Our Shared Shelf

Annotation :

Janvier 2016

Annotation :

Février 2016

Just an FYI - the books I am suggesting I haven't read myself. I am learning and reading for the first time with you. I am trying to choose works that cover as much ground as possible and are diverse... I've heard amazing things about this book from a person that I trust... The musical is currently on Broadway (starring Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson and Danielle Brooks) and a film was made of the book in 1985 by Steven Spielberg. It was Oprah Winfrey’s film debut and introduced Whoopi Goldberg (I love both of these women). I’m excited to read it and maybe do some watching too.

Love,
E xx

Annotation :

Mars 2016

This month's book choice is in honor of bell hooks who interviewed me for Paper magazine this month. Maya Angelou said of bell’s work, “Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, she has so much to give us’. I love hearing from bell, I am pretty excited to start “All About Love: New Visions". It’s been on my list for a while.

Love,
Emma x

Annotation :

Avril 2016

"Chère OSS,
Ce mois-ci, le livre que j’ai choisi, je l’avoue, je l’ai déjà lu. Mais il est tellement fantastique qu’il mérite d’être lu plus d’une fois.

Peut-être avez-vous lu l’article de Caitlin pour Esquire dont je suis l’invitée ce mois-ci (“12 choses à propos d’être une Femme que les Femmes ne vous disent pas »)… Peut-être avez-vous vu la promotion de son nouveau livre Moranifesto…Sinon, c’est une de mes héroïnes anglaises préférée qui, d’après moi, mérite d’être connue. Ceci mis à part, ce livre a été traduit dans beaucoup de langues et devrait être facile à se procurer.

Vous avez sûrement deviné que le livre d’Avril est ‘How to Be a Woman’. Je l’ai lu dans l’avion de Londres à New York et j’ai tellement ri et pleuré que je pense que toute la cabine, le personnel de la compagnie aérienne inclus, ont dû penser que je perdais la tête. (Pour les lecteurs rapides, je vais aussi lire Moranifesto)

Love,
Emma xx"

Annotation :

Mai 2016

"Pour notre prochain livre, j’ai cherché partout. Le club est beaucoup plus international que ce que j’avais pensé. Et bien plus gros ! Je suis très fière des membres de mon club, des discussions et des conseils. Vous faites tous du bon travail. Je recherche des livres qui sont accessibles, qui couvrent des points de vue et des langages multiples, qui sont uniques et peu connus…Donc, sans plus de cérémonie…

Notre prochain livre est The Argonauts de Maggie Nelson. L’histoire raconte la relation entre l’auteur et l’artiste Harry Dodge. C’est à propos de leur histoire d’amour, la naissance de leur fils, la mort de la mère d’Harry et le changement de leurs corps lorsque Maggie tombe enceinte et qu’Harry subit plusieurs opérations. Mais c’est aussi à propos de l’intégration et du manque de discussion. Ça peut demander un peu de travail mais The Argonauts nous récompense en nous donnant plus de possibilités d’envisager notre identité et notre liberté. J’ai hâte de lire ce livre avec vous. Peut-être changera-t-il la façon de parler et de penser sur nous-même et sur les autres?

J’espère que vous êtes satisfaits,
Em Wats X "

Annotation :

Juin 2016

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

For September & October, I’ve chosen a book that tackles inequality and women’s rights head-on: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Half the Sky depicts, in eye-opening detail, the various cultures and customs that suppress women and gives a voice to those individuals who need to be heard the most. Traversing through Africa and Asia, Kristof and WuDunn introduce us to some incredibly strong women and describe their stories of suffering and survival. Most importantly, the book spotlights how these women were able to stand up and transform their lives and, through their inspiring examples, we learn that the key to enabling change and economic growth is in unleashing women’s potential (the title of the book, after all, comes from the ancient Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky”). Kristof and WuDunn dare us, as readers, to join the cause and Half the Sky shows us how, by doing even a very small amount, we each have the power to change other women’s lives.

Since its publication in 2009 it has started a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org).

Hope you like,

love,

Emma

Annotation :

Septembre/ Octobre 2016

" Chère Our Shared Shelf,

Pour septembre et octobre, j’ai choisi un livre qui s’attaque de manière directe à l’inégalité et soutient le droit des femmes : Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

En traversant l’Asie et l’Afrique, Kristof et WuDunn nous présentent des femmes incroyablement courageuses et décrivent leurs histoires de souffrances et de survies. Plus important encore, le livre met en avant comment ces femmes ont réussi à résister et à changer leurs vies. A travers ces exemples exaltants, nous apprenons que la clé du changement et de la croissance économique est dans la libération des capacités féminines (après tout, le titre du livre vient d’un vieux proverbe chinois « Les femmes soutiennent la moitié du ciel »). Kristof et WiDunn nous appellent, en tant que lecteur, à rejoindre la cause et Half the Sky nous montre que nous avons chacun le pouvoir de changer la vie des autres femmes, juste en en faisant un tout petit peu.

Depuis sa publication en 2009, un mouvement planétaire a commencé:
(www.halftheskymovement.org).

J’espère que vous aimerez,

Amitiés,

Emma "

Annotation :

Novembre / Décembre 2016

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

November and December’s book will be Mom & Me & Mom, Maya Angelou’s final work, published a year before her death, in 2013, when she was 85 years old. It was the first book to focus on her mother, Vivian Baxter, who abandoned Angelou when she was a child and it portrays their complicated relationship. The story is about the special connection between mother and child; both women found a way to move on and form a profound and enduring bond of love and support.

Many of you may be familiar with Angelou’s 1969 classic, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but that was just the first of seven works of autobiography. And, despite the length of time between their publications, some have referred to Mom & Me & Mom as a spiritual sequel to this first book. Angelou revisits episodes and people in her life mentioned in her previous works in a different context and all focused around her relationship with her mother.

Vivian Baxter cuts a fiercely unapologetic figure, imperfect but admirable, and we discover not just how she had a hand in Angelou’s evolution as a black woman but also in her feminist perspective, her independence and self-awareness, all of which contributed to her unique way of looking at the world and the way she expressed herself on the page. As a result, this is perhaps the greatest window into what shaped Angelou as a writer and poet and a fitting end to a lifetime of amazing works.

This book is one I have read before and is one of my favourites - I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Emma x

Annotation :

Janvier/ Février 2017

" Chère Our Shared Shelf,

Ce livre n’est pas uniquement un livre : c’est une pièce de théâtre qui est devenue un mouvement politique puis un phénomène mondial. Comme l’annonce le titre : « Les monologues du vagin » et même 20 ans après, la première de ce spectacle révolutionnaire, les mots sont toujours percutants. Je suis impatiente de passer les mois de janvier et de février à lire et discuter de ce livre/pièce qui a littéralement changé des vies.

La première personne dont la vie a changé fut celle de la dramaturge Eve Ensler. Elle fut fasciné de se rendre compte que l’on n’utilisait jamais le mot « vagin » et comment celui-ci était gardé dans l’obscurité comme si c’était honteux d’en discuter. De ce fait, elle a commencé à interviewer des femmes à propos de leur vagin, les conduisant à se confier à elle. Une fois que les femmes ont commencé à parler, les histoires ont affluées rapidement et Eve les a regroupées dans une série de monologues pour les jouer sur scène.

Lorsque la pièce fut jouée pour la première fois en 1996, c’était une petite production en dehors de Broadway. Mais très rapidement elle a commencé à faire de grosses vagues controversées. C’était l’époque de la guerre de Bosnie-Herzégovine et des histoires terribles ont émergées de viols de femmes bosniaques. L’un des monologues a été inspiré par ces histoires. De ces premières représentations est né le mouvement V-Day pour arrêter la violence faite aux femmes. Le premier V-Day a eu lieu le jour de la Saint Valentin en 1998 lorsqu’un groupe d’actrices très connues se sont unies pour jouer les monologues d’Eve. Depuis ce jour, le mouvement V-Day est devenu international. « Les monologues du vagin » sont joués dans les théâtres et les universités du monde entier. Aujourd’hui encore, certaines personnes essaient d’interdire ces représentations.

Je suis très intéressée de voir quels monologues nous préférons et ceux qui nous choquent encore. Est-ce que le monde a bougé en 20 ans ou est-ce encore des aspects de la sexualité féminine dont nous ne pouvons toujours pas discuter ? Est-ce à cause de nos propres peurs ou est-ce que les autres essaient de nous arrêter ? Est-ce que nous pensons que l’art peut changer le monde ?

Emma x "

Annotation :

Mars /Avril 2017

"Dear Our Shared Shelf,

When WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES was first published in 1993, it created a furore about the idea of the Wild Woman archetype and how women had lost our connection to our natural, instinctual selves. Jungian psychoanalyst, poet, and keeper of old stories Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book went to sell over 2 million copies, but today her fascinating book is rarely discussed. Estes’ ideas are both ancient and completely new. She points to storytelling, our ancient narratives, as a way for women to reconnect to the Wild Woman all women have within themselves, but have lost.

As a young girl growing up in northern Michigan, Estes felt most at home in the woods where she often heard wolves howling. Instead of scaring her, the animals’ cries comforted her in a way she was later able to express in this book. Wolves and women share many qualities: playfulness, strength, curiosity, bravery, they are adaptive, and each care deeply for their young. But both wolves and women have suffered a similar fate of being hounded, harassed, exhausted, marginalized, accused of being devious and of little value. How does one reconnect with our deepest, most true selves when today’s world demands us to conform to ridiculous expectations? Estes retells ancient myths and fairy tales from around the world and in doing so shines a light on a path which leads us back to our natural state --- and help us restore the power we carry within us.

Emma x"

Annotation :

Mai/ Juin 2017

" Chère Our Shared Shelf,

Notre prochain livre est La Servante écarlate de Margaret Atwood. C’est une lecture captivante mais elle vous rendra mal à l’aise. Ç’est une dystopie qui se déroule dans le futur et dans laquelle la société (anciennement les Etats-Unis) est gouvernée par une religion fondamentaliste qui contrôle le corps des femmes. Parce que les taux de fertilité sont bas, certaines femmes ayant prouvé qu’elles étaient fertiles, sont données aux Commandants de la « République de Gilead » en tant que « Servantes » afin de porter leurs enfants lorsque leurs femmes ne peuvent pas en avoir. Le roman prétend être le premier compte-rendu d’une servante, Defred, qui décrit sa vie sous ce régime totalitaire. D’après les flashbacks, elle pensait pouvoir être une mère qui travaille tout en ayant une relation d’égalité avec son mari. Ceci nous montre à quel point il est facile de révoquer les droits des femmes quand une période de chaos social intervient. Alors que la tension augmente, le lecteur souhaite désespérément que la résistance vienne en aide à Defred et la sauve.

Margaret Atwood a écrit La Servante écarlate il y a un peu plus de trente à présent mais c’est un livre qui n’a jamais arrêté de fasciner les lecteurs parce qu’il exprime d’une manière saisissante ce que cela fait à une femme de perdre le pouvoir sur son propre corps. Comme dans 1984 de George Orwell (un roman qui a inspiré Atwood) rien que le titre donne tout un tas d’idées, même à ceux qui ne l’ont pas lu. Comme l’a dit Atwood dans une interview : « C’est devenu une sorte de marque repère pour tous ceux qui écrivent sur les changements d’une société visant à contrôler les femmes, en particulier leur corps et leur fonction de reproduction : c’est quelque chose sorti tout droit de La Servante écarlate. »

Eh bien, voici notre chance de lire au travers de cette « marque » ! Atwood a appelé ça de la « fiction spéculative » mais elle dit aussi que toutes les pratiques décrites dans le roman sont « tirées de documents historiques ». C’est-à-dire qu’il y a des choses qui se sont produites dans le passé. Est-ce que l’une des spéculations d’Atwood pourrait se reproduire ou est-ce que certaines se produisent déjà ? Est-ce que les femmes dans le livre sont impuissantes dans l’oppression ou est-ce qu’elles pourraient en faire plus pour la combattre ?
J’ai hâte de lire ce que vous en pensez.

Emma x "

Annotation :

Juillet-Août 2017

"Dear Our Shared Shelf,

A myth this month, by Naomi Wolf.

Hope you enjoy,
E xx"

Annotation :

Septembre-Octobre 2017

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

Roxane Gay describes her book ‘Hunger’ as a “memoir about my body”. It traverses many of the issues surrounding our human bodies, the sexual experiences we have, our relationship with food, how we feel about our own bodies and the difference gender has to play on a body… When exploring how society treats people of her size, Gay asks: “What does it say about our culture that the desire for weight loss is considered a default feature of womanhood?”

What struck me the most about the book is Roxane’s searing honesty. We know that there are many people of all genders who do not feel they can talk about their experiences - who live their lives carrying the huge burden of abuse and trauma. As the author suggests, many people do not realise the suffering that follows an act like the one Roxane experienced, and how it can completely alter the way the victim identifies with themselves and others.

While parts of the book are difficult to read, it highlights the very real damage done by sexual violence and puts you in the mind and body of someone that has to move through the world in a different way. A small insight or perspective I feel grateful for now having and understanding a little bit better.

I am also re-reading essays from Gay’s ‘Bad Feminist’. We put such high expectations on ourselves as feminists, on other feminists, and the movement as a whole. It feels like such a relief to take ownership of words like “nasty woman” and “bad feminist”. They don’t have so much power this way and maybe they remind us not to hold ourselves and others to unreasonably high standards - we are all human after all and at different moments of our learning journeys. We need to feel free to be on those journeys and make mistakes. I hope if you get time you’ll enjoy what she has to say about this too.

Love,
Emma

Annotation :

Novembre-Décembre 2017

Annotation :

Janvier-Février 2018

Dear OSS,

There is so much racism, both in our past and present, that is not acknowledged and accounted for. I know this to be the case from my own education, and I know there is so much more for me to learn. This is why I’m excited to announce that our first book of 2018 is Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge which talks about the history of racism in Britain, and ways we can see, acknowledge and challenge racism. I am not supposed to have favourites, however this was the most important book for me this year.

When I gave my UN speech in 2015, so much of what I said was about the idea that “being a feminist is simple!” Easy! No problem! I have since learned that being a feminist is more than a single choice or decision. It’s an interrogation of self. Every time I think I’ve peeled all the layers, there’s another layer to peel. But, I also understand that the most difficult journeys are often the most worthwhile. And that this process cannot be done at anyone else’s pace or speed.

When I heard myself being called a “white feminist” I didn’t understand (I suppose I proved their case in point). What was the need to define me — or anyone else for that matter — as a feminist by race? What did this mean? Was I being called racist? Was the feminist movement more fractured than I had understood? I began...panicking.

It would have been more useful to spend the time asking myself questions like: What are the ways I have benefited from being white? In what ways do I support and uphold a system that is structurally racist? How do my race, class and gender affect my perspective? There seemed to be many types of feminists and feminism. But instead of seeing these differences as divisive, I could have asked whether defining them was actually empowering and bringing about better understanding. But I didn’t know to ask these questions.

I met a woman this year named Happy who works for an organization called Mama Cash and she told me this about her long history working in the women’s sector: “Call me out. But if you’re going to call me out, walk alongside me as I do the work”. Working alongside women like Happy is a privilege. As human beings, as friends, as family members, as partners, we all have blind spots; we need people that love us to call us out and then walk with us while we do the work.

This has been an amazing two years for me, working on Our Shared Shelf. There were moments when I wondered whethe

Annotation :

Mars-Avril 2018

Dear OSS,

One of the most memorable moments of the year for me, so far, was the honor of walking beside activist and friend, Marai Larasi at the Golden Globes. Along with learning that movements are both rewarding and really hard work, my involvement with #TimesUp in the UK and in the States is showing me how much we can do together when we stand in solidarity and how incredibly important it is for those who have privilege to use whatever they can to amplify the voices of those who are less often listened to. These are a few of the many reasons why I have chosen Terese Marie Mailhot’s Heart Berries for this month’s book.

Having always felt deeply impatient and limited by having to express myself in perfect grammar and punctuation (this was pre-apostrophe gate!), I am quietly reveling in the profundity of Mailhot’s deliberate transgression in Heart Berries and its perfect results. I love her suspicion of words. I have always been terrified and in awe of the power of words – but Mailhot does not let them silence her in Heart Berries. She finds the purest way to say what she needs to say. She refines… How beautiful are these sentences?

“I learned to make a honey reduction of the ugly sentences. Still my voice cracks.”

“When you told me, I want too much I considered how much you take.”

“I feel like my body is being drawn through a syringe.”

“I felt breathless, like every question was a step up a stairway.”

“Nothing is too ugly for this world I think it’s just that people pretend not to see.”

“I woke up as the bones of my ancestors locked in government storage.”

I won’t go on because I don’t want to ruin this book for you, but the writing is so good it’s hard not to temporarily be distracted from the content or narrative by its brilliance.

In her first paragraph, Mailhot writes, "The words were too wrong and ugly to speak. I tried to tell someone my story, but he thought it was a hustle." Space is needed for pain; people need to be believed and to be able to tell their stories. Roxane Gay says it so perfectly when she describes the book as an "open wound, a need, naked and unapologetic." Perhaps, because this author so generously allows us to be her witness, we are somehow able to see ourselves more clearly and become better witnesses to ourselves. This has certainly been my experience.

It feels right and vastly overdue to be reading a story from a First Nation woman with her perspective of a colonial world. I loved her keen obser

Annotation :

Mai-Juin 2018

Dear OSS Members:

This was such a fun poll to watch, full of twists and turns, like a good mystery novel. And you submitted some incredible book recommendations! In fact, we had such positive feedback and wonderful suggestions that we’re going to make the OSS Readers’ Choice a regular feature.

With two amazing books at the top that were so close in votes, we decided to declare double winners for May/June.

So, we are extremely excited to announce the first place winner: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas’ extraordinary debut novel, originally written for the YA market, carries a critically important and urgent message about how gun violence, racism and police brutality disproportionately affect communities of color. This ground-breaking book transcends any age bracket and we think it should be required reading for, well, everyone. With intelligence, heart and unflinching honesty, author Angie Thomas makes us laugh, cry and cheer, while 16 year-old Starr finds her voice and a way to fight the system. We’ve had our eye on this award-winner and were saving it for a future pick, but are thrilled that you beat us to it. As an added plus, for our global OSS family, the publisher tells us the book has been translated into over 20 languages.

Coming in a very close second, we are equally inspired to see that you selected: Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

When Kate Moore found out that her book was in the running for OSS’s May/June selection, she gave us a shout out on Twitter. Don’t know if this boosted the vote, but we do know that this is a brilliant nonfiction book, so compellingly told, that it reads like fiction and deserves wide-spread attention. Sadly, the tragic stories here are true and as a recent news article stated "The Radium Girls - Still Glowing in Their Coffins.” Because of the way Kate Moore brings the science, personal stories and facts to light, we know what these unsuspecting women (as young as 16) endured. Their brave efforts fighting the US Radium Corporation to bring justice created milestones for modern occupational hazard law and reveal what we know today about radium’s effect on the human body.

So, please let us know what you’re planning to read. And we want you to know that we are continually astounded with the quality and depth of thought-provoking dialogue that you contribute to Our Shared Shelf. It makes us feel very proud to be part of building this wise and welcom

Annotation :

Mai-Juin 2018

Dear OSS Members:

This was such a fun poll to watch, full of twists and turns, like a good mystery novel. And you submitted some incredible book recommendations! In fact, we had such positive feedback and wonderful suggestions that we’re going to make the OSS Readers’ Choice a regular feature.

With two amazing books at the top that were so close in votes, we decided to declare double winners for May/June.

So, we are extremely excited to announce the first place winner: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas’ extraordinary debut novel, originally written for the YA market, carries a critically important and urgent message about how gun violence, racism and police brutality disproportionately affect communities of color. This ground-breaking book transcends any age bracket and we think it should be required reading for, well, everyone. With intelligence, heart and unflinching honesty, author Angie Thomas makes us laugh, cry and cheer, while 16 year-old Starr finds her voice and a way to fight the system. We’ve had our eye on this award-winner and were saving it for a future pick, but are thrilled that you beat us to it. As an added plus, for our global OSS family, the publisher tells us the book has been translated into over 20 languages.

Coming in a very close second, we are equally inspired to see that you selected: Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

When Kate Moore found out that her book was in the running for OSS’s May/June selection, she gave us a shout out on Twitter. Don’t know if this boosted the vote, but we do know that this is a brilliant nonfiction book, so compellingly told, that it reads like fiction and deserves wide-spread attention. Sadly, the tragic stories here are true and as a recent news article stated "The Radium Girls - Still Glowing in Their Coffins.” Because of the way Kate Moore brings the science, personal stories and facts to light, we know what these unsuspecting women (as young as 16) endured. Their brave efforts fighting the US Radium Corporation to bring justice created milestones for modern occupational hazard law and reveal what we know today about radium’s effect on the human body.

So, please let us know what you’re planning to read. And we want you to know that we are continually astounded with the quality and depth of thought-provoking dialogue that you contribute to Our Shared Shelf. It makes us feel very proud to be part of building this wise and welcom

Annotation :

Juillet-Août 2018

Dear OSS Members,

I am excited to announce that July/August's pick for Our Shared Shelf is our first poet, Rupi Kaur, and her book of poems Milk and Honey. Rupi Kaur is an Indian-born, Canadian-raised poet and artist. She chooses not to use upper case letters or punctuation in her poems as an ode to her native language, Punjabi. She travels the world, including recently to her native country India, performing her poems and drawing crowds of hundreds. Both of her books, Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers, have made the New York Times bestseller list, which for a poet, is astonishing.

Over my lifetime, I have fallen in and out of love with poetry. Performing poems was what got me into acting (I had a primary school teacher that made everyone learn one a week, and eventually I won a poetry recital competition!) In secondary school and at university, I loved deciphering the codes of poems in class discussion, but I honestly wondered if poetry would continue to feature in my life outside of an academic context.

Enter poets like Hollie McNish, Sabrina Mahfouz and Rupi Kaur- I demolished whole books in single sittings. Unlike poems I have often spent weeks unraveling, Rupi’s poems are not designed to obscure meaning or entertain too much ambiguity - they hit you like punches to the stomach. They are immediate, visceral and not easily digested. I am loathe to say Rupi has made poetry “accessible” because while this is the truth (Rupi’s poems and illustrations fit well into those famously square shaped Instagram frames), there is nothing easy or accessible about what Rupi chooses to talk about. In fact, the topics she chooses, are audacious.

Here is a 25-year-old girl saying the unsayable… to hundreds of thousands of people:
that she has been raped, that at times she has been abused, that she bleeds. And sin of all sins… she actually likes the hair that grows on her body. Yes. She actually thinks it is beautiful. And that she is beautiful as God made her - what a transgression. That her body is her home and nobody else's.

The last chapter of Rupi’s book is called ‘The healing’. I am astounded to think what grew in the garden of her heartbreak. Her sharing, leadership and representation is so generous and brave. I will be forever grateful that she took subjects, that as a woman, I still carry shame about, and made them art. It took me an extra step forward and gave me new language.

All my love,
Emma

Annotation :

Septembre-Octobre 2018

Dear OSS Members:

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”

It’s one of the most famous first lines of any book and we are thrilled to announce that the winner of the Sept/Oct Members’ Choice Poll - Women Authors: The Horror, is Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier by a significant margin. This time, the classics dominated the field with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson coming in second and third.

So many of the books on this list sounded fascinating, even for those of us who are big scaredy cats and we hope to hear more discussion on any of these books on the list from our members.

While Rebecca is more of a gothic thriller, it definitely explores feminist themes: constraints of gender and class restrictions of society and a critique of marriage. There are three important, well-drawn and central female characters. The film version of the book definitely passes the Bechdel test. Also, note the number of times that Du Maurier mentions a female character that should have been a boy, or felt like a boy. Before the word transgender was popular, Du Maurier expressed feelings of being a boy trapped in a girl’s body. From her letters, we know she had love affairs with women, yet did not view herself as a lesbian and was committed to staying married to her husband.

Thinking about horror in feminist terms and why gothic thrillers have been immensely popular with women since the eighteenth century got us thinking about how it’s more than escapism from social convention. Is horror a mirror for our shock and fear, providing a safe, screaming outlet amidst all the too-real terrors of the patriarchy?

This book pick is an all-time favorite of moderator, Katelyn, and she writes: Women authors have always been a force in the horror, thriller and gothic genres. The supernatural provides us with a way to mediate the oft-inexpressible challenges of being a woman. And reading books from these genres may give us additional opportunities to think through and understand our struggles. Not to mention, it’s always fun to read something scary in the autumn.

We can’t wait to hear what you have to say about the book. Happy, haunted reading!

Love,

Team Our Shared Shelf x

Annotation :

Novembre-Décembre 2018

Dear Our Shared Shelf Readers,

We are honored to be able to begin a conversation with you about the power and consequence of women’s rage, both personal and political. We could not be prouder or more excited that Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, and Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger have been selected as the Our Shared Shelf books for November/December 2018.

The famed feminist activist, poet, and essayist Audre Lorde was one of the foremost thinkers on the importance of anger. In her essay, “The Uses of Anger,” which you will get to read in her book Sister Outsider, she wrote, “every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”

To encounter these words is to be changed by them. We have been changed by them. And we hope that women’s anger, put to use within progressive coalitions in which fury is expressed and treated as instructive, will in turn have the power to change the world.

In this period, as we reckon with the rise of hard right authoritarian regimes around the world, many determined to roll back human rights—the very freedoms generations of angry women before us worked to win—today’s women are again being called to embrace our rage–its force, its potential, its messy complications. The fight against global patriarchy is far from over. Violence abounds but so does the possibility of building a new world from the wreckage of the old one.

To that end, and just as crucial as the call to angry expression, is the responsibility—instilled by Lorde—to listen with curiosity and respect to the rage of the women around us.

Our books, Eloquent Rage and Good and Mad, are an invitation into a conversation across race, across cultural contexts, across the things that make us both different and the same. If you are ready to come to terms with your anger, with the good, the bad, and the ugly of it, then you will enjoy—and perhaps find your tongues, your ears, your heads and hearts—liberated by these books.

Rebecca’s book Good and Mad will give you a deep and engaging (and sometimes enraging) historical deep dive into the way that women’s anger has been used throughout history to drive social movements, as well as about how

Annotation :

Novembre-Décembre 2018

Dear Our Shared Shelf Readers,

We are honored to be able to begin a conversation with you about the power and consequence of women’s rage, both personal and political. We could not be prouder or more excited that Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, and Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger have been selected as the Our Shared Shelf books for November/December 2018.

The famed feminist activist, poet, and essayist Audre Lorde was one of the foremost thinkers on the importance of anger. In her essay, “The Uses of Anger,” which you will get to read in her book Sister Outsider, she wrote, “every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”

To encounter these words is to be changed by them. We have been changed by them. And we hope that women’s anger, put to use within progressive coalitions in which fury is expressed and treated as instructive, will in turn have the power to change the world.

In this period, as we reckon with the rise of hard right authoritarian regimes around the world, many determined to roll back human rights—the very freedoms generations of angry women before us worked to win—today’s women are again being called to embrace our rage–its force, its potential, its messy complications. The fight against global patriarchy is far from over. Violence abounds but so does the possibility of building a new world from the wreckage of the old one.

To that end, and just as crucial as the call to angry expression, is the responsibility—instilled by Lorde—to listen with curiosity and respect to the rage of the women around us.

Our books, Eloquent Rage and Good and Mad, are an invitation into a conversation across race, across cultural contexts, across the things that make us both different and the same. If you are ready to come to terms with your anger, with the good, the bad, and the ugly of it, then you will enjoy—and perhaps find your tongues, your ears, your heads and hearts—liberated by these books.

Rebecca’s book Good and Mad will give you a deep and engaging (and sometimes enraging) historical deep dive into the way that women’s anger has been used throughout history to drive social movements, as well as about how

Annotation :

Novembre-Décembre 2018

Dear Our Shared Shelf Readers,

We are honored to be able to begin a conversation with you about the power and consequence of women’s rage, both personal and political. We could not be prouder or more excited that Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider, Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, and Rebecca Traister’s Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger have been selected as the Our Shared Shelf books for November/December 2018.

The famed feminist activist, poet, and essayist Audre Lorde was one of the foremost thinkers on the importance of anger. In her essay, “The Uses of Anger,” which you will get to read in her book Sister Outsider, she wrote, “every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”

To encounter these words is to be changed by them. We have been changed by them. And we hope that women’s anger, put to use within progressive coalitions in which fury is expressed and treated as instructive, will in turn have the power to change the world.

In this period, as we reckon with the rise of hard right authoritarian regimes around the world, many determined to roll back human rights—the very freedoms generations of angry women before us worked to win—today’s women are again being called to embrace our rage–its force, its potential, its messy complications. The fight against global patriarchy is far from over. Violence abounds but so does the possibility of building a new world from the wreckage of the old one.

To that end, and just as crucial as the call to angry expression, is the responsibility—instilled by Lorde—to listen with curiosity and respect to the rage of the women around us.

Our books, Eloquent Rage and Good and Mad, are an invitation into a conversation across race, across cultural contexts, across the things that make us both different and the same. If you are ready to come to terms with your anger, with the good, the bad, and the ugly of it, then you will enjoy—and perhaps find your tongues, your ears, your heads and hearts—liberated by these books.

Rebecca’s book Good and Mad will give you a deep and engaging (and sometimes enraging) historical deep dive into the way that women’s anger has been used throughout history to drive social movements, as well as about how

Annotation :

Janvier-Février 2019

Dear Our Shared Shelf:
Our selection for January/February 2019, is: The Things I Would Tell You: British-Muslim Women Write edited by Sabrina Mahfouz. This empowering anthology of essays, poems, opinions and stories from emerging and renowned writers help begin to reveal a rich and complex picture of Muslim women. In the face of Brexit, media misrepresentations, documented intolerance and violent acts of Islamophobia around the world, we are honored to be able to amplify these diverse voices of British-Muslim women who inspire us with their insight, passion and experience.

As a special treat, we asked poet, writer and editor, Sabrina Mahfouz, if she would share a short introduction to this book, especially for Our Shared Shelf members. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

The new year is a time of hope and reflection. One stark observation that stood out to me is how the policing of women’s bodies as an oppressive global obsession seemed to increase during 2018. Among countless examples, one was Egyptian actress, Rania Youssef, facing criminal trial for wearing a ‘revealing’ dress to Cairo film festival. Then Denmark became the latest European country to ban ‘face covering veils’. It happens differently in places but has the same misogyny at its root. Growing up between Europe and the Middle East, I have seen women in one country being legally banned from wearing something that in another, they are legally forced to wear. This constant shift over the decades, reminds me of the phrase ‘that which unites us is far greater than that which divides us’. Yet, those supposed divisions must be examined in order for meaningful unification to be possible. In some areas of the UK, including London, Muslim women wearing Islamic clothing have reported being unable to leave the house due to the increase in physical and verbal attacks. This Islamophobia, enabled partly by non- and/or misrepresentation of Muslims, continues to be stoked by politicians and the media. We must counteract this fear and misperception at every possible turn, and I hope this book, along with being entertaining and enjoyable, can shake up the representation of Muslim women in some small way.

The contributors to this anthology are an inspirational force. They offer the reader a range of styles (fiction, memoir, opinion, poetry and dramatic writing), striking stories, thoughts and experiences. The fact that these women all have a British and a Muslim identity is importa

Annotation :

Mars-Avril 2019

Kai Cheng Thom, our next Our Shared Shelf author, describes herself as “a spoken word performer, lasagna lover, wicked witch, and community worker based in Toronto, Canada, a city that stands on unceded Indigenous territory.”

As if that isn't enough to make you curious… It's the book cover of her first novel, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir that draws you in. It just LOOKS like a fun adventure. And indeed, it walks the tightrope between contradictions - serious and fun, fantasy and reality, poetry and prose, memoir and fiction, delicate and violent.

Set in the Street of Miracles, our protagonist (who happens to be a kung-fu expert and pathological liar) joins a gang of glamorous warrior femmes. It’s a story of broken hearts and healing sisterhoods. Thom says:

"The basic idea for Fierce Femmes was to create a loving homage
and critical re-imagining of the transgender memoir genre. For many
generations, trans writers have been pigeonholed into writing memoirs
that are intended to educate cis people about the reality of trans life.
They were denied opportunities to publish in more creative and
fantastical ways. Fierce Femmes is a response to all that, and a
role reversal of the stereotypically, tragic portrayal of trans women
characters - rather than simply experiencing the violence of a
transphobic world passively, my characters dare to fight back,
even when it takes them down some morally questionable paths."

Kai Cheng Thom weaves a story complete with mermaids, killer bees, kingdoms, ghosts and battles! Fairy tales like King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table captured my imagination as a child…the aliveness of Ovid’s Metamorphoses stories still resonate for me. I love that Thom uses both the otherworldly and the story archetypes of mysticism and transformation we know so well to tell us something new.

Many of us have been encouraged to see gender as binary. In some languages even inanimate objects are gendered! But you wouldn’t try and gender a unicorn, would you? It’s just a unicorn. I love that this book makes us transcend the ordinary and therefore transcend the usual dogma and boundaries our past makes us hold on to.

Naming the protagonist a notorious liar makes me think about the unreliable or mythical narrator…if the past is a tactile thing, we have the power to shape our stories, not just to others, but to ourselves. If we can reimagine our past, we can re-mold it;

Annotation :

Mai-Juin 2019

Dear Our Shared Shelf:

We are extremely excited to announce that our selection for May/June is: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. This National Book Award finalist was included on 75 Best Books of the Year lists when it debuted. We were aware of the discrimination that Koreans living in Japan faced and still endure today, but were wholly unprepared for how Lee’s writing captivated us from the very first sentence and never let go: “History has failed us, but no matter.”

Min Jin Lee is unabashedly a feminist and her resilient female characters propel this riveting story. Lee has written a moving, historical saga that is also a timeless masterpiece; almost 500 pages long, and we didn’t want it to end. This brilliant, eye-opening novel is about outsiders, minorities, the disenfranchised and yet somehow embraces us all.

We asked the author if she would share an introduction to herself and the book for Our Shared Shelf members and she graciously agreed. All of us at Team OSS are looking forward to discussing Pachinko with you.

With love,

Team OSS

Annotation :

Juillet-Août 2019

Dear Our Shared Shelf Members:

The words we use are important. As readers, writers and storytellers, we know this. The names we use and those used by others to label us are important, too.

Terms like: “Illegal alien” are intentionally misleading. How can personhood be illegal? If a person is “alien”, isn’t it easier to imagine they are not like you or me? Is this how one begins to justify separating young children from their parents, even though seeking asylum is not a crime? If we are opposed to criminalizing refugees or detaining children without adequate food, hygiene or sleeping conditions, we must resist the labeling, the dehumanizing rhetoric. And to that end, we turn to the narratives of people behind the news headlines.

Our two OSS book choices for July/August help shine a spotlight on the astonishing, bravely-told stories of young people forced to flee their homes. We are honored to have introductions from Soledad Castillo, a narrator from Solito/Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, edited by Stephen Mayers and Jonathan Freedman and Yusra Mardini, author of Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph.

These narratives moved us deeply and we hope you will feel the same. We understand that not everyone will read two books – so let us know which one you choose and please join us for some much-needed dialogue.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf

Annotation :

Juillet-Août 2019
Dear Our Shared Shelf Members:

The words we use are important. As readers, writers and storytellers, we know this. The names we use and those used by others to label us are important, too.

Terms like: “Illegal alien” are intentionally misleading. How can personhood be illegal? If a person is “alien”, isn’t it easier to imagine they are not like you or me? Is this how one begins to justify separating young children from their parents, even though seeking asylum is not a crime? If we are opposed to criminalizing refugees or detaining children without adequate food, hygiene or sleeping conditions, we must resist the labeling, the dehumanizing rhetoric. And to that end, we turn to the narratives of people behind the news headlines.

Our two OSS book choices for July/August help shine a spotlight on the astonishing, bravely-told stories of young people forced to flee their homes. We are honored to have introductions from Soledad Castillo, a narrator from Solito/Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America, edited by Stephen Mayers and Jonathan Freedman and Yusra Mardini, author of Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph.

These narratives moved us deeply and we hope you will feel the same. We understand that not everyone will read two books – so let us know which one you choose and please join us for some much-needed dialogue.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf

Annotation :

Septembre/Octobre 2019
Dear Our Shared Shelf Members:

We feel the weight of a world without Toni Morrison in it. A brilliant novelist, editor, essayist and professor, we are fortunate that her prolific writings and interviews remain to console us, inspire us and set us straight.

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the
measure of our lives.”
-Toni Morrison during her 1993 Nobel Lecture

We are pleased to announce that the Toni Morrison book you have chosen via our OSS Members Choice poll for September/October is Beloved. Inspired by the story of Margaret Garner, a slave who escaped Kentucky and fled to Ohio with her children, this book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Toni Morrison’s lyrical prose contrasts with the horrific spectre of slavery and manages to be both beautiful and devastating all at once.

We hope you are able to read along with us. This book is a true classic and an important one to deepen understanding and dialogue around race and the heavy legacy of slavery. We look forward to your topics, comments and reviews. Please also feel free to tag us in your pictures with it on social media @oursharedshelf.

With love,

Team Our Shared Shelf