500 Great Books By Women discussion

Beginning - January 1, 2016
End - December 31, 2016

Create your own personal board for keeping track of your reads in this folder! Those who already made one during SoW 2015 are welcome to use it for this and all future group events. All books by women of color are welcome. 500 GBBW reads/reviews are not required, nor is it necessary for one to commit to solely reading women of color during the entirety of the year in order to participate.

Challenge page: https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Directory of GBBW Books for YoRWoC 2016: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Feel free to comment on this post with suggestions for the FAQ. Also be aware that it's been a while since I updated the Women of Color Directory, so comment as well if anything's missing or not quite right.

This links to Summer of Women.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Claire.

Excellent. Thanks for the admin work, Aubrey

My pleasure, Caroline. The group can keep themselves busy with this while I plunge into finals.

What fun! Great idea Aubrey! Had you noticed that the FABClub is planning a Women of Africa project for 2016? This dovetails with that beautifully!

I hadn't, Alexa, and I'm glad to hear it. Daughters of Africa sounds like it'd be useful for that particular project. I made a 500 GBBW directory for it a while back: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Aubrey wrote: "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Claire."

Just that when I clicked on the link in the message, it took me to the Summer of Women list, I tried it a couple of times as I was keen to see the list. No problem, it's linking to the Women of Colour list now.

Claire wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, Claire."

Just that when I clicked on the link in the message, it took me to the Summer of Women list, I tried it a couple of times as I was..."

Aha, I think you caught me out in the very early stages of my post making, Claire. I remember seeing that I had accidentally left in the SoW 2015 link, but I thought I had fixed that before posting the actual topic. It's all working now at any rate. I hope you find lots of interesting looking works by women of color!

Thank you so much for this, it's an incredible resource, with a lot of effort put into its creation. Very much appreicated and valued.

My pleasure, Claire. I figure if someone makes it, readers will come, and that's worth the world to me.

What a beautiful image!

This sounds great, Aubrey!!:)

Alexa wrote: "What a beautiful image!"

:) Full credit to the website that created it, of course.

Dustin wrote: "This sounds great, Aubrey!!:)"

I'm glad you think so, Dustin. The 2015 YoRW spirit is too good to let die at the end of the year, so this is my twist on the original.

Thank you. It really has been a very successful year, so why not keep the spirit alive and branch out? I just wish I could have participated this summer, but for whatever reason, it wasn't mean to me, I suppose. I fully intend to get involved in 2016!

I look forward to your selections for YoRWoC 2016, Dustin. In any case this group will be around for a long time coming, so you have plenty of chances to participate in its events when you are able.

I love the various events that you come up with, Aubrey! They make an already awesome group even better. Do you plan on doing a SoW 2016? Per YoRWoC: I have a few in mind already.:)

Dustin wrote: "I love the various events that you come up with, Aubrey! They make an already awesome group even better. Do you plan on doing a SoW 2016? Per YoRWoC: I have a few in mind already.:)"

I do indeed. It'll vary the playing field a bit when summer hits.

Awesome!

I just tried to create my folder for this, and it says there has to be an e-mail address in order to do so...? What gives?

Dustin wrote: "Awesome!

I just tried to create my folder for this, and it says there has to be an e-mail address in order to do so...? What gives?"

Do you have an email set in your account settings? Also, you'll be wanting to create a new discussion within the 2016 YoRWoC folder, not one in an entirely new folder.

Thank you. You've been very helpful.:)

My pleasure.

Okay, I verified my e-mail and it said it was sending it there.

This is awesome! I'm excited about the authors that I'll be discovering in 2016.
Also, a question: If a book is by an anonymous author who was most likely a person of color but whose gender is unknown (I'm thinking primarily some ancient literature), can it be counted towards the challenge? Or should we only count authors who were definitely women?

I've got the Arabian Nights and the Epic of Gilgamesh on my books by women of color shelf, so gynepothesize away.

Excellent!
"Gynepothesize" is the best word I've heard in ages. :)

:) I'm waiting in the theatre for the new Star Wars, so I gotta entertain myself somehow.

Lucky!
Reminds me that I once gynepothesized about R2D2.

Hello, I'm new to the group and finding it a great resource. I've been browsing around quite a bit, but I can't seem to find the original list of the 500 Great Books by Women. Is it available anywhere online / in this group or are we meant to get the book? (I'm thinking about it) Thanks!

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Hello, I'm new to the group and finding it a great resource. I've been browsing around quite a bit, but I can't seem to find the original list of the 500 Great Books by Women. Is it available anywh..."

Hello and welcome to the group, Dioni! You can find several variations of the list, both online and off, here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

In regards to the non souped up Excel Doc, be aware that the list of the original 500 GBBW (aka the ones in the actual book) ends at line 510. All the ones after are titles generated by the group.

Aubrey wrote: "In regards to the non souped up Excel Doc, be aware that the list of the original 500 GBBW (aka the ones in the actual book) ends at line 510. All the ones after are titles generated by the group."

Thanks very much Aubrey! So there are actually more than 500 books in the original list. Going to inspect it more closely now :)

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "In regards to the non souped up Excel Doc, be aware that the list of the original 500 GBBW (aka the ones in the actual book) ends at line 510. All the ones after are titles generated..."

Yep. In actuality, the 500 GBBW are 508 GBBW. That's as good an invitation to add more to the list as any.

Aubrey wrote: "Yep. In actuality, the 500 GBBW are 508 GBBW. That's as good an invitation to add more to the list as any."

Now that I've seen the list as a whole the discussion structure makes sense! I checked that I've read only 16 books from the 508 books - 5 of which I read this year, but many more in my TBR. I'll contribute my reviews in the coming days.
This list intrigues me as there are so many books and authors I never heard of before. I also like the mix of non-fiction (though I personally read a lot more novels).
I'm also interested to join the year of reading women of color. All in all, hope to participate more in this group :)

Dioni (Bookie Mee) wrote: "Aubrey wrote: "Yep. In actuality, the 500 GBBW are 508 GBBW. That's as good an invitation to add more to the list as any."

Now that I've seen the list as a whole the discussion structure makes sen..."

I'm very glad to hear that, Dioni! I look forward to your future participation. 2016 YoRWoC's going to be fun.

Totally down with the 2016 YoRWoC challenge! Now I will actually read an Octavia Butler book that I've had on my TR pile instead of waiting to get around to it. And looking forward to some other writers too!

lisa_emily wrote: "Totally down with the 2016 YoRWoC challenge! Now I will actually read an Octavia Butler book that I've had on my TR pile instead of waiting to get around to it. And looking forward to some other wr..."

I'm very glad to hear that, Lisa. I hope you enjoy your Butler. She's a wonderful writer.

I'm looking through all of the fantastic lists and feeling really inspired, but am also wondering - is this for fiction only? I have a growing number of non-fiction works by WoC on my TBR pile, can I include those?

Audrey wrote: "I'm looking through all of the fantastic lists and feeling really inspired, but am also wondering - is this for fiction only? I have a growing number of non-fiction works by WoC on my TBR pile, can..."

Nonfiction is more than welcome, Audrey. In fact, we have an entire directory devoted to it here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... It's not completely up to date and you'll have to do some cross referencing to guarantee your choices are by women of color, but it's a good place to start.

Hi All,

I just came across this article about 25 books to be published of African writers. About seven are female writers- I will list them after the link. Yes, there should be more, but at least this is place to start if you want to add some Women African writers to your 2016 yorwoc list.

http://lithub.com/25-new-books-by-afr...


The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela

The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

Fuchsia by Mahtem Shiferraw

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

100 Days by Juliane Okot Bitek

Ladivine by Marie NDiaye

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz

lisa_emily wrote: "Hi All,

I just came across this article about 25 books to be published of African writers. About seven are female writers- I will list them after the link. Yes, there should be more, but at least..."

Thanks very much for this, Lisa. I've read other works by Oyeyemi and NDiaye and can personally attest to them being worth checking out.

I was really impressed by Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox and I'm keen to read more by her and Leila Aboulela whose Translator i really enjoyed too. I'm always grateful to find more women of colour authors so thank you very much xxx

I just finished Another Woman's Daughter by Fiona Sussman. It is an excellent book. I wrote a brief review.

Hi Book-reading gang,

Been hearing a few interviews of contemporary writers on NPR that may be of interest to this group.

1. Petina Gappah, from Zimbabwe, The Book of Memory. A lively interview:
http://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/4672592...

2. Han Kang from S. Korea, The Vegetarian. This interview is not so great due to language difficulties, I think, but the book sounds really fascinating and I heard about it from other places.
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/13/4666488...

I just read The Vegetarian! It is a very interesting read, and despite some flaws, I'd recommend it over all, especially since it's so short.

I recommend Han Kang's Human Acts as well, I haven't read The Vegetarian yet, but great to see it long listed for the Man Booker International 2016.

Claire wrote: "I recommend Han Kang's Human Acts as well, I haven't read The Vegetarian yet, but great to see it long listed for the Man Booker International 2016."

'Human Acts' was phenomenal. I'll have to submit it if no one beats me to it.

By looking through my To-Read list for books by women of color, I have found that most books by WoC that have made it into the top 50 or so of my list are cookbooks! What does that say?
I guess it says that women of color truly are marginalized or of less "general interest" when they write about anything other than food. Sobering.
So in addition to Japanese Women Don't Get Fat or Old (which I was already reading anyway), I've added Ghana Must Go to my to-read-in-2016-challenge. lt's a start.
Maybe I will also stop skipping the books in my Around the World Book Club that have lower GR ratings, in the cases when they are by WoC. I can remind myself that even when an author doesn't have vigorous appeal to the mainstream Goodreads rater, I may still want to hear her voice.

Sorento62 wrote: "...I can remind myself that even when an author doesn't have vigorous appeal to the mainstream Goodreads rater, I may still want to hear her voice."

Well put!

Sorento62 wrote: "By looking through my To-Read list for books by women of color, I have found that most books by WoC that have made it into the top 50 or so of my list are cookbooks! What does that say?
I guess it ..."

Well put indeed, Sorento. In terms of works by WoC with low ratings, the ten lowest I've read and rated well include:

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan Al-Shaykh
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Nampally Road by Meena Alexander
Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
The Land Of Look Behind: Prose And Poetry by Michelle Cliff
Ingratitude by Ying Chen
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

Just in case your book club happens to suggest any of these.