Caroline Topperman's Blog

You know me as a fitness, beauty, and even a fashion blogger. I am all of those things. I love all of those things. I spent years training, and teaching Pilates, and even owned my own studio for several years. I have danced professionally, I have sold cosmetics at a beauty counter, and worked in a high end accessories store. There is, however, more to me than that. I actually graduated from film school with a BFA specialization in screenwriting, and I’ve written most of my life. Now I’ve embarked on a new path as a book coach, and book editor.

You might already be familiar with my fitness book FITWISE: Straight Talk About Being Fit & Healthy. It is the result of twenty years of being in the fitness industry. The tips that I provide are ones you can come back to year after year, and they’ll never get old.

My other book, Tell Me What You See, came about after a bad bout of writer’s block. I was desperately trying to write but couldn’t get the words to form on the page. It was then that I realized that I am a visual learner, and that I need images to spark my imagination. So, I went through my phone and started matching words to pictures.

Then a few years ago, I decided to write a book. I wanted to tell my family’s story and braid it with my adventure of semi-spontaneously moving to Warsaw Poland.

I knew I wanted to try to get it published traditionally, so I had to keep thinking about how I was going to make it accessible to a wider audience, and not just my family and me. One of my pet peeves is reading a memoir that is written for the author and not an audience.

All too often memorists write for themselves without thinking of their audience. As my brilliant editor said, “there’s a big difference between expressing yourself and communicating.”

With that in mind, I knew that I had to find someone who was also passionate about WWII, loved family stories, and could understand my views and opinions. I found Susan Scott at a writing workshop. It was a random meeting but clearly fate had stepped in.

While we worked, we realized that many people have questions about what it’s like to work with an editor, and if it’s really that important (it is). So we decided to create bite sized videos where we answer a writer’s most pressing questions. Welcome to The Stylish Pen.

The post Behind The Scenes With A Book Editor appeared first on Style On The Side.

Books that read like poetry. In general I like poetry but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and read a poetry book cover to cover. Poetry is a bit of a different beast. I’m always in awe of anyone who writes or recites poetry.

Thinking about it some more, I realized that there are some books that make me pause and reread certain sentences or paragraphs. The way the words flow, the pace, and the thought behind it, is exactly like reading poetry. A big difference, however, is that reading these books is not as subjective as poetry. There’s a clear timeline with room for the authors to explain their experience without you, the reader, having to hypothesize.

I read this book some time ago but didn’t know where to place it within my mind map of memoirs and creative nonfiction books. This is a very intense book and I think that if it were told as straight prose in a very contemporary voice it would be extremely difficult to read. The raw nature of the subject matter would be difficult to digest. The current, poetic way it is written, means that the words and their meaning worm their way into your soul and you feel the effects without being smacked by their harsh reality..

This is Ocean Vuong’s first novel and I think that’s partly what makes it so special. He draws on the art of poetry while expanding into prose. I want to bring your attention to the pace of this book. The use of paragraphs combined with single sentences, makes the read smoother while highlighting the importance of a single thought. It never slows down, it keeps moving, and you won’t be able to put it down.

Seven of my friends are dead. Four from overdoses. Five, if you count Xavier who flipped his Nissan doing ninety on a bad batch of fentanyl.

I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore.

Take the long way home with me. Take the left on Walnut, where you’ll see the Boston Market where I worked for a year when I was seventeen (after the tobacco farm).

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous p.174

Three seemingly separate thoughts and yet they are joined to together by, “I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore“. For me, that one sentence stands out. All these events affected him so much that he no longer celebrates the one day that is supposed to be all about him.

There are so many more moments that are like that one. This is a book that will have you thinking about it years into the future.

This book was a recommendation from a literary agent after I did my pitch. I was hooked from the very first line, “Russian sentences begin backwards.” I knew exactly what she meant by this sentiment. After reading in Polish and making my way through badly translated texts, I understand how convoluted it can all sound. The English language has a certain simplicity and directness that many others don’t.

This is just one tiny piece of how beautiful this book is and it is nothing to do with the actual subject matter. After spending the past year reading memoir’s, I have to admit that a book about someone searching for a parent is a little tiresome on the surface. What makes this book so special is the language and structure. Each page is made up of seemingly fragmented thoughts and scenes that together make up the whole. It’s as if you took a mirror, smashed it, and then put the pieces back together.

On occasion Sophia Shalmiyev, inserts sentences that would get you kicked out of English class, but since those same sentences fold so neatly into her prose-poetry, they are easily forgiven.

On the plane, I watch my dad’s eyelids glisten like blintzes draped over blueberries. Sometimes I’m still that child, writing my mother letters with blank envelopes, splitting off into voices heard and imagined, hoping it’s all the poetry I recited as a young Russian pioneer with my hand at my forehead saluting the red flag – Always Ready.

Sophia Shalmiyev, Mother Winter p.95

This raw and poignant love letter to her mother will make you want to write to your mother.

Both books are letters written to the authors’ mothers. Letters that will never be read. In, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, the mother cannot read, and in Mother Winter, the mother abandoned her family long ago.

Both authors clearly have a deep bond with their mother’s but it’s one that cannot be expressed with just words. Somehow, they’ve both managed to go beyond the page so that the reader feels their pain, frustration, and longing.

Interestingly, although intense, neither book is overly depressing. Opening the page you will enter a beautiful, touching and heartfelt world. The lines between poetry and prose become blurred and these are both books that read like poetry.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post Books That Read Like Poetry appeared first on Style On The Side.

When you want a peek into someone’s life. Sometimes you just want to read about someone else’s life. Sometimes you want to forget about everything going on in your life. I definitely gravitate to books where someone takes the time to let me in. I want to learn people’s unique stories. No matter what the story, I find books like this to be very inspirational.

These books are very different from each other. You might prefer one over the other but you will absolutely learn something new. One thing they have in common is that they both read like fiction. I’m always surprised when people say they don’t like creative nonfiction because that’s dismissing a whole genre for no good reason. Within nonfiction you will find a myriad of different styles and these books read very differently from each other. Ami McKay breaks up her story with scientific facts whereas Diane Schoemperlen is a lot more personal and political in her writing.

Daughter Of Family G by Ami McKay. Although several members of my family have died of cancer I cannot imagine having the hereditary gene that McKay’s family possess. She does a wonderful job of combining actual science (without dumbing it down for the readers), the history of her family, and her own story. Can you imagine being tested for a cancer that has killed generations of your family and finding out that you have the gene?

Maybe even more than reading about McKay’s story, I really enjoyed reading about the science of this gene (later named Lynch Syndrome) and how it was discovered. The fact that one of her ancestors, her great-great aunt, kept tabs on the family, discovered the pattern and then brought that information to the doctors, is amazing to me. I have some issues with the medical “industry” in North America, and seeing someone take their health into their own hands motivates me to keep doing the same.

To be perfectly honest, it took me a while to read this book, it sat on my night stand for months before I picked it up. I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to read yet another ‘cancer’ story. The good news is that this story is so much more than that. Sure there are some sad moments (I won’t spoil them for you) but in general it’s a very honest book about life.

This Is Not My Life by Diane Schoemperlen. I will admit that my jaw was dropped for much of this read. I cannot imagine being involved with an inmate who is actively in prison, let alone someone who is serving a life sentence for second degree murder. I’ve met Diane, I’ve taken one of her workshops and that makes this story even more incredulous. She’s a quiet, steady and extremely fascinating woman and when you find out that she was involved with this man for six years it’s honestly hard to believe. Stereotypes take a big step aside.

By the end of the book, Schoemperlen’s story seems normal. She doesn’t hold back with her thoughts and her process for dealing with this unusual relationship. You will feel like you are living her experiences right along with her. You know that saying, ‘it’s complicated’? Well this book certainly embodies that statement.

In addition to telling her story, Schoemperlen weaves in the political climate in Canada and how it affects prisoners and the penal system in general. This isn’t something I spend a lot of time thinking about but it’s big part of society. How we treat our prisoners says something about us and it should be a topic that we reflect on.

While fiction is always a great option and I’m all for anyone who reads, try picking up a memoir or some other form of creative nonfiction. When you get a peek into someone’s life, it puts your life and your experiences into perspective. We often get so involved with our own problems that we forget about the rest of the world. This is a good chance to open yourself up to the rest of humanity. It’s only by breaking down barriers and understanding others that we can truly find our place in the world.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post When You Want A Peek Into Someone’s Life appeared first on Style On The Side.

When you want a peak into someone’s life. Sometimes you just want to read about someone else’s life. Sometimes you want to forget about everything going on in your life. I definitely gravitate to books where someone takes the time to let me in. I want to learn people’s unique stories. No matter what the story, I find books like this to be very inspirational.

These books are very different from each other. You might prefer one over the other but you will absolutely learn something new. One thing they have in common is that they both read like fiction. I’m always surprised when people say they don’t like creative nonfiction because that’s dismissing a whole genre for no good reason. Within nonfiction you will find a myriad of different styles and these books read very differently from each other. Ami McKay breaks up her story with scientific facts whereas Diane Schoemperlen is a lot more personal and political in her writing.

Daughter Of Family G by Ami McKay. Although several members of my family have died of cancer I cannot imagine having the hereditary gene that McKay’s family possess. She does a wonderful job of combining actual science (without dumbing it down for the readers), the history of her family, and her own story. Can you imagine being tested for a cancer that has killed generations of your family and finding out that you have the gene?

Maybe even more than reading about McKay’s story, I really enjoyed reading about the science of this gene (later named Lynch Syndrome) and how it was discovered. The fact that one of her ancestors, her great-great aunt, kept tabs on the family, discovered the pattern and then brought that information to the doctors, is amazing to me. I have some issues with the medical “industry” in North America, and seeing someone take their health into their own hands motivates me to keep doing the same.

To be perfectly honest, it took me a while to read this book, it sat on my night stand for months before I picked it up. I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to read yet another ‘cancer’ story. The good news is that this story is so much more than that. Sure there are some sad moments (I won’t spoil them for you) but in general it’s a very honest book about life.

This Is Not My Life by Diane Schoemperlen. I will admit that my jaw was dropped for much of this read. I cannot imagine being involved with an inmate who is actively in prison, let alone someone who is serving a life sentence for second degree murder. I’ve met Diane, I’ve taken one of her workshops and that makes this story even more incredulous. She’s a quiet, steady and extremely fascinating woman and when you find out that she was involved with this man for six years it’s honestly hard to believe. Stereotypes take a big step aside.

By the end of the book, Schoemperlen’s story seems normal. She doesn’t hold back with her thoughts and her process for dealing with this unusual relationship. You will feel like you are living her experiences right along with her. You know that saying, ‘it’s complicated’? Well this book certainly embodies that statement.

In addition to telling her story, Schoemperlen weaves in the political climate in Canada and how it affects prisoners and the penal system in general. This isn’t something I spend a lot of time thinking about but it’s big part of society. How we treat our prisoners says something about us and it should be a topic that we reflect on.

While fiction is always a great option and I’m all for anyone who reads, try picking up a memoir or some other form of creative nonfiction. When you get a peak into someone’s life, it puts your life and your experiences into perspective. We often get so involved with our own problems that we forget about the rest of the world. This is a good chance to open yourself up to the rest of humanity. It’s only by breaking down barriers and understanding others that we can truly find our place in the world.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post When You Want A Peak Into Someone’s Life appeared first on Style On The Side.

Best wrist exercises for writers (and anyone who works with their hands). I’ve been spending a lot of time at my computer recently and it feels as if my hands and wrists are always sore. Honestly, that kind of sucks because sometimes I have to stop working in order to stretch them out. When I have a great thought and I’m on a roll the last thing I want to do is stop writing.

Wrist curls. These can be done sitting or standing. Holding a light weight or using a resistance band, palms facing away from you simply curl your wrist and release. Then rotate your palms so they are facing toward you and reverse the movement. 5-10 lbs should be enough for most. Do 3 sets of 20 on each hand.

Finger curls.This exercise is very similar to wrist curls except that you are performing it with your fingers. Start in a seated position with your forearm resting on your thigh, palm facing up. In a smooth movement let the weight roll to the tips of your fingers and then curl them toward your palm and repeat. Use 5-10 lbs weights and do 3 sets of 20 on each hand.

Ball squeeze. There’s no technique required for this exercise. Simply hold a tennis ball in your hand and squeeze it for 5-10 seconds, then release. Repeat 10x.

Wrist flexor and extensor stretch. Just like the rest of your body, your forearms and hands need to stretch. Reach your left arm straight out in front of you, palm facing down. Using your right hand, gently press your other hand toward the floor. Hold for 15 seconds. Then flip your arm so that your palm is facing upward and gently press your palm toward your wrist. Hold for 15 seconds. Repeat on the other hand.

Remember that the bones and muscles in your hands and wrists are delicate and you need to respect that. While a little bit of discomfort is okay, you need to stop if you feel pain. The next time you find yourself typing for hours on end, try these stretches to keep yourself in top writing form.

If you find that you are sitting all day, this might be for you HOW TO COUNTERACT SITTING ALL DAY

The post Best Wrist Exercises For Writers appeared first on Style On The Side.

If you are researching your roots read these books. As part of my research for my book, I’ve been reading a lot of memoirs. Some have been better than others. One, very well known memoirist is so whiny, and her work is so self-absorbed that I can barely get through her books.

What I am looking for is a good story but also a discovery. I gravitate to books where the author is looking to their past, their history and examining how it affects their present.

Shame On Me by Tessa McWatt. I have about a dozen or so sticky notes marking spots in this book. What I love is how Tessa takes different parts of herself, detaches each piece, shakes it up, and then tries to understand them. Each piece is then examined and reassembled to make herself whole.

The clever twist is that this entire book is approached like a science project, the kind we all had to do in high school. It starts with a hypothesis, moves on to the experiment, the analysis and finally the findings.

It’s also part biology project since the analysis is divided up into body parts like, eyes, nose, lips, blood. This makes perfect sense because our features are a reflection of our histories.

Now hold on to that thought. Let’s take a look at What The Oceans Remember by Sonja Boon.

Although this book is much more academic in its writing style, it follows a similar pattern. Boon unwinds her cultural histories, gets to know them better, and meticulously folds them back together.

Even though my story is very different, I could absolutely relate to a lot of her thoughts.

When I moved to Poland, a lot of people commented that I was ‘coming back’. This felt very strange since, other than one short visit, I wasn’t born there and I had never lived there and I didn’t feel a strong connection to the culture.

“You’re going back,” a friend said to me before my departure for Suriname. Back? I thought to myself. Back where? I wondered what he meant by this. It’s hard to claim an identity that is mine only by inheritance. An identity constructed by a land that I barely knew. I wasn’t born in Suriname. I’d never lived there. For most of my life, the country had remained on the periphery of my thoughts. Return. Back. These are difficult words to make sense of.

Sonja Boon 2019 p.99

This is it. Boon captures this feeling to perfection. She takes you, the reader, along on her travels to different countries and cities to discover more about her past. As you close the book, you will find that you know a little bit more about the world and about history.

Both these women have very different histories, from each other and from mine. I feel, however, that the three of us could sit down for a nice long dinner and an even longer chat.

Looking into your past is exhilarating but also very emotional. Especially when you are “made up of” different cultures, piecing them all together can be overwhelming. Both women take all of their parts and reconcile them in a way I hope to do with my story.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post If You Are Researching Your Roots Read These Books. appeared first on Style On The Side.

Two books if you love to wander. I am definitely a wanderer at heart. There’s nothing I would like more than to be on a plane right now and traveling to some distant city that I have yet to discover.

Maps, travel guides, and the dream of visiting new places never gets old but if I can’t be on the road then I love reading about it.

Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli. Many years ago I read, The Death And Life Of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and was immediately intrigued. She described cities as breathing entities. As beautiful as it is, that book is more of an essay type read whereas Sidewalks is like the literary version.

Reading this book is like entering the mind of a flaneur who ruminates in imagery and poetry. For the writers in this group, it’s also an excellent lesson on translating your thoughts to paper.

You will follow Luiselli’s thoughts about driving, cycling or walking (hint she prefers cycling), you will learn about how Venice compares to Mexico City. You will be lead through the streets of Mexico City, with several detours, where she will share her ruminations on the sites, sounds, and real estate of the city.

Innocent and profound at the same time, this is one of the most charming books I have read in a long time.

The Only Street In Paris, Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino. The last time I was in Paris we stayed in a hotel near the Rue des Martyrs. As soon as we stumbled upon this street my first thought was, “if I ever get to live in Paris, this is where I want to live.”

You can imagine how thrilled I was when this book came to my attention. Basically, the book is a guided tour down the street. You will get to know its history, its inhabitants (both the people and the ghosts), and the business that line its streets.

Part journalistic observation, part storytelling by someone who simply loves the street, you’ll find yourself getting drawn into the everyday workings of this magical half mile strip.

You’ll meet the local grocers, the cheesemonger, the cafe owners and all the artisans. My favourite line from this book, “A world of dead barometers. It’s a loss, no?”

If you like Paris, even the tiniest bit, this book is a must read.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post Two Books If You Love To Wander appeared first on Style On The Side.

Best exercises if you hate hate exercise. I know, why would you ever want to exercise if you hate it? It’s simple because moving (aka exercising) is the best thing you can do for your mental health, your appearance, and your fitness levels. Now I’m not talking about doing anything very dramatic. You don’t need to suddenly join a gym and workout 24 hours a day or worse, join a club where the instructors yell at you.

That afternoon bike ride around the neighbourhood? Yes, that’s exercise. Take it a step further by adding 10-15 minutes. Look for different and interesting routes and make sure that you add some hills for a cardiovascular punch.

That after dinner walk? Yes, that’s exercise. This is a personal favourite of mine since I find it frees up my mind so that I can be more creative. I have 5 routes that regularly do and I like to change them up according to my mood on any given day. Getting outside and really seeing your neighbourhood (or a totally different one) is a great distraction from the exercise you are performing.

Saturday afternoon gardening? Yes, that can count as exercise as well. Mowing the grass, weeding, digging in the soil and planting all movements that constitute as exercise. I don’t know about you but I find that a day of lifting and moving plants leaves my muscles sore and tired.

These three seemingly simple things that most of us do regularly are valid forms of movement. Guess what exercise is? It’s movement! While becoming at one with your couch can be appealing, getting up and moving can be even more fun.

*Of course there are so many other forms of movement you can do but most of us have access to at least one of these.

At the very least, if for whatever reason you can’t get outside, sit down on the floor and stretch your muscles for a few minutes.

The goal is to not spend your entire day sitting. The problem with sitting too much or for long periods of time, is that you are at risk for developing heart disease, diabetes, and even joint pain. Yes, sitting too much for too long is really bad for your joints.

Don’t believe me? Read this, WHY IS SITTING TOO MUCH SO BAD

Need an idea for some great stretches that you can easily do while watching television, talking on the phone or listening to music? Here you go, BEST STRETCHES IF YOU SIT AT A DESK ALL DAY and BEST POST FLIGHT STRETCHES (because after all sitting on a flight is still sitting even though it has a more exciting finish).

The key to all of this, is to stop thinking about exercise as exercise but rather as something you love doing. Personally, I actually enjoy going to the gym. I find it motivating but I can absolutely recognize that not everyone feels the same way. If the thought of going into a gym is cringe inducing then find something else you can do and sustain and you are good to go!

The post Best Exercises If You Hate Exercise appeared first on Style On The Side.

Two great books on writing and life written by writers. Over the past year and a bit I have created a sort of book MFA for myself. I have looked for books that can teach me about life and writing. Although there are many fantastic books about writing specifically I wasn’t looking for lessons but rather for authors who could teach by example. For the life part, I didn’t want any self-help style books. I was (and am) looking to observe and take the lessons I need.

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri. I was really looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint. First, I love that it is written in both English and Italian. One page in each language. Thinking about it, I see that the physical makeup of the book reflects how Lahiri thinks about language.

“It’s the dialogue between the bridges and the canals. A dialogue between water and land. A dialogue that expresses a state of both separation and connection.”

Jhumpa Lahiri, 2016 p. 97

Beautiful, right? When I first picked up the book I thought it was about how she spontaneously moved to Italy to pursue her Italian writing career. Already a successful author in the English language Lahiri, enthralled by Italian wanted to take her work in another direction.

That would have been a great and very interesting story but what I found was even better. This is a writer’s meditation on writing.

This is a writer’s meditation on writing. This is an education in the difference of cultures by way of the spoken and written word. Written in simple clean but beautiful sentences, Lahiri explores sentence structure and the meaning of words. At one point she likens words to art comparing negative and positive space and then moving forward to draw a parallel between white space and silence, commenting on its meaning and highlighting its importance.

My wish is that writers are able to take her theories, struggles and work examples (how she writes a diary), and transpose them into their own work. I hope that readers can see past some of her more technical ruminations and enjoy the gorgeous flow of language.

“language like a tide, now a flood, now low, now inaccessible”

“reading with a dictionary”

“failure”

“something that remains forever outside me”

Jhumpa Lahiri 2016 p.209

The Odd Woman In The City: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick. The book blurb located above the title says it all, “A guidebook for how to exist” -Katherine Taylor, Los Angeles Review of Books.

From everything I’ve seen and read, Vivian Gornick is a no bs woman who has lived and seen life. This book makes me think a little bit of Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett but it has the added element of taking place on the streets of New York City.

There is so much poetry in her writing. It’s as if she’s allowing us, the reader, to walk alongside her and to see what she’s thinking. This book is a lesson about life and a lesson on writing. Gornick stretches the rules, shaping them to the story she tells. We move seamlessly from present tense to the past, the characters who play parts in her life are introduced and then fade away. One thought leads to the next and before you know it you are turning the last page.

When Manny and I hooked up, I was in a slump. That’s how I put it. “I’m in a slump.” Manny looked at me. “You’re in a slump?” he said. “What does that mean? That’s bullshit for you don’t wanna work, right? That’s what it means, doesn’t it? It means you’re a writer who doesn’t want to write. Even I can see that….”

Vivian Gornick, 2015 p.60

I think that’s something most of us can relate to. Without having met her, Vivian Gornick has become an older sister or mentor that I wan’t to learn from.

Two very different women from very different backgrounds but from whom we have a lot to learn.

Consider reading, How To Create Change In Your Life and How To Feel Like You Are On Vacation Everyday

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you*

The post Two Great Books On Writing And Life appeared first on Style On The Side.

Two must read books for creative women by women. Sometimes being creative can be hard. Most of us need to recharge and find sources to keep that creativity going. For me, that is usually found in books, although I do enjoy going to the ballet and to galleries and I would never say no to a long walk somewhere far away from civilization.

The problem I find with many books is that they offer advice that I don’t need or want or the authors are too self-absorbed for my taste. There are a few authors out there who have built their entire careers around books that are very self-indulgent and basically about them complaining. I’m sorry but reading about all of your neuroses and issues isn’t going to inspire me to delve further into my art.

There are a few books, however that I’ve recently discovered where I can truly identify with the author or subject and they make me want to pursue my writing. I crave discovering my history and that of others. I want to know what someone overcame to get to where they are. I want to know about their story and where they came from.

she saw how creativity arises from material circumstances, how power is wielded against the vulnerable, and-crucially-how class, gender, and race intersect.

Maggie Doherty, 2020 p263

The Equivalents by Maggie Doherty. I truly believe that every creative woman needs to know her past. I don’t care where in the world you come from, there are women who helped pave the way for what you can do now. It’s impossible to move forward if we don’t know anything about the past.

When Radcliffe, Harvard’s sister college, announces that they are going to be giving paid fellowships to women who have PhD’s or the equivalent in artistic achievement, thousands of women apply.

This was the early 1960’s and women’s liberation was just beginning. Essentially this “messy experiment“, as the book calls it, was bringing Virginia Woolf’s, A Room Of One’s Own to life.

Five of the women who receive fellowships are, writer Tillie Olsen, painter Barbara Swan, sculptor Marianna Pineda, and poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. The book weaves their stories while seamlessly juxtaposing their lives with the same issues or similar issues that women are having today.

Not only that but Doherty covers women’s (in)equality and race (in)equality and class (in)equality.

“While white women fled the civil rights movement to start working for women’s liberation, black women were torn between their commitment to black liberation and their desire for gender equality, both in the movement and in the world at large.” – The Equivalents

Maggie Doherty, 2020 p.269

This book is an absolute pleasure to read. Although it looks like a long read, it’s not. The hard cover copy has beautiful thick pages with a rough edge and feels like you are reading a journal I have the hard cover copy. The pages, with their rough edge feel like a journal. It was published in 2020 by Alfred A. Knopf.

My Life On The Road by Gloria Steinem. From the first page I knew this book was for me. Everything clicked. Gloria Steinem is now on my list of people I’d love to have lunch with. I want to pick her brain and learn from her. I want to know how she was able to break the mold of what was expected of women in her day.

Gloria Steinem and the activists she worked with, too many to name in this very short write-up, are all incredible women who brought to light not only women’s rights but also those of African American women and Native (Indigenous) Women.

She effectively takes a step back (something we should all be doing) to listen and learn from other cultures and their experiences, while lending her voice to help bring theirs to the forefront.

When so many around her were trying to put her in a box, telling her what to write and how to live her life, Steinem chose her own path.

There is a crossover with both the books which help put the feminist fight of the 1960s, 1970s and beyond into perspective. One of my favourite things about this book is that not only does she tell her story but she also tells the stories of people she randomly meets.

Published in 2016, My Life On The Road took two decades to write. It’s the kind of paperback you want to throw in your bag and pull out every time you are struggling and need a pep talk. Make sure to read the dedication, it gave me goose bumps.

What I love most about both the books is that they focus on strong women who really and truly wanted to make a change. Were they perfect? No. Is there still a lot of work that we need to do? Absolutely but I think that we first need to know the history of our ‘fight’.

Now you might be thinking that these books are very politically oriented and how does that apply to the arts? It does, 100%. It’s hard enough to get arts funding when times are good but when your government isn’t amenable to supporting the arts then it makes everything that much harder.

I mentioned the concept of “a room of one’s own” earlier. The theory is that every woman needs a place (a room) of her own where she can create without being encumbered by life. In order to do that, however, she needs time and as we all know time comes down to money. Think about it, if you are constantly juggling kids, your work and the household chores, it’s nearly impossible to carve time out for yourself. You might be saying that your partner should be helping and while that’s a fairly normal occurrence now, it wasn’t that way just fifty years ago.

Adrienne Rich, essayist and poet (seriously both books made me run to the internet to learn about all these amazing women), “I believe profoundly that the woman artist, even if she can find space and support herself in it, must not fall into the trap of working, or trying to work, in isolation. But even Woolf implies … that a female community must come into being.”

Maggie Doherty, 2020 p305

By reading books like this you become a part of the community.

*Please note this post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no cost to you

The post Two Must Read Books For Creative Women By Women appeared first on Style On The Side.