Read Women discussion

Hello members,

Let’s open the discussion for August nominations.
We’re looking for a Translated Fiction and a Non-Fiction written by a POC/BAME author, that is a Person of Color/Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic.
There are no other genre guidelines, so they can be any topic.

You may nominate in both fiction and non-fiction.
One nomination per category.
No books that have been read in the previous three years.
Please use the ‘add book/author’ tab to avoid confusion.
Written by an author who identifies as female.
Please indicate whether you will be leading the discussion.

Nominations will close in about one week.

Nominations so far:
Translated Fiction:
-Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Rania Mamoun, Arabic, GailW
-The Colony by Annika Norlin, Swedish, Carol
-A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, Spanish, Jen
-Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius, Swedish, Nike


Non-fiction by POC/BAME:
-Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks, GailW
-Sucker Punch: Essays by Scaachi Koul, Carol
-My Place by Sally Morgan, Jen

I wish to nominate for Translated Fiction: Thirteen Months of Sunrise, short stories by author, journalist, and activist, Rania Mamoun of Sudan, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jacquette.

For non-fiction, I nominate Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks

For Translated Fiction, I nominate The Colony by Swedish author, Annika Norlin. Translated by Alice E. Olsson.

For nonfiction, I nominate Sucker Punch: Essays, an essay collection by Indian-Canadian author, Slate writer and former culture writer at BuzzFeed Canada, Scaachi Koul.

If either is selected, I can lead.

For translated fiction, I'll nominate A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende, originally Spanish, Largo pétalo de mar. From GR chatting, I gather she is a divisive author so perhaps her work makes for good discussion :) And this one covers some history I'm curious to learn more about.

For POC/BAME nonfiction, I nominate My Place by Sally Morgan, a memoir apparently considered an Australian Indigenous classic.

For translated fiction I'd like to nominate Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius, a Swedish Sami writer.

But I 've got a question when it comes to translated - do you mean translated into English? For me as a Swede I consider translated literature to be for example when it's originally written in English and translated to Swedish. So could I nominate a British book that has been translated into Swedish? The book I nominated is not translated for me but it's translated for you.

Nike, that’s a great question. Generally, we consider anything translated from its original language to be a work in translation. The majority of our members are English speakers (typers?) so the book would need to be accessible to the audience. I’m not against you nominating a book translated from English, but I don’t know that it would get many votes in this group as the majority may not view it as a translated book from their perspective. That’s just my two cents.

Anita wrote: "Nike, that’s a great question. Generally, we consider anything translated from its original language to be a work in translation. The majority of our members are English speakers (typers?) so the b..."

Ok, thanks for your reply. So I'll stick with my nomination which is translated from Swedish to English then. (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)

Hi - I'd like to nominate - The Houseguest; and Other Stories - Amparo Dávila.

Laura, that was a group read end of last year so wouldn’t qualify again so soon. Perhaps you have another idea?
And if you read it, you could check out that group discussion on it. It was a pretty active one if I remember right, with various ideas and perspectives.

Here’s a link to the Dec 2024 discussion re the houseguest https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Polls are open, please vote here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

Polls will close on the 12th.

Our August group reads will be:

Translated Fiction: The Colony, Annika Norlin's debut, and

NF: Sucker Punch: Essays by Canadian Slate author, Scaachi Koul

Check out your library inventory, preview those audible options, join us in August to discuss either or both.