Customer Reviews

500 Great Books by Women: A Reader's Guide

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After reading some of the negative reviews posted on this book, I found myself compelled to respond. I am not sure how to define a great book. And clearly, anyone having the audacity to draw up an unconventional list of great books is asking for criticism.

o Is Jane Austin as good as writer as Stendhal? o Are the Bronte sisters as important as Dickens? o Is Edith Wharton as interesting as Thomas Mann?

Some people see these as an important choices. As a reader, I find myself drawn to them all, and drawn to lists that expand on what I've already read. If you want a standard list of good reading there are plenty around. Try the "New Lifetime Reading Plan" compiled by Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major. For fun you could read "Great Books" by David Denby. (He's a baby boomer writing about revisiting the classics by re-taking 2 courses in humanities and literature at Columbia University.)

I, however, prefer not to choose. The feminine voices in 500 GBBW are additions to, and not replacements for those other great books. Reading has always been a way to reach across time, and culture, to make us feel as, and for someone else, and to hear about something we have not or cannot experience. Excellent translations have given access to the words of Allende as well Homer.

Some have made this an issue of political correctness. If listening to a different voice that happens to be feminine is political correctness, then three cheers for PC. If you want to stay out of political correctness, but want to find and revisit some truly wonderful books, try "500 Great Books by Women".

This is a must buy for all serious readers of women's works. Since PRINCESS was required reading in my high school class, its been my favorite book, and I was pleased to see that the contributors recognized the "can't put it down" greatness of this modern day story about a Saudi Arabian princess. Then I saw LITTLE WOMEN, a favorite book from my childhood... This book not only introduced me to authors I was unaware of, but verified my own favorites, LOUISA MAY ALCOTT and JEAN SASSON and MARY SHELLY. I'm checking them off one by one. I hope these writers provide us with a sequel.

This book is a start to finding some excellent books written by women. And the synopses of the 500 books were well-written and quite enticing. However, some of the selections seemed arbitrary. Though the authors make no claims of being all-inclusive (which they couldn't be, anyway), it seemed too much like the books were chosen on the authors' personal opinions alone. (See Booklist's review above.)

I disagree with the opinion that, in order to appreciate this book, you need to be female as has been asserted. In fact, if fewer people felt this way, books authored by women would probably circulate with greater force and efficiency. Now, although I found some titles listed in this book to be based more in personal preference, I do agree that many of them are, as stated, great. Not, in all cases, award-winning or critically acclaimed. But that wasn't the point of the book. I found it helpful to search for a title by using the topic index. In general, the book is helpful and can be used as a guide or a springboard. It shouldn't become a bible of women's literature.

This book does a great job bringing your attention to lesser-known works. However, I have a few problems. First, the organization (by themes, rather than title or author) makes it hard to find titles without resorting to the index. Also, it is limiting to list only one book per author, and the attempt to include diverse authors leads to the omission of such greats as Lorrie Moore. It's worth owning, but shouldn't be regarded as a last word.

In my opinion there is not enough emphasize on books by or for women in general. This might change, and books like this one make a difference.
Sonja Paris, author of MAKE THE COUGAR PURR

Thank God that someone out there cares about work by and about half the world's population! Not only is this an astonishingly extensive listing, but I have also actually taken the time to track down and read several of the suggested books, to discover, to my eternal delight, that women really do write top-quality stuff! This reference could be the starting point for a real challenge to the phallo-santified "Canon"...

[...]

Summaries served like appetizers for what might be a bookstore or library binge, you won't get lost or lose your interest because there are 7 indexes (listed in order of appearance); Index of titles, Authors, Date, Genre, Region and Country, About People of Color in the U.S., Lesbian and Gay People.

Not only that, the reader's guide is broken into themes like Art, Choices, Conflicting Cultures, Ethics, Families, Friendships and Interactions, Growing Old, Growing Up, Heritage, Identity, Imagined Worlds, Mothers and Mothering, Observations, Pioneers and Seekers, Places and Homes, Power, Trials and Adversity, Violence, Ways of Knowing, Wives, Lovers and Partners, and Work.

Descriptions never become monotonous because 30 contributors, in their unique writing styles, have given life to each literature synopsis. You can read the contributor's initial under any given synopsis and then look them up in the back of the reader's guide to learn more about them.

I like the way important historical details are revealed in context to the literature being described. My readers guide shows me that Radclyffe Hall self-published her book entitled "The Well of Loneliness" (1928) and sold 2,000 copies of her book in its first year of publication.

I could also tell right away from one particular description, that I would enjoy reading the non-fiction book entitled "Burmese Looking Glass: A Human Rights Adventure and a Jungle Revolution" (1993) in which the author, Edith T. Mirante "...exposes the United States government's donation of chemicals that eradicate opium poppies but also destroy the vegetation, pollute the rivers, and kill and injure the people." It sounds like now, instead of giving charity in the form of dollars, the U.S. is giving charity in the form of Agent Orange.

It sounds a lot like the Depleted Uranium that the U.S. has recently "donated" to Iraq. Meanwhile, I'm sure everyone is thinking, "Oh, how generous. You've overthrown a cruel dictator of a weak and impoverished country by dropping a bunch of radioactive waste that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years so that the Iraqi people can learn about freedom while they and everyone they know and love dies of cancer and families watch their children be born without limbs."

Naturally, being the political pundit that I am, I searched for more titles that could hydrate my cranial pool and found "Exile in the Promised Land" (1990), a memoir by Marcia Freedman. The description of her memoir enthralled me. The juxtaposition of personal details and political plight peaked my interest as I learned that Marcia, who had immigrated to Israel from the U.S. became an elected member of Knesset and a progressive voice for Palestinian autonomy. "Within four years she became a founding member of Israel's women's movement, fulfilling a need based on personal discoveries... `that anatomy need not be destiny; that anger is a rational response to oppression...'".


This book satisfies anyone who has a need for diversity. Not only do the titles featured within span the timeline (as early as 1300 A.D.) there are also plenty of titles that span borders like "On the Golden Porch" (1987), translated from Russian and "Distant View of a Minaret" (1983) translated from Arabic.

The only attribute I did wish for in the reader's guide while skimming titles was some sort of symbol that could have visually identified award winning books and authors. For example, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) by Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize. Question: How do I find other books within the guide that have won prizes? Answer: I flip through every page and skim line by line. They could have either created another index for award-winning books or noted the entry with some sort of symbol like a small, ¼ inch star.

With a tool like this, you can focus and grow your knowledge more affectively. For instance, if you want to learn about Chinese culture by reading literature you would have 8 titles to chose from, and while you're at it you might as well visit Australia (11 titles) and then hop on over to Mexico (7 titles) and so on, until you have gone through all 500 options available to you.

I wanted to buy Mom a gift. So, rather than mop the screen with Barbie's hairbrush on Amazon, I consulted my trusty reader's guide, �� Great Books by Women" and honed in on the Mothers and Mothering section; she loves to read about that stuff. And there it was, "A Mom's Life" (1991), a memoir by Kathryn Grody. Next, I ventured to Amazon to make a quick purchase. Now, what use to take an hour, because of my guide, only took 5 minutes.

That just goes to show you that this reader's guide does more than just fiction novels. Also, in addition to memoirs and fiction, it does non-fiction, journals, short story collections, essay collections, oral history, autobiography, biography, folk tales, even if it doesn't do windows.

To truly appreciate this gem of a book, you must be female. It takes you on a journey through womens literature that is in print, so that you will know the great diversity available. While you may wonder why some titles are not there, you will also be trying to locate titles you have never heard of. Because women authors tend to get so little publicity for their work, hopefully this special book will become a classic reference guide for all women readers.

Erica, sorry to let you know that in the near future you will learn that one of your chosen females in 500 GREAT BOOKS BY WOMAN does not deserve to be mentioned. I refer to Jean Sasson who happens to be a hoax author. Sassons PRINCESS book you mentioned, as well as the following two books about this Princess are a con. Sassons living, breathing Saudi Arabian Prince-friend does not exist now, nor ever did exist. This princess happens to be a figment of Jean Sasson's wild imagination.
Until the expose will be made public, In the meantime you might like to GOOGLE: THE PRINCESS SULTANA HOAX