Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets"

Alexievich, Svetlana "Second Hand Time. The Last of the Sovjets" (Russian: Время секонд хэнд = Vremja sekond khend) - 2013

"Born in the USSR - that's a diagnosis." This is what one of the people interviewed by the author said and it would have been a great title for this book, as well.

I discovered Svetlana Alexievich three years ago when she received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) and then decided to read "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster". After she received the Nobel Prize for Literature last year, I found many more of her books and "Second Hand Time" sounded like a great read. The author wrote down her interviews with former citizens of the Soviet Union, people who liked the new system, people who disliked it, people who loved it, people who hated it. She wrote down their life stories and you can understand every single one of them. This is what makes politics so hard, trying to please everyone is not possible, there is always someone who disagrees with a certain decision.

I love how understanding she is with everyone, how she manages to report their feelings, their stories as if we are there with the storytellers. I also could relate to many of the stories. Having grown up during a different time, we probably went through a lot that the former Soviets had to go through after their state broke apart. Not exactly the same but our lives were still closer to that than to our children's nowadays. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I always loved Russian literature.

And then there are the stories she tells that get you closer to her interviewees. I liked how they said "For us, the kitchen is not just where we cook, it's a dining room, a guest room, an office, a soapbox." and "We like to have a chat in the kitchen, read a book. 'Reader' is our primary occupation." Or the way they joke about politics, the best jokes always are from oppressed people. "How do you tell a communist? It's someone who reads Marx. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands him." But one of my favourites is: "In five years, everything can change in Russia, but in two hundred - nothing."

With her work, the author has put together a vivid history of the USSR, of its failures and its positive sides. Yes, there were a lot of people who saw something positive in their oppression and partly, I even understand them. The above joke aside, communism is a good idea, if only it was invented for other species than men. Because men are greedy, they will never want to share and Karl Marx had a dream that this might be possible. He shared that dream with so many people, same as many people still believe in the American Dream and that they might be millionaires one day.

Svetlana Alexievich gets us to think like a Russian, to follow their tragic lives and imagine it might have been us. I read somewhere that her subject is the "history of the Russian-Soviet soul". Not a bad description. I have never read such a good and concise description of other people's lives. She asked her fellow citizens what they thought "freedom" meant and got different answers from those who remembered the USSR and those who didn't. They did grow up in different countries. I can relate to that in that way that our country was divided into East and West probably the same way the USSR/Russians are divided into Before and After. We speak the same language but have many different memories.

The author does what Tolstoy and Dostoevsky did one and a half centuries ago, she puts Russia on the literature map again.

This book makes quite an impression. The tragedies these people went through and are still going through should be known to the whole world. Reading this book is the first step.

And if I hadn't known it already, the Russians are a people of readers. The amount of authors and books mentioned is enormous. Here are just some of them:

Authors:
Belov, Vasily Ivanovich (Васи́лий Ива́нович Бело́в)
Berdyaev, Nikolai Alexandrovich (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев
Chernyshevsky, Nikolay Gavrilovich (Никола́й Гаври́лович Черныше́вский)
Dobrolyubov, Nikolay Alexandrovich (Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов)
Dovlatov-Mechik, Sergei Donatovich (Серге́й Дона́тович Довла́тов)
Fyodorov, Nikolai Fyodorovich (икола́й Фёдорович Фёдоров)
Galaktionovich, Vladimir (Влади́мир Галактио́нович Короле́нк)
Grinevsky, Aleksandr Stepanovich (better known by his pen name, Aleksandr Grin, Александр Грин)
Grossman, Vasily Semyonovich (Васи́лий Семёнович Гро́ссман)
Herzen, Aleksandr Ivanovich (Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен)
Iskander, Fazil Abdulovich (Фази́ль Абду́лович Исканде́р)
Kollontai, Alexandra Mikhailovna (Алекса́ндра Миха́йловна Коллонта́й - née Korolenko, Domontovich, Домонто́вич)
Lermontov, Mikhail Yuryevich (Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов)
Nekrassow, Nikolai Alexejewitsch (Николай Алексеевич Некрасов)
Ogarev, Nikolay Platonovich (Никола́й Плато́нович Огарёв)
Okudzhava, Bulat Shalvovich (Була́т Ша́лвович Окуджа́ва)
Platonov, Andrei (Андре́й Плато́нов)
Pushkin, Alexander Sergeyevich (Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Пу́шкин)
Rasputin, Grigori Jefimowitsch (Григорий Ефимович Распутин)
Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Yevgrafovich (Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н)
Shalamov, Varlam Tikhonovich (Варла́м Ти́хонович Шала́мов)
Uspensky, Gleb Ivanovich (Глеб Ива́нович Успе́нский)

Books:
Belyaev, Alexander Romanovich (Беляев, Александр Романович) "Человек-амфибия=Chelovek-Amfibiya" (Amphibian Man/Der Amphibienmensch) - 1927
Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich (Бре́жнев, Леони́д Ильи́) "Малая земля=Malaja semlja" (Little Land/Das kleine Land) - 1978
Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich (Бре́жнев, Леони́д Ильи́) "Возрождение=Vozrozhdenie" (Rebirth/Wiedergeburt) - 1978
Brezhnev, Leonid Ilyich (Бре́жнев, Леони́д Ильи́) "Целина=Celina" (The Virgin Lands/Neuland) - 1979
Bulgakov, Mikhail (Булгаков, Михаил Афанасьевич) "Ма́стер и Маргари́та=Master i Margarita"  (The Master and Margarita/Der Meister und Margarita) - 1967
Bunin, Ivan Alekseyevich (Бунин, Иван Алексеевич) "Okajannyje dni=Окаянные дни" (Cursed Days/Verfluchte Tage) (Nobel) - 1926
Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich (Чехов, Антон Павлович) "Сапожник и нечистая сила= Sapozhnik i nechistaja sila" (The Cobbler and the Devil aka The Shoemaker and the Devil/Der Schuster und das Böse) - 1888
Chernyshevsky, Nikolay Gavrilovich (Чернышевский, Николай Гаврилович) "Что делать?=Chto delat?" (What is to be done?/Was tun?) - 1863
Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikhailovich (Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский) "Братья Карамазовы/Brat'ya Karamazovy" (The Brothers Karamazov/Die Brüder Karamasow) - 1879-80
Fadejew, Alexander Alexandrowitsch (Александр Александрович Фадеев) "Molodaia gvardia=Молодая гвардия" (The Young Guard/Die junge Garde) - 1946
Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich (Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь) "Шинель=Shinel" (The Overcoat/Der Mantel) - 1842
Marx, Karl "Das Kapital" (Capital: Critique of Political Economy) - 1867
Ostrovsky, Nikolai Alexeevich (Николай Алексеевич Островский) "Как закалялась сталь=Kak zakalyalas' sta" (How the Steel Was Temperered/Wie der Stahl gehärtet wurde) - 1832-34
Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich (Пастернак, Борис Леонидович) "Доктор Живаго=Doktor Živago" (Doctor Zhivago/ Doktor Schiwago) - 1957
Polevoy, Boris Nikolaewich (Борис Николаевич Полевой) "Повесть о настоящем человеке= Povest' o nastojashhem cheloveke" (The Story of a Real Man/Der wahre Mensch) - 1947
Rybakov, Anatoly Naumovich (Рыбаков, Анатолий Наумович) "Дети Арбата=Deti Arbata" (Children of the Arbat/Kinder des Arbat) - 1987
Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (Шолохов, Михаил Александрович) "Они сражались за Родину=Oni srazhalis' za Rodinu" (They Fought for Their Country/Sie kämpften für ihre Heimat) - 1959 Nobel Prize
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Aleksandr Isayevich (Солженицын, Александр Исаевич) "Архипелаг ГУЛАГ=Archipelag GULAG" (The Gulag Archipelago/Der Archipel Gulag) - 1973
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr Isayevich (Солженицын, Александр Исаевич) дин день Ивана Денисовича=Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha" (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich/Ein Tag im Leben des Iwan Denissowitsch) - 1962
Tolstoy, Lew Nikolajewitsch (Толстой, Лев Николаевич) "Война и мир=Woina I Mir" (War and Peace/Krieg und Frieden) - 1868/69
Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich (Тургенев, Иван Сергеевич) "Zapiski Okhotnika=Записки охотника" (A Sportsman's Sketches aka The Hunting Sketches/Aufzeichnungen eines Jägers) - 1852

From the back cover:

"From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia.

Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive documentary style, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of Communism.

As in all her books, Alexievich gives voice to women and men whose stories are lost in the official narratives of nation-states, creating a powerful alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals.

Svetlana Alexievich was born in the Ukraine in 1948 and grew up in Belarus. As a newspaper journalist, she spent her early career in Minsk compiling first-hand accounts of World War II, the Soviet-Afghan War, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Chernobyl meltdown. Her unflinching work - 'the whole of our history…is a huge common grave and a bloodbath' - earned her persecution from the Lukashenko regime and she was forced to emigrate. She lived in Paris, Gothenburg and Berlin before returning to Minsk in 2011. She has won a number of prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Prix Médicis, and the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award. In 2015, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature."

The Russians/USSR/former USSR states had quite a few winners for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Svetlana Alexievich is the latest.

Nobel Prize Winners for Literature:
Ivan Bunin - 1933
Boris Pasternak - 1958
Michail Sholokhov - 1965
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 1970
Joseph Brodsky - 1987
Alexievich, Svetlana - 2015 (Belarus but born in the USSR)

Svetlana Alexievich received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015 "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time" and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Friedenspreis) in 2013.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Book Quotes of the Week

"A good book is always on tap; it may be decanted and drunk a hundred times, and it is still there for further imbibement." Holbrook Jackson

"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good." Samuel Johnson

"A man may be a heretic in the truth, and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy." John Milton

"When I don’t write, I feel my world shrinking. I feel I am in a prison. I feel I lose my fire and my color. It should be a necessity, as the sea needs to heave, and I call it breathing. "Anaïs Nin

"The wise man reads both books and life itself." Lin Yutang

Find more book quotes here.

Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl"

Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015

I never heard of Carrie Brownstein or Sleater-Kinney in my life. So, I was quite surprised when Emma Watson's Shared Shelf decided to read this book. It had received the most votes from the readers and it was totally unknown to me. My only excuse is that I am not American.

It was a brilliant read. I loved her voice, her capability of bringing over the story. At first I thought she must have had a ghost writer but learned that she has become a journalist. I would certainly love to read more by her.

It was interesting to read how Carrie Brownstein became such an icon. Coming from a broken family in a small town, this was certainly not written in her stars. She struggles a lot but she finds her way and we have to admire her for that. Her life is certainly worth to be written about, to be shared with the public. Great narration.

One of my favourite quotes from the book: "Nostalgia is recall without the criticism of the present day, all the good parts, memory without the pain. Finally, nostalgia asks so little of us, just to be noticed and revisited."

I listened to a few of their songs in the meantime and especially liked "Modern Girl".

From the back cover:
"From the guitarist of the pioneering band Sleater-Kinney, the book Kim Gordon says 'everyone has been waiting for' and a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 -  a candid, funny, and deeply personal look at making a life - and finding yourself - in music.

Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity, she would discover both while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and mystery of a live performance. With Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein and her bandmates rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They would be cited as 'America's best rock band' by legendary music critic Greil Marcus for their defiant, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and limitations, and redefined notions of gender in rock.

Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl is an intimate and revealing narrative of her escape from a turbulent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-invention, community, and rescue. Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the era's flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years later.

With deft, lucid prose Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw, honest and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer and an outsider, and ultimately finding one's true calling through hard work, courage and the intoxicating power of rock and roll."

These are some of the books she mentioned:
Baldwin, James - Tales from Harlem
Capote, Truman "Other Voices, Other Rooms"
Mitchell, Joseph - Essays

Happy August

I wish you all a happy August * New Calendar picture with this beautiful watercolour painting by Hanka Koebsch 

"Faded" ("Verblüht"). 

 Another beautiful picture welcomed the new month in my house. Hope it brings some happiness to all of you. Same as last year, I'd like to share the wonderful watercolour paintings from Hanka and Frank Koebsch with you every month. I have bought their calendar every year for five years now and have loved every single one of their pictures. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.

You can find a lot more wonderful pictures on their blog here.

Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf

Every Harry Potter fan or anyone who has children that are Harry Potter fans (I belong to the latter group) knows Emma Watson. But even if you have never heard of her, she is a young British actress who became famous by portraying one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter movies, Hermione Granger.

But she has gone a lot further than that. She has not only spoken up for women all around the world, especially promoted education for girls in the poorer countries but became a UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador.

As part of that work, she started to read books about equality and thought it was great to start a book club online to encourage other women to read them. She called it: Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf. So far, 34 books have been discussed (of which I read 13) and then given the readers the possibility to vote for one. So, we are on book number seven right now.

Due to my migraines, I can't always be on the PC that long, so I have not participated in the online discussions but I enjoy reading all these books about women around the world and their conditions, even if I don't always like a particular one. The only reason I didn't read "The Argonauts" was because it wasn't available in our library. It is on my wishlist, though.

And these are the books we read so far:
Steinem, Gloria "My Life on the Road" - 2015
Walker, Alice "The Color Purple" - 1982
Hooks, Bell "All About Love: New Visions" - 1999
Moran, Caitlin "How to be a Woman" - 2011
Nelson, Maggie "The Argonauts" - 2015 (Goodreads)
Satrapi, Marjane "Persepolis. The Story of a Childhood" (French: Persepolis. Vol 1) - 2000
- "Persepolis. The Storay of a Return" (French: Persepolis. Vol 2) - 2000
Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015
Kristof, Nicholas D. & Wudunn, Sheryl "Half the Sky. How to Change the World" - 2009
Angelou, Maya "Mom & Me & Mom" - 2013  
Ensler, Eve "The Vagina Monologues" - 1996
Pinkola Estés, Clarissa "Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype" - 1992 
Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" - 1985 
Wolf, Naomi "The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women" - 1990 
Gay, Roxane "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" - 2017
Alderman, Naomi "The Power" - 2016
Eddo-Lodge, Reni "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" - 2017
Mailhot, Terese Marie "Heart Berries" - 2018
Moore, Kate "The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shinig Women" - 2016
Thomas, Angie "The Hate You Give" - 2017
Lorde, Audre Sister "Outsider"
Cooper, Brittney "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower"
Traister, Rebecca "Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger"
Mahfouz, Sabrina (ed.) "The Things I Would Tell You: British-Muslim Women Write"
Thom, Kai Cheng: Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars"
Mayers, Stephen; Freedman, Jonathan (ed.) "Solito/Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America"
Mardini, Yusra "Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story"
Morrison, Toni "Beloved" - 1987
Solnit, Rebecca "Cinderella Liberator"
- "Whose Story is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters"
Machado, Carmen Maria "Her Body and Other Parties"
Kuang, R. F. "The Poppy War"
Cline, Elizabeth L. "Overdressed. The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion"
Hudson, Valerie M; Ballif-Spanvill, Bonni; Carpioli, Mary; Emmett, Chard F. "Sex and World Peace"

Doyle, Glennon "Untamed" - 2020

Steinem, Gloria "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions" - 1995

Kay, Adam "This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" - 2017
Wall Kimmerer, Robin "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants " - 2013
Snorton, C. Riley "Black On Both Sides: A Racial History Of Trans Identity" - 2017 
Wong, Alice "Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century"

I will carry on reading more books with the group but also want to give everyone the opportunity to choose their own. Therefore, I put the list of all the books in the poll in alphabetical order. There are so many fantastic books included, I would love to read them all, well, most of them.

I have not read many more books from the list, mainly because I can't borrow them as easily as I used to. But I will carry on putting the books that are suggested and/or read on this list so I always have something interesting to look for.

There have been general polls and ones with a special topic. These are the subjects we have voted on:
Anti-Racism Teachers
Memoirs of Biographies outside of US, UK, and Canada
Eco-Feminism Member
SciFi/Fantasy
Books on BLM and anti-racism
Feminist Fiction (pre-1990's)
 
And these are all the books from the different polls in alphabetical order. You can find links to all these books here on the Goodreads bookshelf.

POLL
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Americanah" - 2013
- "We Should All Be Feminists" - Speech 2013
Aguirre, Carmen "Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter"
Alderman, Naomi "The Power" - 2016
Aleramo, Sibilla "A Woman" (Italian: Una Donna) - 1906
Allende, Isabel "The House of the Spirits" (Spanish: La Casa de los Espíritus) - 1982
Al-Sharif, Manal "Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman's Awakening"
Amoruso, Sophia "#Girlboss" - 2014
Angelou, Maya "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" - 1969
- "Letter to My Daughter" - 2009
- "Mom & Me & Mom" - 2013
Anzaldúa, Gloria E. "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza" - 1987
Arnold-Liebster, Simone "Facing the Lion: Memoirs of a Young Girl in Nazi Europe"
Atwood, Margaret "The Handmaid’s Tale" - 1985
Bates, Laura "Everyday Sexism" - 2014
Bates, Laura "Girl Up" - 2016
Bay, Mia (ed.); Gates Jr., Henry Louis (Ed.) Wells-Barnett, Ida B. "The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-lynching Crusader" - 2014
Beauvoir, Simone de "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter" (French: Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée)
-  The Second Sex" (French: Le deuxième sexe) 1949
Belli, Gioconda "The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War" (El País bajo mi piel: memorias de amor y guerra)
Bhutto, Benazir "Daughter of the East: An Autobiography" (US title: Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography)
Blank, Hanne "Virgin: The Untouched History by Hanne Blank" - 2007
Blume, Judy "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" - 1970
Bowditch, Clare "Your Own Kind of Girl"
Brantenberg, Gerd "Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes" (Norwegian: Egalias døtre) - 1977
Brown, Austin Channing "I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness" - 2018
Brown, Rita Mae "Rubyfruit Jungle"
Brownstein, Carrie "Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl" - 2015
Bulawayo, NoViolet "We Need New Names" - 2013
Butler, Octavia E. "Parable of the Sower"
Carmon, Irin; Knizhnik, Shana "The Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg" - 2015
Chopin, Kate "The Awakening" - 1899
Cline, Elizabeth L. "Overdressed. The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion" 
Cooper, Brittney "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower"
Cosslett, Rhiannon Luce "The Vagenda: A Zero Tolerance Guide to the Media" - 2014
Curie, Ève "Madame Curie. A Biographie" (French: Madame Curie)
Darwish, Wafa "Not Done With Life Yet"
Dew, Sheri L. "Women and the Priesthood" - 2013
Diamant, Anita "The Red Tent" - 1997
Dirie, Waris "Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad" - 1998
Djebar, Assia "Women of Algiers in Their Apartment" (French: Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement) - 1980

du Maurier, Daphne "Rebecca" - 1938
Dundy, Elaine "The Dud Avocado" - 1958
Eddo-Lodge, Reni "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" - 2017
Ensler, Eve "I Am An Emotional Creature" - 2010
Esquivel, Laura "Like Water for Chocolate" (Spanish: Como agua para chocolate) - 1992
Featherstone, Liza "False Choices: The Faux Feminism of Hillary Rodham Clinton" - 2016
Felscherinow, Christiane (Christiane F.) "We Children of Bahnhof Zoo" (German: Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) - 1979
Feinberg, Leslie "Stone Butch Blues" - 1993
Ferrante, Elena "My Brilliant Friend" (Italian: L'amica geniale) - 2012
FitzHenry, Tiffany "The Oldest Soul" - 2015
Fontanella-Khan, Amana "Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India"
Frank, Anne "The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition" (Dutch: Het Achterhuis) - 1942-44
Friedan, Betty Friedan "The Feminine Mystique" - 1963
Frieze, Carol; Jeria Quesenberry, Jeria "Kicking Butt in Computer Science: Women in Computing at Carnegie Mellon University"
Gappah, Petina "The Book of Memory" - 2011
Garden, Nancy "Annie on my Mind" - 1982
Gay, Roxane "Bad Feminist" - 2014
Goodall, Jane "In the Shadow of Man"
Gordon, Kim "Girl in a Band" - 2015
Greer, Germaine "The Whole Woman" - 1999
Gyasi, Yaa "Homegoing" - 2016
Hailey, Elizabeth Forsythe "A Woman of Independent Means" - 1978
Hall, Radclyffe "The Well of Loneliness" - 1928

Hardy, Thomas "Tess of the d’Urbervilles" - 1891
Hegland, Jean "Into the Forest" - 1996
Heilig, Heidi "For a Muse of Fire"
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan "Infidel: My Life" (Dutch: Mijn Vrijheid) - 2006
Hong Fincher, Leta "Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China"
Hudson, Valerie M; Ballif-Spanvill, Bonni; Carpioli, Mary; Emmett, Chard F. "Sex and World Peace"
Hurley, Kameron "The Geek Feminist Revolution" - 2016
Hurston, Zora Neale "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Hustvedt, Siri "The Blazing World" - 2014
Jong, Erica "Fear of Flying" - 1973
Kassabova, Kapka "Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe"
Kaur, Rupi "Milk and Honey" - 2014 (Poems)
Kaysen, Susanna "Girl, Interrupted" - 1993
Kendall, Mikki "Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot" - 2020
Khan-Cullors, Patrisse; Bandele, Asha; Davis "When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir" - 2018
Kimmerer, Robin Wall "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants"
Kincaid, Jamaica "Annie John" - 1985
Koofi, Fawzia; Ghouri, Naden"The Favored Daughter: One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future Book" (aka "Letters to my Daughter"
Kristof, Nicholas; WuDunn, Sheryl "A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity" - 2014
Kuang, R. F. "The Poppy War"
Lai, Larissa "The Tiger Flu"
Lamb, Harriet "Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles"
Lawson, Jenny "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" - 2012
Lee, Harper "To Kill a Mockingbird" - 1960
Lee, Min Jin "Pachinko"
Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Left Hand of Darkness" - 1969
Lord, Karen "The Best of All Possible Worlds"
Lorde, Audre Sister "Outsider"
Love, Bettina L. "We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom" - 2018
Maathai, Wangari "Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World"
- "Unbowed"
Machado, Carmen Maria "Her Body and Other Parties"
MacPherson, Myra "The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age" - 2014
Madison, D. Soyini "The Woman That I Am: The Literature and Culture of Contemporary Women of Color" - 1994
Mahfouz, Sabrina (ed.) "The Things I Would Tell You: British-Muslim Women Write"
Mailhot, Terese Marie "Heart Berries" - 2018
Mardini, Yusra "Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian - My Story"
Mardoll, Ana "No Man of Woman Born"
Markandaya, Kamala "Nectar in a Sieve" - 1954
Matis, Aspen "Girl in the Woods: A Memoir" - 2015
Mayers, Stephen; Freedman, Jonathan (ed.) "Solito/Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America"
Moore, Kate "The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shinig Women" - 2016
Morrison, Toni "Beloved" - 1987
- "Sula" - 1973
Muscio, Inga "Cunt: A Declaration of Independence" - 1998
Nafisi, Azar "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books" - 2003
Nagoski, Emily, Ph.D. "Come As You Are" - 2015
Naked, Big "I, Bificus" - 2016
Niven, Jennifer "All the Bright Places" - 2015
Nordberg, Jenny "The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan" - 2014
Okorafor, Nnedi "Binti"
Oluo, Ijeoma "So you Want to Talk about Race" - 2018
O'Neil, Louise "Asking For It" - 2015
Oyeyemi, Helen "Boy, Snow, Bird" - 2014
Pepe, Victoria "I Call Myself A Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty" - 2015
Plath, Sylvia "The Bell Jar" - 1963
Pollack, Eileen "The Only Woman in the Room. The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club" - 2015
Rhys, Jean "Wide Sargasso Sea" - 1966
Richie, Andrea J. "Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color" - 2017
Rickardsson, Christina "Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World" (Swedish: Sluta aldrig gå - Från gatan i Sao Paulo till Vindeln i Norrland)
Roanhorse, Rebecca "Trail of Lightning"
Robinson, Mary "Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future"
Russ, Joanna "How to Suppress Women's Writing" - 1983
Saad, Layla F. "Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor" - 2020
Sasson, Jean "Princess Sultana's daughters" - 1994 (follow up to "Princess")
Scully, Diana "Understanding Sexual Violence A Study Of Convicted Rapists" - 1990
Serano, Julia "Whipping Girl A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity" - 2007
Shiva, Vandana "Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit"
Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson "This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President"Smith, Betty "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - 1943
Solnit, Rebecca "Cinderella Liberator"
- "Men Explain Things to Me" - 2014
- "Whose Story is This? Old Conflicts, New Chapters"

Strayed, Cheryl "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail" - 1995
Talbot, Jill "The Way We Weren't: A Memoir" - 2015
Tingey, Allan "The Adventures of Copper Wild" - 2012
Thom, Kai Cheng: Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars"
Thomas, Angie "The Hate You Give" - 2017
Tolstoy, Leo (Толстой, Лев Николаевич) "Anna Karenina" (Russian: Анна Каренина = Anna Karenina) - 1877
Traister, Rebecca "Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger"
Ung, Loung "First they killed my father. A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers"
Valenti, Jessica "The Purity Myth" - 2009
- "Sex Object" - 2016
Vincent, Norah "Self-Made Man. One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back Again" - 2006
Walls, Jeannette "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" - 2005
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. "The Light of Truth: Writings of an Anti-lynching Crusader"
West, Lindy "Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman" - 2016
Williams, Terry Tempest "When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice" - 2012
Winterson, Jeanette "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" - 1985
Wolf, Naomi "The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women" - 1990
- "Vagina. A New Biography" - 2012
Wollstonecraft, Mary "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" - 1792
Wood, Charlotte "The Natural Way of Things" - 2015
Woolf, Virginia "A Room of One's Own" - 1929
Yanagihara, Hanya "A Little Life" - 2015
York, Alice N. "Game-Faint Signals" - 2011
Yousafzai, Malala; Lamb, Christina "I am Malala. The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban" - 2013

Aaronovitch, Ben "Whispers Under Ground"

Aaronovitch, Ben "Whispers Under Ground" (Rivers of London 3) - 2012

I don't think I ever would have picked up the first book of this series "Rivers of London" if I had seen the US edition "Midnight Riot". Doesn't have the same feeling. Also, I might have looked a little closer at the contents of the book.

Anyway, I am happy I did. I carried on with "Moon over Soho". And even in his third book about special policeman Peter Grant who works his magic in one of my favourite cities, Ben Aaronovitch shows his humour and his talent of writing a gripping story. I will definitely read the next book, "Broken Homes".

From the back cover:
"A Whole New Reason To Mind The Gap
It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher - and the victim's wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom - if it exists at all - is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer's apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as 'the Faceless Man,' it's up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and - as of now 'deadliest subway system in the world.
At least he won't be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She's young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born - again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah - that's going to go well."

The whole series:
"Rivers of London" - 2011
"Moon over Soho" - 2011
"Whispers Under Ground" - 2012
"Broken Homes" - 2013
"Foxglove Summer" - 2014
"The Hanging Tree" - 2016

"Lies Sleeping" - 2018

"False Value" - 2020

"Amongst Our Weapons" - 2022

I found a good site about this series: The Follypedia. 

Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are"

Sendak, Maurice "Where The Wild Things Are" - 1963

I think everyone born after the year 1960 must have had this book read to them when they were little. At least those in the English speaking world. Even though it has been translated into several languages in the meantime, I don't think it was around when I was little.

Anyway, the story reminds me a lot of the fairy tales we used to listen to and read when we were little. I loved them all but never became a fantasy fan. But this story is different, it IS a fairy tale, even though it wasn't written at the times of the Brothers Grimm.

Definitely a classic that is still worth picking up.

According to Wikipedia, "in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, it was voted the number one picture book - and not for the first time."

From the back cover: "One night Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another, so his mother calls him 'Wild Thing' and sends him to bed without his supper. That night a forest begins to grow in Max's room and an ocean rushes by with a boat to take Max to the place where the wild things are. Max tames the wild things and crowns himself as their king, and then the wild rumpus begins. But when Max has sent the monsters to bed, and everything is quiet, he starts to feel lonely and realises it is time to sail home to the place where someone loves him best of all."