75 Books Every Woman Must Read

Jezebel just posted the 75 books every woman must read. Here's their list (with the ones I've read in orange, plus some comments):

The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (Didion is an amazing writer. Before her, I never read non-fiction. Her prose is beautiful)
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys (Read this in college, shortly after reading Jane Eyre. Our whole class was in love with Rochester, and did not want to hear Bertha's slander of him. All the same, this is a truly lovely book)
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Beloved, Toni Morrison (I actually think I've read this, but I'm not sure).
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Like Life, Lorrie Moore
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (Probably one of my all-time favorites. I have read it many times, and it still brings me to tears. Also one of the few successful film adaptions - the BBC/Colin Firth version, obviously)
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (Awesome. If you haven't read this, read it before any other on this list. Except Pride and Prejudice)
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Earthly Paradise, Colette
Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
Property, Valerie Martin
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir (I was a philosophy major in college. I read most of this, but not, technically, all of it. I was so pissed to find Borders had categorized this as Wellness>Women's Studies, and not with the other philosophy books. They still categorize it this way and, while I sort of get it, I also hate it)
Runaway, Alice Munro
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (I love mysteries of any sort)
Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker (I wish I was as witty as Parker. She is my literary hero)
The Group, Mary McCarthy (McCarthy is under-appreciated)
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (Surprisingly, this book has one of the most accurate descriptions of the feelings of loss after a loved one dies that I have ever read)
Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
Three Junes, Julia Glass
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell (I read this in sixth grade, and can still remember finishing it, under the covers, around 3am, because I couldn't put it down. I had heard that line "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." my whole life, and never would have thought it could possibly be as devastating as it was to actually read it)
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West
Spending, Mary Gordon
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Possession, A.S. Byatt

Things I Wanted to Tell You

1. Julia Quinn's novels are like crack for me. I bought two more of the Bridgerton series, planning to read them later. Like, when I'm done with the 10,000 pages I have to read for the MAE exam and my upcoming summer class. I've already finished one and grabbed the second on my way out the door this morning. I wish I lived way far away so that my train ride was hours and hours long, because I CAN'T STOP READING. I love them. I know that I need to do other stuff, but I can't not read these when they are in my reach. It is all I can do not to read it at my desk, at work.

2. I've applied for a new job that I really, really, really, really want, bad. So bad that I called my old boss, made nice, and asked if she had any connections. She did, but who knows how solid they are. Cross your fingers for me.

3. I need to remind myself that, in publishing, summer Fridays are 1/2 days, so the contact that I emailed about the potential new job will NOT respond, no matter how many times I check my email.

4. We're putting carpet tile in the basement this weekend, which will allow us to finally unpack completely and set up a nice house. After that, we have to paint the kitchen, stairs, hall, and living room and we will be presentable for the world. Not that I ever invite anyone over anyway, because I am a person who likes to be home alone, but you know. I could.

5. I really want this job. I feel a little nauseous and I have a headache because I am worrying about it so much.

6. Prepare yourself for the return of the Girl's Guide to Sports. If no one sends me questions - recordstorerita@hotmail.com - I will choose the topics myself. You won't know the difference, though, because I will fake questions. Maybe. I haven't really decided. I have several column ideas, and I want to get some in the bag and decide on a regular schedule.

Home Sick

Mr was sick all weekend and I think he gave it to me. I'm usually pretty hearty. If I get sick, he gets sick, but I rarely catch anything from him. This morning I had a hard time getting up (not to surprising considering that I was out really late on Monday and didn't get much sleep the night before). I showered, and got dressed and felt sort of ok. Not great, but whatever. By the time I got my shit together to leave, I was feeling a little queasy. By the time I was almost to the highway, I was near tears thinking about how I didn't want to go to work. This was my clue. When I'm sick, tears are always near the surface.

So, I called home and told Mr I was on my way back and called work and said I was sick. I've been in my pj's and on the couch since. It's a very weird thing going around. My stomach feels like iron and my guts keep clenching up. I had a small bowl of cereal, but it didn't sit well and I can't quite bring myself to eat anything else. Is it wrong that I'm hoping this will result in weight loss?

I get a little dizzy if I stand up or walk around, so I've been sitting on the couch. It took me about half an hour to work up the nerve to go upstairs and get my computer. I was thinking it would be fun to lay on the couch and play The Sims all day. I love The Sims. When I got my mac I was so sad that I would have to give up Sims - I'd bought all the expansion packs. What? You knew I was a nerd.

But Mac had a complete set - all the expansion pack and everything - for really cheap, so I bought it. It's sweet. Sadly, many of my things are still in boxes and, being that I don't have time to sit around staring at my computer all that often, I haven't played it since we moved. I dug through some boxes and almost passed out trying to find it. Somehow all of my PC Sims games are in the box with everything else that was in my desk, but no Mac Sims. I found the instructional booklet, but no disc. How can that be? I swear I've seen the case, but I can't find it now. Sad.

Today's supposed to be the first day of classes, too. There's no way I can drive, so I have to skip the first class and, if I have what Mr had, I'll be worse tomorrow. So, I need to look up my professor's email addresses and see if I can get electronic versions of the syllabi so I don't get behind. It makes me sad that I have to start worrying about homework again. But, I'm so close to finishing my master's I can practically taste it. I love school but I'm ready to be done. This week off has been awesome. Coming home from work and having time to talk to Mr and watch tv or whatever is so nice.

My spring break consisted of Romance novels. I was so happy with The Duke and I that I bought two more of the Bridgerton series: An Offer from a Gentleman, featuring Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie (the bastard daughter of an earl), and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, about Colin and Penelope Featherington. Offer was excellent. Unlike Duke, where I was smiling and feeling giddy the whole time I read, I cried through a good part of it. It was excellent. Sadly, Romancing was not as enjoyable. Through all the books, the Featherington girls are plain and poorly dressed and totally uninteresting. I just couldn't really care about Penelope. She supposedly bloomed or whatever, and Colin's all pissed that he didn't notice her sooner, but I just didn't buy it. Overall though it was a great spring break treat. I love Julia Quinn, and I think I'll buy a couple more of her books the next time I go on vacation.

I know I'm sick when blogging wears me out. I think I'll watch a little Charmed on TNT (four hours of it! Another guilty pleasure of mine, though I can't f'ing stand Billie and lately they've been running the last season [was she on the last two seasons?]) and take a nap.

Quickie

After a series of unfortunate events this weekend, which I will detail later, with pictures (for my 100th post!) I was unable to take the train to work Monday and Tuesday.

But, I was able to take it today and start my Spring Break only a couple days late. Since I have to work anyway and spring break for DePaul is only six days long, my "vacation" was supposed to be taking the train all week and reading fun stuff instead of school stuff.

I bought The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. *sigh* I love the Bridgerton series. It makes me giddy, it's so fun.

Hey! This is a Nice Handbasket!

The world is going to hell. OJ Simpson has written a book called "If I Did it, Here's How it Happened." And Fox is airing a two-hour interview after Thanksgiving.

They should both be ashamed of themselves. It's so disturbing and disgusting, I am somewhat speechless. And that's saying something.

Update Update Update

Update, Update, Update

I suck.  I know.  I don’t know why my blog is so rarely updated.  I think it’s because I’m still not 100% sure I want to be a blogger.  Everyone is a blogger.  Plus, I get a little nervous about anonymity on the web.  My delusions of grandeur lead me to believe that someone will read my blog and, being as completely fabulous as I am, will become obsessed with me and then bad things will happen.  I know that this is not very likely, but that is what is in my head.

So here are some things that have been happening.

Baseball

Boyfriend, another couple and I went to see the Kane County Cougars last weekend.  If you like baseball, even just a little bit, I highly recommend checking out your local A league team.  It’s baseball at its most pure.  In addition to being way cheaper than your major league ticket, the minors usually have a ton of stuff going on during their games – the Cougars had Birdzerk! and The Jesse White Tumblers when we were there.  It’s cheesy, yes, but if you are too cool to enjoy that sort of thing, well, maybe you are not as cool as you think.  

The other perk of minor league ball is the food.  I had a rockin’ burger and an ice cold beer, followed by an ear of sweet roasted corn dipped – literally dipped – in a large vat of butter.  Mmmmm.  Later in the game I got some ice cream in a souvenir cougar’s baseball helmet.  The game itself was a little uneven.  The Cougars were playing the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (doesn’t just that make you want to go?) and, when we left, in the eighth inning, the score was 19 to 4.  

Entertainment

We watched Wedding Crashers the other night.  I don’t know if we just waited too long and it was over hyped, or if we just aren’t as smart as we think we are, but both me and the boyfriend didn’t like this movie.  There wasn’t all the much wedding crashing going on, Vince Vaughn is still running on leftover “Swinger” fumes and, as much as I love him, is just not funny anymore.  Owen Wilson has not yet worn out his welcome with me, but he’s getting close.  I just thought that movie would be funnier.  It was supposed to be a throwback to those raunchy sex comedies of the 80’s and I just thought it fell flat on its face.  Boo.  I did, however, love Christopher Walken.  Then again, I could watch Christopher Walken read the newspaper aloud and I would probably enjoy it.  

School

The spring quarter is finally drawing to a close.  I have finals in both of my classes, which I think is kind of bullshit.  I have never had English finals before.  Usually, you get final papers, but not final exams.  But, whatever.  Once I discovered that DePaul’s partial tuition scholarship is for only a quarter of your tuition, I stopped caring about my grades.  I’ve never really cared about what grade I got in a class.  I tend to get good grades, so maybe that’s part of it, but I’m also a big school nerd and it really is what I get out of it that matters to me, not keeping up my GPA.  

This quarter was interesting.  I took a style course and a course in hard-boiled fiction and film noir.  The style class was a requirement; the noir class was for fun (though it did fulfill a requirement).  I knew I would like the class in hard-boiled fiction –that is what I read for fun, back when I had time to read for fun.  We read a nice selection of the big names of the genre: Dashiell Hammett (Red Harvest), Raymond Chandler (Farewell, My Lovely), James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), Ross MacDonald (The Chill), Hubert Selby, Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn), and James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia).  I thought all of them were awesome.  If you’ve never read any of these and have any interest in finding out what hard-boiled is all about, I would recommend The Postman Always Rings Twice because it is very short so, if you don’t love it, it won’t take long to finish.  All of those are excellent.  Any Chandler is good, as is anything by Dashiell Hammett, who is probably the best of the best, though more violent than the others.  The only one I don’t recommend is Last Exit to Brooklyn, not because it isn’t good – for what it is – but because I don’t feel it really fits into the hard-boiled genre.  Also, it is very tough to read and gave me a headache more than once.  

The other bright point of the noir class was that my final paper (yeah, that’s right a big paper AND a final.  Sheesh.  If I didn’t really love that class, I would be PISSED).  I got to write a paper on John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee.  I used The Scarlet Ruse, but could have used any of the books in the series.  Travis is a wonderful twist on the traditional hard-boiled (anti)hero.  I highly recommend getting into this series – they’re perfect beach reads; if you’re looking for something to read on vacation, this would be good.

Old School

I just got back from my five-year college reunion, which was a blast.  I got to see five or six of my good friends with whom I haven’t kept in closest contact.  The longer I am away from school, the more I can appreciate what a cool time it was in my life.  I wouldn’t necessarily want to repeat it, but I learned a lot and grew a lot.  The reunion was cool.  We didn’t participate in a ton of the events, but that’s ok, because I don’t generally like highly organized functions and I saw the people I wanted to see.  It is crazy to me how many of the women I went to school with are married and pregnant.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just have a hard time understanding it.  I grew so much as a person after graduation, I can’t imagine that the person I would have chosen when I was 21 would be the same person I have chosen at 26.  Plus, ugh, children.  They are adorable and maybe I want them someday, but I’m still at a point in my life where, when I hear someone is pregnant, I assume it was an accident.  I know that plenty of people are married with more than one baby by 26.  I realize I’m not really that young anymore but….  I can barely take care of myself and my dog.  I can’t imagine being responsible for another human life at this point.