (depending of the woman's perspective) is amazing.
In the case of two women, the hope/ability of moving on sort of remined of Plath's poetry... kind of in the same note as the ending of Lady Lazarus, I guess, each of these women "resurrected".

(view spoiler)[The first woman, a wife, has an angry, blue boy. XD I loved that description: "Who is he, this blue, furious boy, /Shiny and strange, as if he had hurtled from a star?". And she rejoices with the overwhealming beauty of motherhood: "What did my fingers do before they held him?/ What did my heart do, with its love?". The second woman, a secretary, has a miscarriage that begins at work: "When I first saw it, the small red seep, I did not believe it./ I watched the men walk about me in the office. They were so flat!". She feels defective... sort of amputated, like missing a limb: "This is a disease I carry home, this is a death. (...) I am dying as I sit. I lose a dimension. (...) Who will love me through the blur of my deformity/ As if I had lost an eye, a leg, a tongue" and it is stated that has had at least one miscarriage before: "I lose life after life.(...) I am restless. Restless and useless. I, too, create corpses". Given the raw detail of this particular voice, I'm not surprised Plath had a miscarriage herself. And the third woman, a girl, who seems to be a college student, is sexually assaulted. It is hinted through the myth of Leda and the swan: "And the great swan, with its terrible look,/ Coming at me, like a castle, from the top of the river. (...) He glided by; his eye had a black meaning. I saw the world in it-small, mean and black"; so she decides to give the baby up for adoption. "She is a small island, asleep and peaceful, /And I am a white ship hooting: Goodbye, goodbye". This one reminded of the Grey's Anatomy episode where Jo goes to her birth mother and it turns out that she was given up for adoption because she's the result of date rape. As sad as it is, Plath makes clear that going through something like that completely shatters the person, the girl had no choice but to give the baby up. "And what if they found themselves surprised, as I did?/ They would go mad with it". (hide spoiler)]

Pregnancy should ALWAYS be a happy event, but sometimes the final decisions we made is what allow out to reclaim our bodies. (Maybe a fourth woman was needed. One that decided to have an abortion because "it wasn't the right time" or something.)
I will definitely re-read/re-listen this one.

As for the voices of the actress, well... All were amazing, except that I think the third woman is young (the poem mentions "college" and she's "the girl"), yet the voice actress seemed to be at least over 30. But I reiterate that all of them did an excellent job with their characters.

[Malola]

3. Live or Die

Excellent.
One cannot help but think in Plath while reading her. Yes, they are different women, each with their own history, but the type of suicidal confessional poetry definitely resonates and sets them apart.
Yes, Sylvia stole her suicide.

Very raw and desolated. Yet somehow beautiful.
(I'm not sure what to do with poetry that doesn't rhyme, though. Only one of her poems rhymed, but her point her was sort of to make it child-like... or kind of like playing with irony and infantilisation. All of them, of course, had beautiful cadence.)

[Malola]

2. Milk and Honey

It was good. Kaur takes risks (which I like), so some parts are raw. (The sexuality related parts were not distasteful.)

It's hard not to feel identified with some of her writing. I particularly liked her words celebrating of womanhood (especially in the last part).
Some other stuff seemed like she was spiteful or resentful towards an ungrateful love/r (i.e. "despechada"), so her words sounded like an artificial resignifing of acts/words/thoughts.
Don't get me wrong, it was good; but it was almost like listening to Shakira (or any other pop artists) that claims "nobody will love you like I did", "your new lover won't replace me (because I'm better)" and so on... when maybe for the other person was just time to move on. * shrugs *
You know, people deserve to be happy even if that means that I'm not part of the equation. (And the irony of her mentioning that all women are beautiful and brave... yet she doesn't seem to think that of her lover's new partner.) I think that part should be understood in the particular context of the anger and hurt post-separation.

Anyways, I'm still on the fence with the format. I don't see why pressing enter unnecessarily implies poetry, but what do I know?
It supposed to be poetic prose of whatever, but I'm old fashioned and I prefer my poems to rhyme.

[Malola]

6. Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

This did almost nothing to me.
I didn't even understand it. It's supposed to be a celebration of nature and whatnot, but it almost sounded like gibberish.

[Malola]

1. Poemas

Geezus Christ. OH, LAWRD!!!
GEEZUS TAKE THE WHEEL.

ED is GODDESS. EVERYTHING SHE WROTE IS PERFECTION ITSELF. This is life changing type of poetry.
The rhythm, the mystic, the pensiveness, the depth, the difficulty, the levity, the gravity, the ataraxia... She has everything you need in poetry and life.
She's a philosopher in the shape of a poet.

This was a Poet - It is That
Distills amazing sense
From ordinary Meanings -
And Attar so immense.

I'll definitely be reading more of her work. Open Me Carefully and Emily Dickinson's Poems As She Wrote Them are on my TBR and I can't wait to start them.

I do have a qualm with regards to this edition. Though Margarita Ardanaz has definitely make a good job with her translation (to the point that, even when I'm bilingual, I do think she added something to the book... also, her translation definitely gave me room to think about different ways of understanding ED's poetry), she's one of the Emily Dickinson/Sue Gilbert affair deniers. At this point in time, it seems to be the case that ED y SG were lovers.
Martha Nell Smith (among other scholars) has made a really good case showing that Mabel Loomis Todd had good reasons to erase any SG reference from any poem and letter from ED she came across. It wasn't only the fact that a homosexual relationship between the two women would have been extremely scandalous, but the mere fact that MLT was Austin Dickinson's lover... so she wasn't precisely in the best terms with SG. (Currently I'm reading ED's letters edited by MLT...as, surprise, surprise, not even ONE of the letters dedicated/addressed to SG is in that collection. Still, it's Dickinson... So the prose is beautiful.)
Though Margarita Ardanaz has the right to understand ED's poetry however she likes, if ED was in fact in love with SG, some of her poems definitely would take a much different turn.

To own a Susan of my own
Is of itself a Bliss—
Whatever Realm I forfeit, Lord,
Continue me in this!

[Malola]

33. Bingo Love

It was good.
Overall it was wrapped up too quickly, so some stuff were kind of brushed off too soon.
It reminded me The Notebook.

[Malola]

34. Who Are You?: Poems and Inspirational Writings About a Journey to Rediscovering Self

Good.

It's very nice to read how the author conveys important messages through her poetry. Definitely her poems are better than her little essays/introductions.
She has good eye for rhythm, however I do think she played it safe at times.

[Malola]

35. A Year Spent Lost: A Collection of Poetry

Well...

I understood nothing of it.
Honestly I'm not sure where she was going.
It's hard to feel identified, since not even the topic is clear.

[Malola]

36. Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters

Well, this is one of those cases where I am divided.
So, since what I found positive/good/right/well presented is quite intertwined what I consider to be negative/bad/wrong/poorly presented, I will write the CAVEAT in italics.

i) Her writing is OK. It's easy to read, quite a good use of the language. She's mostly clear.
CAVEAT: It takes her until the second half of the book to even define the term "transgender" and then she complaints about it being a tautology. Girl... Definitions ARE tautologies. If I say: "a human male is someone with a XY chromosome"... it's the same as saying "XY is a male".
But that's not even the issue... She could present her own definition and test it, yet she doesn't. She just tries to poke holes at something that she DOESN'T delimit AT ALL. I definitely think the problem is that she doesn't want to concede that, though sex and gender are linked, they cannot be defined as perfect synonyms. This is a huge problem for her thesis because it's not even clear what she is even presenting... let alone criticising.

ii) Though she doesn't give ANY ontology whatsoever (she can't, since she refuses to define the word), she does try make an epistemological case; hence she criticises some of the criteria for diagnosing transgenderism.
I do think she makes a good point with some of her criticism to DMS-V.
CAVEAT: My two cents that there are other protocols that complementary, that she didn't present in her book.
Also, in the criticism she makes, she mentions that transitioning doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing... Then why would it be a problem is certain trans men don't want surgery? If a trans man gets a double mastectomy, the fact that they don't want bottom surgery shouldn't mean there are less of a trans. Don't get me wrong, I do think that if a person wants to be treated as a "man", they should present themselves in a masculine way. But if Shrier wants to make a case that there might be a middle point where "mutilation" is not need, then she needs to revise her position about what constitutes a transgender. She seems to believe that a transition that is not completed means that a person is not fully transgender.

iii) Her main thesis rather interesting. I do believe SOME of what she says is at least a "fair enough point"; including her insistence that transgenderism in AFABs has spiked in the last few years.
Scientists have to investigate this and answer "why" and, though I believe the assertion of "oh, well, trans people oppresed since there's a lot of transphobia" is at least to a degree true, affirming that that is the ONLY reason why this spike exists is just overreaching.
It begs the question, why are not middle age AFAB transitioning at the same amount as middle age AMAB. Historically speaking there have been a lot more males transitioning, is it all due to mysogyny and transphobia?? If it's easier to be a male, why hasn't that been an "incentive" for AFABs to transition before? Is such a difference entirely because of society... or there might be biological differences to consider? Why all these teenager girls present these issue while teens and not infants?
How should the scientific community improve the criteria to find out who could be a "false positive"? How does transgender ontogenesis begin to happen? Which teens are to be understood as the ones that are "really trans" and for which might be a good idea to transition?

iv) She brings several sources to the table, including people who has transitioned and are happy to have done so.
CAVEAT: She references Wikipedia... I mean, WTF?
She mostly interviews detransitioners which seems biased, then again one of her points is on that specific demographic, so...
Also, she does present people who are clearly transphobic. The example of the mother who "didn't know what could have happened" with the trans woman in the dressing room is plain condescending and insulting. What did she think would have happen? She clearly was implying that the worker was a pervert (possibly a sexual offender) just because they're trans. Yes, I agree with Shrier that many women (including myself) feel better with other females in certain jobs. I do think female OB-GYNs have better bed side manners than their males counterparts, so my OB-GYN is a female... but that's not to say that male OB-GYNs are possibly perverts and that "I don't know what would have happened" if one were to attend to me. What would happen? Nothing. That person would do their goddamn job and that's it.

v) She has said that she believes conservatives should extend the courtesy to use the pronouns and names of which the person feels most comfortable with.
CAVEAT: Yet she dead-names people... and uses the wrong pronouns with people who are adults. (Despite the fact that she pretends that she only does that with teens because they can't know for sure.)

vi) She makes a point in finding ways of reconciling children with their parents.
CAVEAT: At moments she sounds really naive considering that some parents might not be supportive. Like people will openly say they'll transphobes or homophobic.

vii) She makes a good case that the internet, Tumblr and whatnot are garbage, that teenagers look for information there and that some ideologues are too eager to push their agendas.

viii) I definitely agree with her that in case of doubt (ANY doubt), NOT doing anything permanent is better... and that in ambiguous cases, it might be better to wait.
CAVEAT: She seems to believe that even social transitioning is bad and presents an really bad anecdote of a Jewish woman who was made to pass as Catholic as a child in WWII as an example. Erm... What? As cherry on top of the cake, she presents this woman as a sad, pathetic excuse of a spinster Jew who doesn't even "feel" Jewish. WTF? How frigging condescending to that poor woman. Maybe she didn't want to get marry because she hates men or * insert whatever dumb reason *... but implying that all the misery in her life is because she had to pass as a Catholic is insane. Catholics are not that bad, for crying out loud. Not to say THAT HER WHOLE BOOK IS ABOUT HOW "FEELINGS" ARE NOT A DIAGNOSIS FOR TRANS PEOPLE... YET SHE CLAIMS "NOT FEELING JEWISH ENOUGH" IS A GOOD REASON TO PITY THIS WOMAN. It's like she picked the most subjective, tragic and convoluted example she found... the most disconnected from her point and then went "oh, well, here you go".

ix) I learned a couple of new things about the surgeries and hormone suppressors that I found interesting, like how losing your boobs makes your hips look wider. (So, trans men better be sure they want to go the whole way lest the mastectomy give them bigger dysphoria.)
I had read some stuff similar before about rhinoplasty and how a smaller nose makes the ears look bigger.

x) She makes a good case some stereotypes and wording for "females" is just plain insulting. Bleeders? Breeders? Way to demean women to just their genitals.

__
Definitely more research is needed in this area.
It's an interesting I'll be reading more about.

[Malola]

37. Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Knowledge and strength come from doing.

Recommended for people who are into epistles or narrations about the rural life.

As for the content of the book, it started slow and I felt like Elinore Pruitt Stewart (EPS) was sort of rambling sometimes; but the more I advanced (especially the second half), the clearer it became how lovely and lively this woman must have been.
How she found space for loving her neighbour while being cautious, to learn, to build bridges, to get upset at condescending people, to grief her boy and her husband, to enjoy her work, to believe again.
She was a definitely a dynamo. I loved her no nonsense attitude.

And her descriptions of how uplifting work can be or how beautiful trivial things like the moon shining behind the trees are, uff... Geezus. Beautiful and quite touching.
The book definitely stole a couple of smiles from me.

As for the narrator, Ms. Lynne Carroll, it was mostly good but I think she should regulated her voice a bit more.

[Malola]

38. Woman and the New Race

Well, this definitely didn't age well, that's for sure.

It was somewhat interesting. Margaret Sanger (MS) clearly tried to be as thorough as possible bringing as many statistics as she could to present her point properly.
I definitely believe her position is mostly out of compassion rather than racism or eugenics and whatnot. (But she was racist and she was pro-eugenics.) However, given that her statistics don't apply now (we understand a lot better of nutrition and overall health), a good chunk of her arguments go out the window.

Given how we understand ethics/morality nowadays, I can see why many people find this unappealing.
Well, as someone who's very pro-choice, I have to say that at least the overall message is good: Women should have autonomy over their own bodies... even in cases of conflict in rights. Stripping women from agency over their bodies is wrong and abortion does allow better family planning.
Is it better not to get pregnant in the first place? Well, DUH! But there are many events in a person's life (even during pregnancy) that make me her make that decision.

Anyways, the presentation of her ideas was mostly good, the content was good as well... But as I've postulated, some of her arguments hardly pass.

As for the narrator, Becky Cook, her voice suits well for this type of readings. Good intonation, very well paced. Definitely a reader I'd follow.

[Malola]

27. Más allá de la filosofía: escritos sobre cultura, arte y literatura

Well, Hannah Arendt, excellent as always.
The essays are quite good, I liked the type of analysis she presents and how she links it to "reality". Her unspoken dissertation on how art influences society and vice versa, as well as the value of art itself, magnificent.
I think I would have enjoyed the essays more if I were familiar with the works she is examining. Given my ignorance, I guess a good chunk of points went over my head.
He still gave me a good list of works that go to my TBR.

[Malola]

39. A Father of Women and Other Poems

Well, she knows how to rhyme, but I don't think her poems have that much gravitas.
It's like a laid-back read or just for listening while strolling.
It doesn't have that much philosophy on it, but overall it's nice.

The LibriVox readers did a fine job.
Their intonation was good.

[Malola]

40. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

I must admit my mind was running far away, so I wasn't listening attentively.
It could easily be that I listened only half the book with my undivided attention. Maybe even less. (Hence, this is a VERY lenient score. Should I give a low star rating if it was me the one with the lost mind?)

Let this not be taken as an insinuation of poor writing kills of Miss Bird. Quite the opposite, since this is the second book from I've read/listen, I can say I enjoy her style. (And yes, I will read/listen more from her).
The parts where I was most present were exquisite. The fact that the letters addressed to her sister were descriptive and joyful easily tell that Miss Bird was of a most interesting and adventurous character. Her ordeals are quite impressive considering the distances she travelled alone.

Also, though Bird was English, somehow the (slightly) Southern (?) accent of the reader perfectly set the imagery in front. Somehow it "made sense".

[Misty]

Malola wrote: "40. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains

I must admit my mind was running far away, so I wasn't listening attentively.
It could easily be that I listened only half the book with my..."

I am a composer, and I wrote a choral piece using words from this book!

[Malola]

7. Letters of Emily Dickinson

I died. This book killed me. You're reading the review of either a zombie, ghost or a kami.

This book was amazing. It's just amazing to me how lively and frolicsome Emily Dickison's letters/letter-poems were... yet when needed to be, the seriousness and gravitas where present. Even at such a young age (18), she had such a witty and vivid mind.
The allusions to nature, the allegories, the imagery, the double entendre, the tenderness, the love, the care, her never-ending desire to think about thoughts... This woman was at a whole different level. A philosopher in her own right.
At one point I just decided that, since I need to digest some of her ideas, I had read only 15-20 pages per day (top)... to give it time to sink in.

“I find ecstasy in living; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

So... it is a privilege to be alive... and it is a privilege to be able to read... and it is an even bigger privilege to be able to read Emily Dickinson's poetry, ruminate upon it and try to understand the many layers of it.

___
This is the edited version of Mabel Loomis Todd (MLT) which is public domain (that's why I got it). We all know now that she completely erased Sue Gilbert (SG) from history, so yeah... not one single letter dedicated to whom seemed to have been ED's one true love... But one can tell very easily that MLT really respected ED's talent. She recognised greatness and was smart enough to put into ink and have it published.
I can only imagine how good, candid and vulnerable are the letters addressed to SG.

[Malola]

"I am a composer, and I wrote a choral piece using words from this book!"

Oh, hi...
I missed your comment!
It'd be lovely to listen to the choral piece. Bird was amazing, so I'm guessing the piece is lively.

[Misty]

Malola wrote: "Oh, hi...
I missed your comment!
It'd be lovely to listen to the choral piece. Bird was amazing, so I'm guessing the piece is lively."

I was asked to write a piece for a concert that was showcasing Colorado and Colorado composers, so I looked to Bird for the text. I just fell in love with what she wrote about Long's Peak - which is a mountain I see every day. The recording isn't the best - the choir was still singing masked, so some of the words are lost and the "wind sounds" at the beginning and ending are muted, but I think you can get most of it. This choir is from Boulder, CO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCOSm...

[Malola]

Oh, wow... Thanks for sharing...
You're very talented.
It's a very beautiful composition, you've used one of Bird's most touching quotes.

[Misty]

Malola wrote: "Oh, wow... Thanks for sharing...
You're very talented.
It's a very beautiful composition, you've used one of Bird's most touching quotes."

Thanks. <3 <3 <3