I Read Therefore Blog

Book Blog + Reading Resource

Wonder Women + Wonder Writers: 4 Dope Books From Female Authors

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Wonder Women + Wonder Writers: 4 Dope Books from Female Authors

 

We are all aware who run the world.

(Girls. It’s girls.)

Here are four excellent books, all best sellers for all good reasons, guaranteed to have your back, whether you need:

  • a boost up towards the next season of your life (drawn from many schools of thought and time-proven, simple, easy actionable steps. Plus some hard steps, we won’t lie.)
  • irrefutable evidence that no one is stronger and smarter than a woman with her back up against the wall (and so many brooches aw yissss)
  • a romantic, sweeping, multi-decade roller coaster ride (It’s priest. Have a little priest. Is it really good? Sir, it’s too good at least.)
  • And a gentle introduction to the many motivations that start people on the road to plant-based veganism (beautiful photo-heavy recipes, from simple and accessible to complex and pricey ones.)

Please share any thoughts on the books or the post itself in the comments or by email. You are greatly appreciated!

Hit it, Fer-gie:

 

You Are A Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

This book is exactly what it’s marketed as and we cannot recommend it highly enough. A blessedly modern, self-aware, soft-serve repackaging of the best of the best advice in save-your-own-damn-self self-help resources. You’ll likely like the author’s voice and style, but even if you don’t the power of her plan cannot be denied: one tiny sentence or even one half of one tiny sentence will strike you just right way at just the right time–you’ll act on it and you’ll see for yourself that Sincero is hooking you up to the good stuff.

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Madam Secretary: A Memoir by Madeleine Albright

Buy it. Read it. Then buy everything else she’s ever written and read it. We’re obsessed with her deadass refusal to be bound in her narrative style by anyone or anything. How high will this book make your blood pressure go if you don’t like the author? On a scale of 1-10, if the body of writing Robert McNamara left behind is a 3, this memoir is a 5.

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The Thornbirds by Colleen McCollough

Yes, there’s a priest and technically he’s tasty or whatever but he’s also a giant douche in our opinion. Romantic heroes abound, however—most of them women. McCollough captured Australia for the entire world to enjoy. (Look for her final novel ‘Bittersweet’ on an upcoming post.)

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The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet by Alicia Silverstone

99.999999999 percent of us don’t want to cause suffering. One of 9,999,999,999 ways to prevent it is moving towards a plant based diet. This is a sweet and visually gorgeous cookbook but also easily digested (pun intended, but also so true–your gut will love the gentle nourishing goodness of these meals) manifesto. This excerpt is a good example of the call to action:

“It’s easy to get angry at the cattle ranchers and the big business that keeps meat rolling into our stores and restaurants, but I have to remember that they are just responding to market demands. If we stop the flow of money to these industries by converting to a plant-based diet they will eventually have to convert their land and processing facilities into newer, more profitable ventures.”

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We want to hear your thoughts (always!)

  • Are you working on yourself in any particular areas right now?
  • Love or hate Madeleine Albright?
  • Did you feel a tiny bit of pity for McCullough’s Luke?
  • Was Barbara Stanwyck the best part of the Thornbirds miniseries? (No? Get off this blog.)
  • Have you given a plant-based diet a go?
  • Do you love rice milk?

Share with the group!

Notes on Privilege + White Feminism (Featuring Other Gross Societal Fails)

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We are all aware at this point who run the world.

(Girls. It’s girls.)

We’re about to publish a post called “Wonder Women + Wonder Writers: 4 Dope Books from Female Authors”

Female authors are always going to feature heavily on I Read Therefore, but it needs to be acknowledged that all the women on this first list are white CIS women. We wanted a self-help, a non-fiction, a fiction, and a cookbook. While it’s a coincidence that these authors were Caucasian we all know it is NOT a coincidence that women of color, queer women, trans-women and other marginalized communities have never received equal opportunity in any category of publishing. In the next three months we have six posts on the calendar that celebrate and signal boost women of color, the LGBTQ community, female Native American authors and female first nations/indigenous authors from countries around the world. (They’re going to be really good, get hyped.)

A fair question: “Are you intentionally seeking out works by women in these categories so your book blog is less white and straight and male?” Yes. Hell yes. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

Another fair question: “How are you going to deal with white straight dudes having been published at such astronomically higher rates historically, when a big (cool) part of the blog is reaching way, way, way back for titles?” We’re not going to stress about it. “Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.” Shine the spotlight where it’s been too dark too long (Girls. It’s girls.)

Last question for today: “VIRTUE SIGNALLING?! PROBLEMATIC FAVES?! WHAT DO?!” Obviously that is not a question–it’s the anxiety vortex swirling in our brains about how to deal with these things. Frank answer: we don’t know. We’re going to figure it out as we go. A lot of this framework is unfolding before our very eyes on the world stage; we’re listening, learning, and bringing bucket loads of humility and awareness of our own ignorance to the table. (THAT’S virtue signalling.) Please please please please please comment anything and everything you have in your mind and/or heart on anything and everything we post. We are listening. And your time and energy is so appreciated.

Related: we are drained af now. It’s okay to admit that the discomfort of meditating on and discussing inequality, injustice, your own privilege and privilege at large makes your chest hurt and your ears ring. You get to feel your overwhelm and feel your queasy, sludgy feelings as they surface: just remember they’re no one else’s problem.

(Confession: we are so bad about this. “Ooo I, a middle class white person, need a hug and a nap because racism and heternormitivity are scary and I don’t know how to handle it.” Lame. Chill.)

We’re all in this together, us + you + everyone. And we’re reading books and talking about books, and reading books and talking about books turns ignorance to ash.

Humility. Humility. Humility. Humility.

– Host

4 Classic Books You Might Have Missed

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(This post contains affiliate links. Full info here)

 

 

4 Classic Books You Might Have Missed

 

We want every post on I Read Therefore to be like a mixtape.

(On cassette, because we’re old and romantic.)

Fiction, non-fiction, old, new, famous, very much not famous.

This post is a little more old + famous: the books herein were all published between 1926 and 2006.

(2006 is Julia Child’s autobiography and covers decades and decades, including the eras of the other three books.)

And we’re off to the races:

 

My Life In France by Julia Child

This is an absolutely gorgeous book. If you like cooking, if you like travel, if you like icons, or if you like exactly none of those things, you will enjoy this book. It is a time capsule. Not a slice-of-life but a feast. Fitting.

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

There’s so much going on with this thin little book, but if you happened to have missed reading it until later in life (like we did!) the main thing you need to know is that it is HYSTERICAL. You’ll find yourself remembering the smallest little details out of the blue–and the smallest little details are why generations keep reading this pocket rocket classic and many more generations will worship it, too.

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How to Develop Self-Confidence & Influence People by Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie

It is not your fault if you’ve gotten this far in life without being introduced to the self-help book brilliance that is Dale Carnegie’s body of work, but it is the fault of every teacher, leader, colleague, older family member, authority figure…fine, that’s overstated. But once you read this or Carnegie’s other books, you will be shoving them into the hands of everyone you love. Practical and actionable helpful information abound. You can read one page a day and feel stronger, smarter, more capable and competent. Those are some heavy and holy words and we mean it.

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Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

Real talk: this is a hard read. It is in turns claustrophobic, and sweeping. Heavy with every form of abuse, when the occasional laugh comes around you only get a sour half-smirk of pleasure and relief out of it. But here’s why you should soldier through: every single one of these horrible characters has so much to teach us. Good, bad, and ugly (mostly bad tbh) we can see ourselves and be grateful for who we aren’t and humbled by how much work we have to do to be our best selves. It’s a 50/50 split between male and female characters and all get equal opportunity to have their guts laid bare. Worth the emotional and mental labor.

 

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That’s our list for the day! Four classic books you might have missed, but might be interested in.

We appreciate each and every one of you!

 

 

Welcome (to you + to us)

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These are beautiful days, my fellows. Full, and clear. Scary as shit.

We read to arm ourselves: with information, with hope, with perspective, with resources, with rest.

Let this be the year. THE year. Let this book blog and reading resource help however it can.

Welcome and thank you.