Read Women discussion

What challenges interest you for 2019? Would you like to see us offer themed quarterly challenges in addition to annual challenges? Do you like challenges that reward reading new-to-you authors or that take place in countries or regions with which you are less familiar? Do you want to read more women LGBTQ authors or non-white or other-than-Christian religious traditions?

What would inspire you to read more or different women authors in 2019? What would be fun for you? Share your thoughts and feedback on our challenges.

Share your thoughts and suggestions here.

No opinions from this group of members? Hmmmm.

I like challenges that give me a place to track trends I value. I am unmotivated to participate in challenges that are overly complex, require me to search for and potentially read books that meet tasks I don't care about. I don't care if I finish a challenge or not. It's the journey, as they say. I have a lot of fun seeing what everyone else is reading for certain tasks, and I am inspired often to pick up a book sooner than I might have otherwise because a friend used it to complete a task and enjoyed it, so I find challenge threads focused on individual tasks to be interesting and inspiring.

I like the basic "how many women authors" will you read challenge we do. I'd like to find a way to make it more engaging instead of a place we all individually track our reads. I also like challenges focused on reading translated fiction and authors around the world, e.g., for me, non-American and non-British.

In addition to those two challenges, I'd be interested in launching and participating in a quarterly challenge here in 2019, where each quarter, we focus on a different theme. I am part of another group here on GR that has monthly themes that are topical and readers post the books they intend to read that month for that theme. There's no pressure to participate and no counting. The identification of books that fit the themes is a major source of TBR additions for me, and it feeds a part of my reading soul that no other resource feeds.

You?

What I look for in book challenges is, like you, something to get me to explore certain trends of interest. When I First came here to read women, simply reading women authors was a challenge. Must of my favorites were males. Most comics I used to read are written by males. So, I started incorporating more female authors in the genres I like, and the A-Z author challenge was a way to read more women in general. Now, I read a lot of women in all genres.

I've been meaning to read more women in non-fiction, as I've noticed that is one of the genres I read that is dominated by male authors. Specifically in hard science fields. I could see how that wouldn't speak to many people specifically, but maybe a non-fiction challenge would be good. I started reading more women in non-fiction with poetry, so the point is that there is constant growth and movement to read them on my part.

I also mine my friends' bookshelves and activity for tbr additions. Although I recently purged my pile down to about 200 books.

Anita wrote: "What I look for in book challenges is, like you, something to get me to explore certain trends of interest. When I First came here to read women, simply reading women authors was a challenge. Must ..."

Anita — I agree that nonfiction is an area of opportunity, as they say. I belong to an IRL true crime book and it takes a ton of intentionality and research to find women-authored books in that category, and I can only imagine that it might be even more challenging to find hard science books that are women- authored.

And poetry is an excellent and under-read category, for certain!

I feel so relieved to read that someone else finds challenges that require too much research less inviting. On occasion I have come across some challenges that I thought looked really interesting but in the end I never succeeded in following them because it seemed like too much work to find books that complied with their list.

I recently saw one in another group that was a Seasonal challenge that looked quite interesting. That might work into your Quarterly idea as well. Within each season there seemed to be topics to guide your selections based on that season. Timing a Horror read around the time of Halloween often comes up as well.

Wish I had something more creative or inspiring to add but I have to admit to being quite haphazard with my reading choices.

I fourth not enjoying challenges that require a ton of research to find a book that fits. Nothing against them if other people want to post list challenges and that's what they enjoy doing, but I would probably not take part in them.

I would do a non-fic challenge though for sure. And I a also down with quarterly themes where there's no pressure to take part in.

What I was considering is maybe changing the format of how we do challenges here to encourage more discussion, and I had a couple of thoughts on how to do that:

1. Have two threads for each challenge, one for tracking progress (similar to how current challenge threads work) and one of them for discussion, so you could head there to get recommendations on what books to read from other participants or to ask what authors beginning with Q are any good for the A-Z challenge. Or just to talk about what you've read and enjoyed for the challenge.

2. (Borrowed from 2018 reading challenge group) Have a discussion thread for each of the group challenges, similar to outline above and then a 'members corner' section where people could create their own individual threads to track their progress in all the group challenges they're taking part in or have made up themselves in any format that they find useful (eg. here's mine for 2018, doing similar for this group though, the focus would just be on women authors)

I don't know if this would be of interest to any of you but possible challenges in non-fiction could have to do with pre-patriarchal goddess figures; the origins of patriarchy; the gyno-centric world views of indigenous cultures; interpreting the mythology and artifacts of pre-patriarchal cultures; etc. etc.

The field is a sort of combination of archaeology, anthropology, mythology, psychology. It sounds a bit of a hodge podge. But there has been a ton of research done in all of these fields by feminist scholars, especially in the area of anthropology. Feminist scholars got into these fields and are reinterpreting much of what had been considered "truth."

I can rattle off dozens of books by female authors. I got into this field years ago when I started Women's Studies at the college where I taught. I find it all very fascinating. But perhaps this is too specific for a challenge. But I thought I'd suggest it--just in case there is any interest :)

Tamara that sounds fascinating to me! It also sounds intimidating in the sense that it would take specific knowledge and database searches. I have read a few books that reference pre-patriarchal cultures and traditions, but never pursued it specifically.

If we did a non-fiction challenge I would love some sub - folders of topics like this (perhaps feminist anthropology, sociology, pre-history...?) where knowledgeable people such as yourself could bury us in recommendations!

Anita, I'm delighted you like the suggestion.

If we decide to pursue any of these as general topics and/or as sub topics, I'd be happy to provide recommendations.

It really shouldn't be intimidating. My doctorate is in Brit. Lit., mostly the study of dead white male writers. So I knew nothing about this material until I started researching it. But once I got into it, I couldn't stop. The subject matter just blew me away. I was fascinated by the prominent role given to women and goddess figures in pre-patriarchal cultures.

I’m in my car so have to be quick. I think this is fascinating. Thanks for suggesting it!

Tamara wrote: "I don't know if this would be of interest to any of you but possible challenges in non-fiction could have to do with pre-patriarchal goddess figures; the origins of patriarchy; the gyno-centric wor..."

Tamara, this sounds fascinating. I would also love to hear some recommendations on these topics. Hopefully a few of them aren't too scholarly in tone, as those can be quite dry...

I'll say this of the somewhat-contentious Jean M. Auel books (you guys remember those?)...they certainly instilled an interest in my younger self that I've maintained ever since!

Anita wrote: "What I look for in book challenges is, like you, something to get me to explore certain trends of interest. When I First came here to read women, simply reading women authors was a challenge. Must ..."

This year, I started tracking my reading habits more closely, and because I'm one of those people, I plugged all the info into a spreadsheet to see what trends I could find. And you know what? If I look at the overall breakdown, I have a rough 60-40 split between female-authored books vs. male-authored books, and 75-25 if I filter out graphic novels. Because if I look at the numbers for graphic novels alone, nearly 80% of the ones I read these year are written by men...

My point is, there should be more women in the comics industry!

So I'm thinking about offering quarterly challenges focused on themes. We could do a poll if folks want and the top 4 win, or not. If we don't do a poll, and align in these comments, for the most part, my proposal is:

January - March - Nigerian or Canadian authors
April - June - Non-Fiction published in the last 5 years
July - September - Fantasy and Mythology
October - December - Graphic novels

Participants would set their own goals and we can offer a widget for that if members want one. The best part from my perspective is the discussion threads where members proposed what they might read that meets the task, and then discuss their thoughts about books they selected for the task.

@Louise - I like the second option you proposed above, although both would work fine. More suggestions and discussion versus playing in our individual sandboxes only.

So ... thoughts? other themes you prefer more? poll or no poll? I admit to being a tad biased against polls for this group on longer-term decisions because we tend to have a great many voters who don't participate in any visible way in what they vote for, and then our active members are "stuck" with the results. Our most active members in my experience are those reading and commenting in our many discussion threads .... but whatever you all prefer rules.

Melody wrote: "Anita wrote: "What I look for in book challenges is, like you, something to get me to explore certain trends of interest. When I First came here to read women, simply reading women authors was a ch..."

There should! I've noticed the same when it comes to graphic novels. It seems as 90% of the authors at least at my library are male. I encounter the same male dominance with my noir and translated, detective/thrillers, so have to be intentional to get close to a 50/50 balance in my reading.

Carol wrote: "So I'm thinking about offering quarterly challenges focused on themes. We could do a poll if folks want and the top 4 win, or not. If we don't do a poll, and align in these comments, for the most p..."

Seeing your proposal, I feel enthusiastic about participating in your quarterly challenge. I like the idea of reading Nigerian authors.

My only query about the proposal would be whether there was a way to blend Graphic novels with something else for the final quarter? I don't read Graphic novels and so for other people like myself, it might be nice if there was an option to read something else during that quarter. For example, Dystopian fiction? Sorry, I am not sure if there is a genre that works better with graphic novels.

Perhaps you could add authors from Oceania as a quarterly challenge for a future year. I personally would love to read more Australian fiction.

With respect to poll or no poll, I would be happy for you to nominate the challenges and then work from there. I agree with your assessment of the results of the polls.

Liesl wrote: "Carol wrote: "So I'm thinking about offering quarterly challenges focused on themes. We could do a poll if folks want and the top 4 win, or not. If we don't do a poll, and align in these comments, ..."

Liesl, these are excellent modifications, and thanks for proposing them.

I'll set up our first quarterly challenge for 2019 tonight or tomorrow, and here's the list of quarterly challenges, subject to revisiting halfway through the year and confirming or tweaking the second half challenges. Thanks, everyone.


2019 Quarterly Challenges
January - March - Authors from Nigeria, Oceania or Canada
April - June - Non-Fiction published in the last 5 years
July - September - Fantasy and Mythology
October - December - Graphic novels and/or Dystopian fiction

Here's a link to the thread for our first quarterly challenge, starting 1January 2019:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

All - we've had great responses and participation to our quarterly challenges this year. At the moment, our 4th quarter challenge is tentatively slated to focus on graphic novels and/or dystopian fiction. If you like these challenges, let's use this thread to discuss whether that 4th quarter challenge should remain as-is, or is there another theme that would interest or inspire you more?

I'd be interested in a challenge focused on any of these themes:

Latinx authors
MENA authors
Short fiction (under 250 pages)
Authors under 40
Asian-American authors
LGBTQ authors

We can combine themes or modify them. It's up to us. What themes or parameters would intrigue you or make you more likely to participate?

I love graphic novels, comics, and dystopian - so in my opinion it should stay as is. :)

Anita wrote: "I love graphic novels, comics, and dystopian - so in my opinion it should stay as is. :)"

A perfectly valid option, lol. I should have clarified that unless there's some real energy around changing it, our current planned theme will happily remain as-is. I tend to revisit decisions made for a group 12 months prior, as a matter of course, but I might be bringing too much of my work-self to play.

After all, as Dolores Umbrage first taught us long ago, "... some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognised as errors of judgement."

Personally, I'm looking forward to the dystopian challenge.

I think the planned challenge is fine. The possibilities you listed can always be used in 2020.

Kristin wrote: "I have read a lot of graphic novels and comics, and probably would read some for the challenge, but to be honest, the challenge isn't super appealing to me. I'm a little over dystopian novels but I..."

@Kristin, thanks for weighing in. I have a question for you, also because the question comes up frequently on the NewLitFic group: how does the average reader know what is or isn’t a small or indie press? Is there a website or list that we could use as a resource?

Kristin wrote: "Hi Carol, I agree that it is a little tricky, especially because the larger publishers often have imprints. Here is a large list of small/indie/university presses. I also found, for example, that m..."

Wow! Thank you — these are great links. I like the idea of a challenge to read small presses. We should add that to our list maybe for Q1, depending on what everyone else thinks. I’m not sure how much participation we’d get for poetry as a quarterly challenge, but maybe one month in the fall we could have a special themed challenge. Lemme think about it...

Carol wrote: "All - we've had great responses and participation to our quarterly challenges this year. At the moment, our 4th quarter challenge is tentatively slated to focus on graphic novels and/or dystopian f..."

Thanks all. No change - our Q4 quarterly challenge theme will be Graphic novels and/or Dystopian fiction

I'll also set up a 2020 Quarterly Challenges thread members can use to share ideas for our next 4 quarters, even though the mention of 2020 strikes fear into the hearts of those who already find that time races way too fast past our doors.

@Kristin, I'm capturing your small presses suggestion in that new thread. In terms of poetry, we can either consider combining it with another theme (as we did with graphic novels and dystopian) or celebrate it as a separate one-month challenge. We could wait for April, e.g., National Poetry Month. OTOH, would you be interested in our designating any of October, November or January as a poetry-themed month?