book reviews
Must-read books for and about women, including thought-provoking novels, business books, memoirs and feminist histories.
Review: The Paper Bag Princess
Robert N. Munsch and Michael Martchenko are a world-renowned children's literature powerhouse team. A glance through their website will show you a list of diverse books spanning a multiple decades long career.
Call Me LesPublished 16 days ago in Viva
Defying Your Destiny
From a young age, it was clear to my parents that I was not going to be one of those "girly-girls" dressing up in a princess outfit and hosting tea parties. I was always much more fascinated with dinosaurs and dragons than anything else. I was a quiet kid, often keeping to myself and reading. I was a being seemingly made out of paper. Book after book I consumed like a starving animal.
Robin LaurinecPublished about a month ago in VivaOutsourcing "Motherhood": Finding Surrogacy and Domestic Work Abroad
Surrogacy and What it Means to be a Mother Former Director of Writers Victoria, Angela Savage, provides a heart-wrenching account of motherhood, grief and passion in Mother of Pearl.
Mel O'ConnorPublished 2 months ago in Viva
Accidental Shero
I called my cousin into the kitchen. She’d been staying with me while working to establish herself in the entertainment arts industry. I knew she’d understand chasing dreams that seem out of reach to most people.
Acamea DeadwilerPublished 2 months ago in Viva
Mothers and Daughters: Feminism in Contemporary Literature
The relationship between a mother and daughter can be more complicated than one can assume it to be. From the moment a child enters the world, the first person she makes contact with is her mother. The bond between mother and child then continues to strengthen while experiencing every milestone in both their lives, this evolution also serves as a test of how strong the bond is between them. Taking a closer look into the bond between a mother and her daughter, from a contemporary feminist approach, one might notice that the mother has high standards and expectations behind the choices that her daughter will make. The mother will even take the extra mile to ensure the daughter makes the right choices in her life from adolescence to rising adulthood. The perception of this type of relationship dynamic can be seen in two distinct contemporary literary works. Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice tells the story of a mother and daughter whose differences push them to realize that they are not as different as they think.
Mikyah HendersonPublished 3 months ago in Viva
She chose vengeance and anger: Sex shaming and internalized misogyny in the House of Night [Part 2]
As the title suggests, this is a continuation of a previous essay - Part honey, part whore: Slut shaming and internalized misogyny in the House of Night. I strongly advise reading that essay before this one, as it lends some important context and background information.
Rachael ArsenaultPublished 3 months ago in Viva
Part honey, part whore: Sex shaming and internalized misogyny in the House of Night
Before we start, I want to preface this by establishing some out-of-text information about the series. House of Night is credited to two authors, P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter team. However, in several interviews and Q&As, they have stressed that they did not actually co-author the series. Instead, P.C. Cast wrote the books and Kristin Cast helped her first as a teen voice editor, and then later as a frontline editor. (Cast and Cast 2017:277; Cast and Cast 2018:332; Cast and Cast 2020:358, 363; Rought 2020; Fricot 2019) Thus, Kristin Cast is not an author or co-author on the series. However, for the sake of simplicity and abiding official citations for the series, I will be referring to the authorship of this series as though it were a joint effort.
Rachael ArsenaultPublished 3 months ago in Viva
Esperanza Rising
Esperanza Rising- Literature review Esperanza Rising transports us into the lives of Mexican-American immigrant agriculture workers and we get to see the kind of extreme hardships they had to suffer during the 1930’s depression era in the United States. What makes this novel so important is the representation of strong, independent, minority women and girls who were able to overcome the challenges of systemic racism, extreme poverty and all while living under the rule of a patriarchal society. Children, especially young girls, need to have access to more powerful stories like Esperanza Rising which provides worthy role models and important messages like never being afraid to start over. Books that defy gender stereotypes and teach young girls that they have more choices than they realized, and that they might be more powerful and capable than they could have ever imagined are critical in the fostering of the future female leaders of the United States, and the world; books are powerful. Nelson Mandela asserts, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Duncan, A., 2013).
Fearless WarriorPublished 4 months ago in Viva
Dis-JOY-nted Developments
I used to be a solid "fiction only" reader. Sometimes, though, an amazing non-fiction book slams me upside the head and demands that I pay attention! Tembi Locke wrote one of these books.
Hannah Marie.Published 5 months ago in Viva
The Murder of Myrtle
I read the novel "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald when I was a teen in high school. Actually, I cheated. I read the Cliff Notes and watched the movie. The poetry of the book was nice, but I just wanted to know the story so I could get through my assignments and be done with it. I did not like the novel at all when I first learned of it. I hated Daisy right away because she acted like what happened to Myrtle and Jay was no big deal, when both of their murders are really her fault. Jordan admits that she's "irresponsible" but Daisy never does. Daisy is a spoiled, worthless, emotional piece of junk who doesn't appreciate her wealth, her husband, her child, or the love of other people who were obsessed with her. F. Scott Fitzgerald actually has the nerve to end the novel with her as a Winner. If you want to see Evil Triumph over good, then by all means agree that The Great Gatsby is the Great American novel. But I disagree. As a woman and as a writer, I think The Great Gatsby is the worse piece of literature ever to be written as American fiction, and I think that women should be ashamed of themselves if they think it's any good. It right up there with the trash of "50 Shades of Gray". Please women! Use your brain! Do you want to end up dead like Myrtle or miserable like Daisy? That's what Fitzgerald promises you.
Shanon Marie NormanPublished 5 months ago in Viva
A Thousand Splendid Suns By Khaled Hosseini – Book Summary: A Story Of Female Friendship And Sacrifice
If you are looking for a book that makes you wail, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is it. I had heard many things about Hosseini’s first novel, The Kite Runner, but I wanted to begin with his second one. And I didn’t regret it at all.
Rochi ZalaniPublished 5 months ago in Viva3 Obscure Modern Classic Novels by Women
Perhaps you have noticed the new style of article I am testing out here. Lists of three. I began with lists of five, but I felt that I was going on for way too long. Three seems like a nice way to test if you want to read more into a certain topic, doesn't it?
Annie KapurPublished 6 months ago in Viva
