I am declaring this past month to be “Fall of the Patriarchy” month for me - it was in my reading and my life.
For my birthday I bought myself some artwork that says “My Favorite Season is the Fall of the Patriarchy” and compostable garbage bags. Somehow those two things go together. And a friend made her own design with the same saying, and put it on a t-shirt, just for me! All month I have been in the throes of planning a public rally for reproductive rights.
The first lines of the six books I read this month:
Book 1
Mister Robert Roberts Hitt, the well-known steno man, arrived in Springfield late on the sweltering afternoon of August 28, 1859.
Book 2
The Slogan
Some time ago a former student e-mailed me from California: “You’ll be delighted to know that you are quoted frequently on bumpers in Berkeley.”
Book 3
Stuff Happens
Pat stood before the door at the bottom of the stair, reading the names underneath the buttons.
Book 4
THE PAST PERFECT
Le Plus-que-parfait
I hadn’t wanted to live in Geneva. In fact, I had decisively wished not to, but there I was.
Book 5
Kentucky
They still call her Book Woman, having long forgotten the epithet for her cobalt-blue flesh, though she’s gone now from these hills and hollers, from her loving husband and daughter and endearing Junia, her patrons and their heartaches and yearnings for more.
Book 6
I was not sorry when my brother died.
The titles and authors revealed:
Book 1
Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency. By Dan Abrams, David Fisher.
320 pages • first pub 2018.
It was fascinating to see how the law worked back then. I read it for book club; everyone in the club liked this book.
Book 2
Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
284 pages • first pub 2007.
This excellent historian examines the writings of three women who made history, one from the 1400s in France, one from the mid-1800s in the US, and one from mid-1900s in England. Good stuff that fits with my personal theme for this month. The title is a sentence that Thatcher Ulrich wrote in a research paper, which was then picked up by the public and put on t-shirts and bumper stickers.
Book 3
44 Scotland Street (#1 in the series)
By Alexander McCall Smith with Iain McIntosh (Illustrator)
325 pages • first pub 2005
I finally read the first one in the series. Not remotely related to any fall of any patriarchy.
Book 4
When in French: Love in a Second Language
By Lauren Collins
256 pages • first pub 2016
I really enjoyed this book, especially the parts on the history and quirks of language.
Since I have declared this to be Fall of the Patriarchy month, I’ll leave you with this moderately-related quote:
The Malian language Supyire has five genders (humans, big things, small things, groups, liquids), while the Australian language Ngan’gityemerri has fifteen (males, females, groups, animals, vegetables, body parts, canines, trees, liquids, fire, strikers, digging sticks, woomeras, two different types of spears).
Book 5
The Book Woman’s Daughter (2nd in a series) by Kim Michele Richardson
338 pages. Published 2022.
For book club. In which a teen and her friend in Appalachia struggle to overcome the entrenched patriarchy and racism of their time and location.
Book 6
Nervous Conditions (#1 in a series)
By Tsitsi Dangarembga
204 pages (my print copy has 298 pages) • first pub 1988.
A coming of age story, in which a teen and her cousin in Rhodesia struggle to overcome the entrenched patriarchy and racism of their time and location. (Content warning - eating disorder.) Recommended by my daughter.
Wikipedia says that this novel, “which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world.” The third book in this series, This Mournable Body (2020) was short-listed for the Booker Prize. My daughter has read all three in the series, and says Nervous Conditions was her favorite.
Dear Reader, what have you been reading? What is your favorite season?
