should I read? Women authors?

[lsavage at westmont.edu]

"The Golden Notebook" certainly does posses a surprising vitality...

Quoting kelber at mindspring.com:

> 
> The Golden Notebook should be among the top 10 of this (or any) list.  Why
> it's not there is a mystery.  Lessing is one of the few (if not only) great
> women writers, although there are many good women writers.  Much has been
> written about why this is (A Room of One's Own, for starters).  Surely Pride
> and Prejudice and Jane Eyre deserve a mention somewhere?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Aug 8, 2005 1:10 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: should I read?  Women authors?
> 
> The top 169 novels include these women and their books:
> 
>   56.. The Age of Innocence : Edith Wharton : 9
> 59.. Two Girls, Fat and Thin : Mary Gaitskill : 8
> 63.. A Book of Common Prayer : Joan Didion : 8
> 76.. To Kill a Mockingbird : Harper Lee : 7
> 89.. The Story of the Treasure Seekers : Edith Nesbit : 5
> 90.. Always Coming Home : Ursula LeGuin : 5
> 124.. Beloved : Toni Morrison : 3
> 139.. Geek Love : Katherine Dunn : 2
> 149.. Cat's Eye : Margaret Atwood : 2
> 151.. Messiah of Stockholm : Cynthia Ozick : 1
> 161.. The Secret History : Donna Tartt : 1
> 
> 
> There are certainly more women authors of quality fiction than that, 
> and the ones listed have certainly written more books!   (I'm 
> thinking of  Atwood and LeGuin and Ozick,  whose last novel was a 
> marvel!).
> 
> So I made a brief list of the best of the unincluded:  (authors only, 
> some have written dozens of books)
> 
> Ali Smith      Hotel
> Angela Carter  Nights at the Circus
> AS Byatt       Possession
> Keri Hulme     The Bone People
> Pat Barker     Regeneration
> Helen DeWitt   The Last Samurai
> Rilla Askew    The Mercy Seat
> Kathy Acker    Don Quixote
> Doris Lessing    The Golden Notebook
> Virginia Woolf   A Room of One's Own
> Iris Murdoch     The Bell
> 
> Some other,  or not necessarily contemporary, women  authors (staying 
> in the 20th-21st century),  in no particular order are:
> 
> Willa Cather
> Annie Proulx
> Monica Ali
> Zadie Smith
> Carson McCullers
> Anais Nin
> Andrea Levy
> Penelope Fitzgerald
> Arundhati Roy
> Ann Patchett
> Carol Shields
> Joyce Carol Oates
> Jhumpa Lahiri
> J.K.  Rowling?  (g)
> 
> There are undoubtedly a bunch I'm neglecting.  I think that there are 
> a couple of good up and coming women authors from Africa  and India. 
> The current Nobel for Literature is a woman from Poland but I don't 
> know her name right now and haven't read anything by her.
> 
> And a few I want to read:
> 
> Nadine Gordimer
> Jeanette Winterson
> Joyce Johnson
> Elfriede Jelinek
> Buchi Emecheta
> Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
> 
> 
> Bekah
> 
>