Upstream, Mary Oliver
Lovely quotes by Mary Oliver are constantly posted all over the internet (my favorite being—“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”) and I was finally inspired to read some of her work in its entirety. And was immediately overwhelmed. She was a prolific author, and as I am not a serious poetry-reader, I had no idea where to start. So I sort of cheated, and began with one of her last publications, a collection of essays. I swear I will get to her poetry next! From reading her essays, you can tell that she is also a poet—you get the sense that she has chosen each and every word that you’re reading specifically for that place and purpose, and its deliberateness slows your reading down, which I would presume is her point. Many of the essays deal with nature and animals and how we should appreciate them more simply by being still in our surroundings. Other essays are about the authors who inspired her, all men unfortunately, and there is even one about a spider that is laying hundreds of eggs…I had to speed read my way through that one! I plan to read American Primitive next, which is the poetry collection that received the Pulitzer. Have you read any of her work?
I Hate Men, Pauline Harmange
This long essay in book form is everything that I have been thinking about and more over the past few years. Its title has, of course, garnered lots of negative attention, including an attempt at censorship in France, where it was originally published, but as they say, one should never judge a book by its cover, am I right? Throughout history the ideas and beliefs of feminists and lesbians have been discarded swiftly with the phrase “Oh, so you must hate men, right?” and Harmange’s purpose is to turn this idea on its head and consider how we can use hate for men as a whole to the greater good of feminism and of society as whole. If we reject men and all that they have stood for through all of history, we create spaces where love of women and of the feminine abounds, spaces where women can be truly free. If I had to recommend one thing that I have read over the past four years of me reading only works by women, this would be it. And guess what? It’s only 80 pages long, including the acknowledgements! After reading this book, you will be able to better understand feminism and its future, as well as the struggles the women around you face on a daily basis.