Emma’s Comments (group member since Jan 03, 2016)

Emma’s comments from the Our Shared Shelf group.

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

For September & October, I’ve chosen a book that tackles inequality and women’s rights head-on: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Half the Sky depicts, in eye-opening detail, the various cultures and customs that suppress women and gives a voice to those individuals who need to be heard the most. Traversing through Africa and Asia, Kristof and WuDunn introduce us to some incredibly strong women and describe their stories of suffering and survival. Most importantly, the book spotlights how these women were able to stand up and transform their lives and, through their inspiring examples, we learn that the key to enabling change and economic growth is in unleashing women’s potential (the title of the book, after all, comes from the ancient Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky”). Kristof and WuDunn dare us, as readers, to join the cause and Half the Sky shows us how, by doing even a very small amount, we each have the power to change other women’s lives.

Since its publication in 2009 it has started a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org).

Hope you like,

love,

Emma

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

Here is a link to my conversation with Marjane on Vogue.com! She was so brilliant!

http://www.vogue.com/13462655/emma-wa...

Let me know what you think.

Love,
Emma

Hi everybody,

The winner of the poll for July & August’s book is Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, by Carrie Brownstein!

Thank you for voting and I’m really looking forward to reading this one with you all.

Love,
Emma

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

Some announcements!

First, after careful consideration I’ve decided to make books bi-monthly to give people enough time to borrow/buy, read and discuss each book (I hope this gives everyone some extra breathing space. For eager beavers and keen beans I might add a few extra things to look at when a new book is posted.

Second ! For the first time………….. I want YOU to decide what we read over July/August so I’ve set up a poll. I’ve added some ideas to get you going but I’d love to see your suggestions too if you feel strongly. I can’t wait to see what you all pick!

Love,

Emma x

Exciting news! I will be interviewing Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, for Vogue.com in a couple of weeks. If you have any questions post them here and I will ask her as many as I can. Emma x

Answers from Maggie !!!

Questions from Emma:
Why did you choose to address the reader in places, when the book seemed (to me) structured like a long, overflowing, open letter to Harry?
The play with the second person is something I’ve been interested for some time, probably as a holdover from my life as a poet; my 2009 book Bluets has a similar swing between an address to the reader and an address to a beloved. In the case of The Argonauts, while the book is in part, or at times, an address to Harry, as you say, it’s also many other things—cultural critique, personal testimony, art writing, theoretical inquiry, and so on. Given this shifting, just as it made sense to me to have the “you” sometimes be Harry and sometimes be the reader, Harry is often addressed in the third person as well as the second.
Do you have any advice for readers of this book that aren't very familiar of the different bits of theory and philosophy throughout the book?
Just roll with it, and let curiosity trump any feelings of insecurity or irritation that may arise in the face of the unfamiliar. Sometimes, when people aren’t familiar with a reference, they jump to the conclusion that the writer is trying to show how smart she is, to namedrop just for the sake of it. I don’t deny the existence of the pretentious namedropper, and if anyone wants to read my work that way, that’s totally their prerogative; not all work is for everyone. But I think it’s important to understand that there exist types of writing in the world which explicitly aim to reflect the writer’s engagement in a conversation or tradition of ideas which really matter to her, and that there can be great benefit in approaching a reference-heavy text as a treasure trove rather than an alienating force. I read above my paygrade all the time—in fact, I’m often bored when I’m not. Because once one gets over the insecurity or befuddlement feelings, one can develop a ravenous appetite for all one doesn’t know. It’s also good to remember that one’s ability to understand a text changes over time, often in amazing ways—the best essay I know on this subject is my friend Jordana Rosenberg’s essay on reading Judith Butler’s notoriously difficult Gender Trouble over two decades. It’s called “Gender Trouble on Mother’s Day,” and can be found in the LA Review of Books. It’s a hilarious and moving and profound read.

Question from Clayre:
Thank you so much for such an incredible opportunity and amazing book. I'm an undergraduate and for my class titled "The Art of Flirtation", this one of the books we were assigned. I was just curious to know, how did you decide on the structure of the book? This was one of the biggest themes we touched upon, besides the diverse, unable-to-be-completely-defined term "queer".
Form for me is a trial and error thing. As a young poet I read an A. A. Ammons’ poem called “Poetics,” and these lines really spoke to me: “I look for the way/ things will turn/ out spiraling from a center,/ the shape/ things will take to come forth in . . . I look for the forms/ things want to come as.” This notion of “looking for the form things want to come as” has persisted with me for years now. It has always seemed the most apt description of how it feels to me, to look for form.
I love the idea of a class called “The Art of Flirtation.”
Question from Katie:

I just recently read your book (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) for my theory class, and I actually ended up writing my final paper on it. The aim of the paper was to relate it to some of our other readings and I came across a quote by Mel Y. Chen about the "threatening terrain" of the biographical. I guess I'm just wondering whether you relate to this statement in anyway, or if it was less threatening, and perhaps more comforting?
In that quotation, I believe Chen is talking about academic writing, a sphere in which, as Chen has said, one is often “trained to avoid writing in anything resembling a confessional mode.” But I’m not working in that sphere per se, so I don’t have the same ambivalence about it. I am a great lover and reader of many works in the genre of what I’d call life-writing, and I often gravitate toward work that’s willing to stage or lay bare the ways in which its own skin is in the game. But I don’t really find autobiographical writing comforting or threatening or anything more degraded or exalted than any other kind of writing. Sometimes the personal gets the job done; other times (as in my books The Art of Cruelty or Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions), it doesn’t need to play as much of a role.
Question from Theresa:
What resonated with me most in The Argonauts was the negotiation of public self, private self, lover, and parent. You touched on relational transactions in Bluets, but the stakes were much higher in The Argonauts. In both books, finding ways to move through all of these roles and the challenges faced were enhanced by the collage-like writing structure. I felt it was extremely effective and I related to its frenetic quality of finding parallels in extreme personal narratives and theory.

Do you think that the natural progression of losing and finding oneself in relational roles is what drives your creative practice? And when writing do you feel that you are answering questions, or posing more to be examined over a lifetime?
I wouldn’t say it drives my creative practice, as relationality always invokes its shadow (radical solitude, the need to think or compose alone, and so on). But relation doesn’t evaporate when we enter a “room of our own”—our bodies and minds in solitude are still made by our relations with others, often in a very literal sense (i.e. you are what you eat!). Often my writing aims to reflect this enmeshment. And definitely my preference would be to pose questions! The need for answers, not to mention the presumption that fixed certainties, no matter what their cost, are what we need to make life liveable, can be a deadly impulse.

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

Our next book will be Persepolis, a graphic novel that serves as the memoir of the author, Marjane Satrapi. It's about a bold and brave young woman and her experiences in 1980s Iran.

Persepolis was first published in French in 2003 and like Art Spiegelman's Maus (which was about the Holocaust and was the first graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize) is now widely considered a classic of the graphic novel form.

Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath; Persepolis is the story of her childhood. Through Marji's youthful (though not-always-innocent) eyes and mind, we see a turbulent moment in history unfold, and we witness the tremendous impact that local and global events and politics can have on even the most intimate moments of personal lives.  We experience with Marji her day-to-day dreams and struggles, from family strife to wrestling with religious faith and custom.  We're swept up in her parents' anxieties and her grandmother's memories of an utterly different era.  And we get a very real sense of what it was like to be a woman in Iran during this intense time of cultural and political transition.

As Iran enters another important period of change, with relations re-opening with much of the world, I think this is a particularly good time to pick up Persepolis.  Satrapi's deceptively simple, almost whimsical drawings belie the seriousness and rich complexity of her story--but it’s also very funny too.

I’m excited to hear what you think.

Love,
Emma x

Dear OSS,

Super excited to let you all know that I will be interviewing Caitlin Moran for the club later this week. Please post your questions about How To Be A Woman in this thread (and also any other burning questions you may have for her) and I shall get through as many as I can. I upload the video once it’s ready.

Emma xx

Dear OSS,

I've been searching high and low for our next book. The club has been much more international than I had anticipated - and much bigger. I'm really proud of my club members - discussion-wise - you are all hitting it out of the park. I'm having to find books that are accessible, cover multiple perspectives and languages, that are unique and not too well known already... So without further ado...

Our next book is going to be The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson. The story is about the author’s relationship with artist Harry Dodge, who is fluidly gendered. It's about their romance, the birth of their son, the death of Harry’s mother and their changing bodies, as Maggie becomes pregnant and Harry undergoes surgery, but it’s also about inclusion and the powers and shortfalls of language. It might require a bit of work but The Argonauts rewards us with an expansive way of considering identity, caretaking, and freedom—along with a liberation from, what Maggie calls, “the demand that anyone live a life that’s all one thing.” I am excited to read this book with you. Maybe it will change the way we think and speak about others and ourselves?

Hope I did you proud,
Em Wats X

Hi team!

Really happy to let you know that bell has kindly agreed to answer questions from Our Shared Shelf members about her book on her Institute’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bellhooksIns...

Please post your questions in this thread and we will send to her to answer!

Love Emma x

Dear OSS,

There were so many profile pictures and masthead designs I liked for the group! Thank you! I’ve chosen to use a different piece of art for both for each month. The only problem I am having is sometimes when I try and upload your masthead pieces I get this very annoying message: “Masthead photo is invalid. Photos must be between 1KB and 6MB and of type (jpg/jpeg/gif/png/tiff/tif) and at least 970px wide by 245px high”.

So if you don’t see yours up there it’s for this reason and NOT because I don’t like it. If any of you can reformat that would be amazing. Thank you to everyone for submitting (and hopefully for continuing to submit!) They are all beautiful. It makes me happy.

Love,
Emma x

Dear OSS,

This month I am choosing a book which I confess I have already read. It is so brilliant though. It deserves to be read more than once.

Maybe you read Caitlin’s article in my Esquire guest edit this month ("12 Things About Being A Woman That Women Won’t Tell You")… Maybe you’ve seen some of the hype about her new book Moranifesto... Either way, she is an English hero of mine who I think you need to know. On a side note, this book also appears to have been translated into lots of languages and should be reasonably easy to get hold of.

You’ve probably guessed it by now, April's book (for a little light relief) is ‘How to Be a Woman.’ I read it on a plane from London to New York and I laughed out loud and cried so much I think the whole of my cabin, airline staff included, thought I was losing my mind. (For speedy readers out there, I am also going to read Moranifesto).

Love,
Emma xx

http://www.esquire.co.uk/culture/advi...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Woman-Ca...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017S92JNG...

http://www.caitlinmoran.co.uk

This month's book choice is in honor of bell hooks who interviewed me for Paper magazine this month. Maya Angelou said of bell’s work, “Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, she has so much to give us’. I love hearing from bell, I am pretty excited to start “All About Love: New Visions". It’s been on my list for a while.

http://www.amazon.com/All-About-Love-...

Love,
Emma x

Ok Team!

First thing's first, The Color Purple. I read it in two sittings and am now telling EVERYONE I know to watch the film too. I hope you enjoyed it too. I managed to speak to Alice on the phone last week! She is away at the moment but suggested that when discussing the book we should think of: ’The Temple of my Familiar’, ‘Possessing the Secret of Joy’ and ‘The Color Purple’ as a family… So if you loved this book, she really does see it as belonging to a series… Everyone is busy so I am not suggesting this as being on the official reading list but if you want to, or have a bit of extra time at the moment, I am going to try and dip into these two as well. She also discussed the book on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/authoralicew...

I also wanted to mention ‘Beauty In Truth’, which is a documentary made by the incredible Pratibha Parmar about Alice's life. It is really interesting but currently nearly impossible to get hold of. It did play on PBS and BBC iPlayer but is ‘currently unavailable’. I‘ll keep you updated on my hunt for a new link!

In the meantime, the other thing I wanted to bring to your attention was Alice’s 'Desert Island Discs' recorded for BBC Radio 4: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shstm

For those of you that aren’t English, this radio show is like a national institution. (Emma Thompson’s is one of my favourites). When I’m working away from home I love to listen to it in the hair and make-up chair. I love the vulnerability Kirsty brings out in her guests…. I love hearing the soundtracks of people’s lives. (I also just find her voice really soothing!) I hope this info is useful. I love seeing ‘meet ups’ happening all over the world so you can discuss in person.

If you haven’t done so already please post your thoughts and opinions on the book right here!

I didn't know what to expect when I started this Book Club. To have 100k members in less than a month is amazing and for this I am so grateful but even more amazing is the level at which I see these topics being engaged with and discussed and how generous people are being with their responses and insights into the material. This is what is meaningful to me. Then more recently to look on Instagram and literally see people from all over the world coming together to discuss these issues in groups, over Skype, in person, mothers and daughters, friends, selfies, pictures of cats and dogs curled up next to their owners alongside #MyLifeOnTheRoad, peoples' favourite reading snacks.... For this I cannot thank each of you enough because frankly it's just so heart warming. It's so much more than I had allowed myself to imagine it could be. Gloria emphasises in all of her work the need for solidarity and community; we are 'linked not ranked'. If this book club can be that, a link between people, then I've done a good thing and I'm very proud. I'll keep going out there and trying to make this the best it can be, harassing whoever I need to harass to get questions answered or figure out the next best thing to read.

To celebrate 100k members I've started an Instagram account because I wanted to put all of the amazing images, quotes, pieces of artwork, selfies etc that people have been sending in one place. Take a look: www.instagram.com/oursharedshelf

Thank you again for investing so much and making this what it now is. Love to you all.

Just an FYI - the books I am suggesting I haven't read myself. I am learning and reading for the first time with you. I am trying to choose works that cover as much ground as possible and are diverse... I've heard amazing things about this book from a person that I trust... The musical is currently on Broadway (starring Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Hudson and Danielle Brooks) and a film was made of the book in 1985 by Steven Spielberg. It was Oprah Winfrey’s film debut and introduced Whoopi Goldberg (I love both of these women). I’m excited to read it and maybe do some watching too.

Love,
E xx

I am so excited to FINALLY be able to tell you my secret! It will be me interviewing Gloria on stage in London at the How to: Academy on the 24th of February. There aren't many tickets left but here is the link - http://www.howtoacademy.com/courses/a.... My plan is to upload a video of the entire event onto Our Shared Shelf. I was hoping we could put our heads together and come up with the best possible questions together as a group. I want to ask as many as possible. : ) I hope you're as psyched as I am that our first author discussion is THIS awesome!! eeeee!
E xxx

Gloria Steinem

Art work for quotes from My Life On the Road would be lovely too....

Artists! I wanted to see if any of you had an original doodle/piece of art for the Group Icon or the Masthead. If you do please submit them on Twitter (using the hashtags #oursharedshelf or on Goodreads (there is a photos section). For the masthead - crop a photo to 970 x 245 pixels, larger photos will be automatically shrunk and cropped to this size. Thank you so much!
E xx

TEN BOOKS FOR A DESERT ISLAND

If I were marooned on a desert island, I would want a book on edible plants and building a raft, but here are ten I would choose for the pleasure of big and new understandings.

The Mermaid and the Minotaur, Dorothy Dinnerstein In a migratory past when both men and women raised children, men developed empathy, patience, attention to detail, and a sense of the value of life; all qualities now wrongly called “feminine.” Dinnerstein will convince you that men again raising children is the key to world peace.

Exterminate All the Brutes, Sven Lindquist By traveling in Africa while also learning from hundreds of books stored in his computer, Lindquist shows us that racism was invented to justify colonialism. Racism came home to Europe as the holocaust.

Two Thousand Seasons, Ayi Kwei Armah In the communal voice of a storyteller, this great Ghanaian novelist describes Africa before Arab and European invasions and slave-taking. He not only re-defines history, but how history is told.

The Sacred Hoop, Paula Gunn Allen By describing the Americas before Columbus and what is still the biggest genocide in history, she tells us that “the root of oppression is the loss of memory.” Otherwise, we would know that most of what we want in the future was once here.

Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman From shell shock in World War I to childhood sexual abuse today, the reality of trauma has been denied. But as this indispensable book makes clear, “Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of individual victims.”

At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle McGuire For a decade before Rosa Parks began the Montgomery bus boycott, she had been protesting the rapes at bus stops of black women by white men. This book helps make the female half of the civil rights movement visible.

The Color Purple, Alice Walker Because she makes the invisible visible, and redeems people who seem irredeemable, she makes every reader feel visible and redeemable, too.

Sex and World Peace, Valerie Hudson et al All the many forms of violence against females have now added up to fewer females on earth than males. Since violence against females is the normalizer of all other forms of violence, this book is vital, from family life to foreign policy.

The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston If a Chinese girl living in the back of a laundry in San Francisco can imagine herself as a woman warrior riding down from the hills of China to rescue her people, I can imagine myself off this island.

Dark Matter, Robin Morgan Though I plan to live to 100, this soon-to-be published book of poetry contains my favorite lines:

….It’s sweetness
that turns leaving sour, joy that makes dying hard.”

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