SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.
Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith
“Zadie Smith novels are beautiful but I’ve always admired her as an essayist. This collection is everything I love about Smith – she writes fluidly and easily moves from literary criticism to journalism to movie/pop culture criticism. In my favorite essay, she discusses reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and her struggle to reconcile her desire to an objective critic with her “extraliterary” affection for the book as a black woman. The essays are scholarly yet funny, and fun to read – she writes beautifully on a wide range of topics, from the merits of reading David Foster Wallace, to her father’s role in WWII to the disappointment in Get Rich or Die Tryin’.”
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I wanted to love this book before I even read it because Adichie is a fellow Nigerian and it’s about time that another African book besides Things Fall Apart gets on the school reading list. The novel is set in the 1960s and tells the story of three characters during a violent period when citizens of eastern Nigeria fought unsuccessfully to establish an independent state of Biafra. I love historical fiction and this one is so well written. For a book that focuses on war and its ugliness, it captures the beauty of Nigeria and Africa so well.”
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
“I try to read this book once every year. I love it because it introduced me to Bryson whose works I love. His books are funny, light, non-fiction that’s great for a plane ride or the beach. This is probably one of Bryson’s heaviest works (both in its size and subject). It tells the scientific story of everything, starting with the Big Bang Theory to the rise of Homo Sapiens. I love the clarity of the writing and the fact that Bryson doesn’t just delve into the science (astronomy, paleontology, physics, etc.) but also into the lives of the people who discover and test these theories. I’m always humbled by how little science I know when I read this book — it definitely makes me wish I paid more attention in science class.”
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideasby David Borenstein
“I read this book my first year of college and it had a profound influence on how I see the world. It tells the story of different social entrepreneurs, people who are applying business-based principles to bring about social change. This book was the start of a fascination with social change that led me to Muhammad Yunus, Ashoka, the Acumen Fund, Marjora Carter, and so much more. The stories are an inspiration and remind me that, no matter what I do, I need to make sure it matters and brings some sort of social value.”
Opé Bukola lives in New York City. She is the Founder/Editor of Zora&Alice an upcoming online magazine for young, black women. You can read about the magazine and writing opportunities here or follow Zora&Alice on twitter (@ZoraAlice).
I deliberately avoided Lolita for years. Despite its reputation as a literary masterpiece, I was turned off by the story’s premise: a middle-aged man who kidnaps and rapes his teenage stepdaughter. The cover of a friend’s copy only reinforced my feelings; it showed a girl wearing bobby socks and saddle shoes, her knees awkwardly (childishly) tilted together, with an ominous shadow closing in on her. No thanks.
I finally read it because it just kept coming up – in classes, in pop culture, and when I joined Goodreads.com a few weeks ago it was one of the frequently read books they wanted me to rate. Besides, I’d read Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran a few years ago and her discussion of the book made me curious about it. I mentally moved the book from a category I’ll call “Yikes,” to the “I’ll get around to it eventually” category. Last week I finally got around to it.
I had no idea of the creepiness that was in store for me. Unlike the movie, in which Sue Lyons could conceivably pass for 16 or 17, when the book begins Lolita is 12. Humbert, the narrator, repeatedly points out that she’s a child – he takes pleasure in noting Lolita’s half-price admission to parks and museums. Humbert also enjoys pretending that Lolita is his daughter (rather than his stepchild); meaning, the idea of incest sweetens the deal for him. His actions also, for a time, make Lolita into a whore. The two establish a monetary system for sexual favors: a hand-job (while she’s at school!) costs him 65 cents plus permission to act in the school play (p. 198); a “fancy embrace” (we can only imagine what that means) costs him $4 (p. 184). Perhaps the most singularly disturbing passage in the novel is Humbert’s daydream of impregnating Lolita, her giving birth to a daughter, then waiting twelve years to rape and impregnate “Lolita the Second,” and maybe – if he’s lucky – do the same to a third generation (p. 174). This is one of the vilest ideas I’ve ever considered in a story.
Yet, even though I wanted to hate it, I can’t deny that Lolita is a great work of art. I love the way Nabokov plays with language (Quilty lives on “Grimm Road,” Humbert stays at “Insomnia Lodge”), the book’s layers, the theme of artifice and masks, and the book’s symmetry (the novel’s first and last words are “Lolita;” Mrs. Haze, Lolita’s mom / Humbert’s landlady turned wife is mirrored by “Mrs. Hays” the hotel owner, also a widow, later in the book). At the same time, I can’t say that I wholly enjoyed reading the book.
Since I found the events of the story to be so disturbing, I tried reading from Lolita’s perspective – as if she were the story’s heroine. However, doing so is not easy. Although you can cheer on her small acts of defiance (in one scene Humbert describes her “Swearing at me in language that I never dreamed little girls could know, let alone use,” haha), you can’t really know Lolita. As narrator, Humbert has such tight control of the story that it’s impossible to get a sense of her distinct from him. In the same way that Humbert can’t fully grasp or understand Lolita, neither can the reader.
Nabokov’s ability to make the reader sympathize/identify with Humbert is supposedly one of the things that make this novel great. Although the book is brilliantly written, I keep wondering, is Humbert’s perspective really all that unusual? Is it possible that it wasn’t all that difficult to get the reader on Humbert’s side because our culture already encourages us to view girls from the perspective of lecherous old men? There are too many examples (both fictional and real life) from popular culture to count: 12 year old Jodie Foster plays a hooker in Taxi Driver, Elvis dates 14 year old Priscilla, Britney Spears wears her sexy school girl outfit… the list goes on. Even my beloved Beatles sing, “She was just 17 / you know what I mean,” (yes, we know what you mean and it’s creepy). Perhaps this is why it’s so easy for us to identify / sympathize with Humbert – the watching and desiring of teenage girls is already tolerated in our culture with a wink and a smile. In some ways the book is just another depiction of a powerless young girl through the eyes of a desiring older man; it wasn’t the first and it certainly wasn’t the last.
Despite my concerns, I wasn’t entirely immune to Humbert’s charm. In the first third of the book – before he acts on his desire for Lolita – his eloquence has more currency with me. Although awkward and pretentious, Humbert is also charming: he’s well read, he’s sensitive and apparently he’s very handsome. Yet, for me, when Humbert breaks out the roofies (in order to drug and rape Lolita), his charm disappears. Unlike most critics, I just couldn’t forget how horrible Humbert’s actions were. Slate critic Stephen Metcalf writes, “With Lolita, you must work past its beauty to recognize how shocking it is. And for all its beauty, for all its immense ingenuity and humor, one easily forgets how shocking Lolita is.” Somehow, I wasn’t able to forget how shocking the book was. Perhaps the key to enjoying Lolita is allowing yourself to be swept away by Humbert’s prose and forgetting the actual events of the story. Maybe this is why I didn’t fully enjoy it – I just couldn’t forget how horrifying it was.
(Page numbers are from Alfred Appel Jr.’s annotated edition).
Editor’s Note: This podcast is part two of a conversation that Ashleigh (aka The Chick Lit Chick) and I had about the future of chick lit and its relationship to young women. It may seem like a strange question for a chick lit columnist to ask, but the discussion is very interesting (even for chick lit haters!). Enjoy!
Written in 1983, Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis takes a serious look at the intersection of feminism and racism in America. In this collection of writings, Davis touches on a range of topics that point to the struggles of the Black woman fighting to fight for equality in a movement that fails to include her.
It starts with a telling and often gruesome discussion on the female slave, detailing the laborious expectations on the field coupled with her complex role in the home (slave quarters). She even goes into the brutal punishments regularly inflicted – from the abuse experienced by pregnant women to the brutal rapes at the hands of White men. This, for me, was the hardest part of the book to read because of the raw brutality illustrated.
The subsequent essays delve into the history of the women’s movement and the influence of African-Americans, most notably the likes of Fredrick Douglas, Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells. As the book progresses, Davis articulates the various issues that were used to ostracize Black women from the overall women’s rights movement since the late nineteenth century. Whether it was excluding Black women to gain support from the South for women’s suffrage or ignoring issues of forced sterilizations when it came to reproductive rights, there has always been an unfortunate division in the movement that ultimately and consistently left the needs of Black women unaddressed.
With Women, Race & Class, Davis brings these issues – and more – to light with the message of unity for the benefit of everyone in the fight for equality. It’s definitely a must read, especially for young Black women like myself.
A favorite quote:
“Evidence of the accumulated strengths Black women have forged through work, work and more work can be discovered in the contributions of the many outstanding female leaders who have emerged within the Black community. Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells and Rosa Parks are not exceptional Black women as much as they are epitomes of Black womanhood.”
“I love this book because it is both hilarious and sad. Pritchard populates her fictional Cook County with strong, unconventional characters, who look back over their lives and wonder at how it deviated from what they expected. There’s Maggie, whose “divorce party” is the subject of one story, Jack, whose house is filled with paint-by-number illustrations of the last supper and Fanny, whose father may or may not have left her family to join the circus. Lately is a short story cycle, so each story is linked to the others, which means you get the pleasure of figuring out how the various characters are connected as you move through the stories. Reading this book has made me want to track down anything and everything else Pritchard has written – it’s that good!”
“I love all of Salinger’s work, but especially this book, which shows the author at his best – written after The Catcher in the Rye and before his later, longer, more digression prone stories. The book’s two stories complement each other beautifully and illustrate some Salinger’s main concerns, particularly, the problem of getting along in the world while maintaining one’s ideals and sensitivity. There’s a number of endearing details in this book, particularly Franny and Zooey’s father, Les, who tries to help Franny recover from her nervous breakdown by serving her a tangerine.”
“I was assigned this book a few years ago for a class, but found myself unable to put it down. Cohan’s book is an examination of masculinity in 1950s American films, but despite the academic subject matter, the book is very readable. I see it as a smarter alternative to other books on movies from that era – which tend to be light on substance. A highlight is the chapter on the rise of boyish rebel stars like James Dean and Montgomery Clift, who became popular as a reaction to the uncomplicated WWII hero types who previously dominated the screen. Another chapter that stands out is called “The Age of the Chest,” discussing the era’s obsession with male chests on film and in movie posters. If you have an interest in old movies, I highly recommend this one.”
Melanie lives and works in Washington, D.C. She writes mmmetropolis, a blog about books and food.
When I open emails from accessories retailers, I don’t expect to see gorge images of women reading, but sometimes I do. This arrived in my email this morning from queen of the cute person, Kate Spade.
And, really, we all know love of reading and great style go hand-in-hand, right?
SheReads looks at the reading lists of cool chicks. If you want to be featured, send an email to uptown.literati@gmail.com.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
