Why Women Read Fiction

Why Women Read Fiction

Author: Helen Taylor

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-12-05

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 0192562673

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Ian McEwan once said, 'When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.' This book explains how precious fiction is to contemporary women readers, and how they draw on it to tell the stories of their lives. Female readers are key to the future of fiction and—as parents, teachers, and librarians—the glue for a literate society. Women treasure the chance to read alone, but have also gregariously shared reading experiences and memories with mothers, daughters, grandchildren, and female friends. For so many, reading novels and short stories enables them to escape and to spread their wings intellectually and emotionally. This book, written by an experienced teacher, scholar of women's writing, and literature festival director, draws on over 500 interviews with and questionnaires from women readers and writers. It describes how, where, and when British women read fiction, and examines why stories and writers influence the way female readers understand and shape their own life stories. Taylor explores why women are the main buyers and readers of fiction, members of book clubs, attendees at literary festivals, and organisers of days out to fictional sites and writers' homes. The book analyses the special appeal and changing readership of the genres of romance, erotica, and crime. It also illuminates the reasons for British women's abiding love of two favourite novels, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. Taylor offers a cornucopia of witty and wise women's voices, of both readers themselves and also writers such as Hilary Mantel, Helen Dunmore, Katie Fforde, and Sarah Dunant. The book helps us understand why—in Jackie Kay's words—'our lives are mapped by books.'


Women & Fiction

Women & Fiction

Author: Susan Cahill

Publisher: Signet

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 9780451528278

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Twenty-six stories by Mansfield, Wharton, Woolf, Porter, Lessing, Oates and others illuminate the special experience of being a woman.


Our Italian Summer

Our Italian Summer

Author: Jennifer Probst

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-01-12

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0593098471

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Three generations of women in the Ferrari family must heal the broken pieces of their lives on a trip of a lifetime through picturesque Italy from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst Workaholic, career-obsessed Francesca is fiercely independent and successful in all areas of her life except one: family. She struggles to make time for her relationship with her teenage daughter, Allegra, and the two have become practically strangers to each other. When Allegra hangs out with a new crowd and is arrested for drug possession, Francesca gives in to her mother's wish that they take one epic summer vacation to trace their family roots in Italy. She just never expected to face a choice that might change the course of her life. . . Allegra wants to make her grandmother happy, but she hates the idea of forced time with her mother and vows to fight every step of the ridiculous tour, until a young man on the verge of priesthood begins to show her the power of acceptance, healing, and the heartbreaking complications of love. Sophia knows her girls are in trouble. A summer filled with the possibility for change is what they all desperately need. Among the ruins of ancient Rome, the small churches of Assisi, and the rolling hills of Tuscany, Sophia hopes to show her girls that the bonds of family are everything, and to remind them that they can always lean on one another, before it's too late.


Certain Women

Certain Women

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2017-05-02

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1504041593

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An award-winning author explores the meaning of family in a novel that draws parallels between the lives of a modern man and an ancient biblical king. As he struggles with cancer, legendary screen actor David Wheaton contemplates the one role that always eluded him: King David. Comparing his own life to that of the biblical ruler, David recalls his own numerous wives and children, forcing his daughter Emma to confront the memories of her family’s unconventional past. As David’s loved ones gather to say goodbye to their patriarch, Certain Women masterfully links past and present in an emotional story rich in dramatic tradition, showcasing the struggles—both ordinary and extraordinary—of family life. From the renowned author of A Wrinkle in Time, Certain Women is a wise and “memorable work” (Kirkus Reviews). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Madeleine L’Engle including rare images from the author’s estate.


Woman's Fiction

Woman's Fiction

Author: Nina Baym

Publisher: Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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"This book traces the birth, growth, and decline of a genre of popular fiction that dominated American literary taste for at least a generation - a genre created by women and directed at them"--Cover.


The Risk of Us

The Risk of Us

Author: Rachel Howard

Publisher: Ecco

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1328588823

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A poignant, dazzling debut novel about a woman who longs to be a mother and the captivating yet troubled child she and her husband take in.


Women's Fiction and Post-9/11 Contexts

Women's Fiction and Post-9/11 Contexts

Author: Peter Childs

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2014-10-21

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 149850096X

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9/11 is not simple a date on the calendar but marks a distinct historical threshold, ushering in the war on terror, various states of emergency, a supposed “clash of civilizations,” and the putative legitimation of counter-democratic procedures ranging from extraordinary renditions to enhanced interrogation. Perhaps no date, since Virginia Woolf declared that “on or about December 1910 human character changed,” has marked such a singular point in the perception of time, identity and nature. Women’s writing has always been something of a counter-canon, offering modes of voice and point of view beyond that of the “man” of reason. This collection of essays explores the two problems of what it means to write as a woman and what it means to write in the twenty-first century.


Beyond the Border

Beyond the Border

Author: Nora Erro-Peralta

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 9780813017853

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A collection of 15 short stories by female, Latin American writers, including Isabel Allende and Luisa Valenzuela. Ranging across boundaries of geography and gender, the work covers such topics as incest, race, politics, sexual needs, love, old age, and child abuse.


A Snug Life Somewhere

A Snug Life Somewhere

Author: Jan Shapin

Publisher: Publish America

Published: 2006-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781424152995

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A Snug Life Somewhere is about Penny Joe Copper, daughter of a roustabout shingle weaver, who is caught up in a 1916 union tragedy known as the Everett Massacre. Her brother Horace is killed, as is the cousin of a radical organizer, Gabe. When her love affair with Marcel, a music student seven years her junior, is thwarted, she is pulled into Gabeas campaign to avenge the aEverett Martyrs.a She follows Gabe to Mexico (where they live in a household of Bolsheviks bent on smuggling jewels), then to Chicago (where she rediscovers Marcel, steals a Faberge egg and escapes from Gabe). Then a second event intervenesathe Seattle General Strike of 1919. Penny Joe returns to Seattle to confront Gabe and meets up with a mysterious stranger who turns out to be J. Edgar Hoover. Should she give the Faberge egg to Hoover as evidence against Gabe or just disappear and start a new life? Is she ever going to reunite with her lost love, Marcel?