Feminist books you’ve lied about reading

Ha! I found Farai Chideya. Okay, she wasn’t lost, but since wack-ass NPR cancelled the only show featuring black folks, the former host is doing her thing hither and yon. She was guest host for WYNC’s Takeaway and had an interesting discussion on books that people lie about reading.

Tolstoy’s War & Peace came up a lot. Why? Because it’s the thicketst book people can think of? Is the advent of the e-reader going to change the terms of the books we lie about reading if we don’t have a physical text as our prop?

More importantly to this blog: hit us up in the comments with the feminist book you’ve lied about reading. Go on, you naughty mix, fess up!

4everuppity: Is it a lie if everyone just assumes you’ve read it? Or if you can’t remember reading it, but swear you must have because you had to take qualifying exams on it? Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex.

Umm, Yummy Books

There’s nothing like the refuge of books when the real world’s got a feminist down. We all need a place to hide from coverage of Sarah Palin et. al (and especially our own coverage of Palin et. al).

Books can be infuriating too, however, especially when you like literary candy but hate chick lit. My go-to has always been mystery novels with feisty protagonists. My mystery obsession began in childhood with Trixie Belden books, and unlike my love of the Dukes of Hazard (I had their racetrack), it’s lasted so long, I daresay my deathbed will be littered with mystery novels.

Two gems that I’ve been powering through in election 08 season:

Denise Mina’s Paddy Meehan series: I love Paddy Meehan, daughter of a large working class Catholic family in Glasgow, who begins the series as a copyboy and wannabe journalist and starts the third book as columnist and true crime writer. Sure, Meehan solves mysteries, and good ones too. But it’s the way that she seeks solace and love in the complex social matrix of her life that has me hooked on this series. Mina’s writing is lovely, and her history of Glasgow in the 80s and 90s as presented through Paddy’s point of view is riveting.

Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks Series: Men can be feisty too, and it’s impossible not to like protagonist Alan Banks. The landscape of Yorkshire, where the novels are set, becomes a palpable character in the stories as well. Best of all, there are more than 15 Banks books. I haven’t been this thrilled to discover a series since I decided to give Dennis Lehane a try, despite wanting to gnaw off my hand in the movie version of Mystic River, and found myself riveted.

I do like stand alones (Tana French’s recent Into the Woods, Kate Atkinsons’ Case Histories), but I love finding older series with lots of titles oh so much more. If you have recommendations, post them here, and cheers to a little escapism in election season ‘08.

htg03