A Slice of Orange

Reflecting on last month’s celebration of Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day, I looked through my bookshelves at some of the books written by women about women. I fingered the spines of a few and flipped through the pages of others. Each title evoked a memory, a lesson learned, an inspiration received; a few elicited a tear.

This month, I’d like to share with you a few of the books that have moved, inspired, and touched my life. They are the voices of fellow-women across the globe; sisters, friends, women.

African American

To Be Young Gifted and Black – Lorraine Hansberry, Signet, 1970 ISBN 0-451-15952-7. Best known for her play, A Raisin in the Sun, this is her autobiography of the black experience in mid- 20^th century America.

Taking the Arrow out of the Heart – Alice Walker, Ink Atria 2018, ISBN 978-1-5011-7952-5.

Author’s poems in Spanish and English. (especially her poem, Hope is a woman who has lost her fear on page 159).

Native American

Sister Nations: Native Voices, ed. Heid E. Erdrich & Laura Tohe, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002 ISBN 0-87351-428-9. Anthology of Native American Women writers.

The Ways of My Grandmothers – Beverly Hungry Wolf, Quill Press, 1982 ISBN-978-0-688-00471-2. A tribute to the women of the Blackfoot Indians.

American

First Ladies of the Republic – Jeanne E. Abrams, NYU Press, 2018 ISBN: 978-147-988-6531.

The experience of the White House and politics from the perspective of the wives of the first three American Presidents.

China

Women of the Silk – Gail Tsukiyama. St. Martin’s Press, 1991 ISBN: 0-312-064-659.

Silk workers in 1926 Chinese village; their hopes, dreams, and struggles.

Cuban-American

Everything I kept/Todo Lo Que Guarde – Ruth Behar. Swan Isle Press, 2018. ISBN: 97809972-28724. Bi-lingual Spanish/English edition.

Poems of womanhood, fear, surrender, and life.

Dominican Republic

In The Time of The Butterflies – Julia Alvarez, Algonquin books, 2010. ISBN: 978-1565129764.

The story of the Mirabal sisters and their fight against the dictator Trujillo.

Japan

The Strangeness of Beauty: A Novel – Lydia Yuri Minatoya. Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0-393-321140-1.

A woman returns to the home of her estranged mother in Japan on the verge of World War II.

To Live and To Write: Selections by Japanese Women Writers 1913-1938 – ed. Yukiko Tanaka. The Seal Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-931188-43-1.

Nine leading women writers of Japan spanning twenty-five years and their emerging voices on feminist consciousness.

Israel

In Her Own Voice: An Illuminated Book of Prayers – Enya Tamar Keshet. Maggid Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-965-526-036-6.

The voices of Jewish women and their prayers and longings from birth through death. The art work is stunning.

Poland

On the Niemen – Eliza Orzeszkowa. ISBN: 978-09-888-59296.

A woman’s story of abandonment, impoverishment, social justice, the effects of war and the emancipation of women. In the 1900s, the author was a top contender with Leo Tolstoy for the Nobel Prize. Neither won.

I can never have too many books; always room for 1, 2,3, or more…. So, what are some titles that are special to you?

See you next time on May 22^nd!

Veronica Jorge