Written by Letícia Santini and Larissa Herrera Diaz
Female representation has been gaining more and more space in the artistic context. With literature is no different. Knowing the reality that the publishing market is still restricted, the #ReadWomen project, idealized by writer Joanna Walsh in 2014, proposes a change that goes against this scenario, by expanding the reach of the publications.
To get more in touch with female writers, we separated some titles that might help you get acquainted with these amazing stories.
1) Year of Yes: How to dance it out, stand in the sun and be your own person
By Shonda Rhimes
Who would suspect that the creator and producer of some of the most audacious shows on television today, like Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, is an introvert? It is hard to believe, but Shonda Rhimes suffered panic attacks before media interviews and hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances.
This intimate and hilarious novel explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes – from her book-loving childhood to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her. After her sister muttered ‘’you never say yes to anything’’ during Thanksgiving dinner, Shonda knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her. The book relates her life when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her true self.
Described as ‘’honest, gross and revealing’’ by The Washington Post, this book reveals how the mega-talented Shonda Rhimes can help motivate even the most determined homely person to go out and try something new.
2) I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban
By Malala Yousafzai
Sixteen years old, global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is Malala, the girl who refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Malala was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school. Only a few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York.
I am Malala is the remarkable story of a family exiled by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education and of a father who championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school. The book follows the girl’s childhood in Pakistan, the early years of school life, the harshness of life in a region marked by social inequality, the beauties of the desert and the darkness of life under the Taliban. It’ll certainly make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.
3) Voices from Chernobly: The oral history of a nuclear disaster
By Svetlana Alexievich
“Voices from Chernobyl” is the most acclaimed work of Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, regarded as her hardest and most shocking work. In a disarming prose, Svetlana gives voice to hundreds of people who have lived the tragedy that happened on April 26, 1986: from ordinary citizens, firefighters and doctors, who felt the violent consequences of the disaster, to the Forces of the Soviet regime that tried to hide what happened.
The testimonies, resulting from more than 500 interviews conducted by the author, are presented through monologues with remarkable sensitivity, despite the disparity and the strong contrasts that separate these voices. The book is a crucially important work, unforgettable in its emotional power and honesty.
“Her technique is a powerful mixture of eloquence and silence, describing incompetence, heroism and mourning: from the monologues of her interviewees, she creates a story that the reader can actually feel. As I read it, I realized for the first time that Chernobyl was the European tsunami: but it was us humans who created it, and this tsunami is endless’’, described The Telegraph.
4) “Pornô Chic”
by Hilda Hilst
A woman of strong and irreverent genius, Hilda Hilst criticized every author and always tried to sell best sellers in the market since the early 50’s. The pornographic tales were yet another of her attempts to sell books and draw public attention, arguing that the Brazilian people enjoyed being shocked. Thus, “Pornô Chic” is her dirty stories about sex and society, in three different tales with three different narratives. And her so-called “Obscene Trilogy” was originally published in 1990.
Lori Lamby’s Pink Book, the first tale, tells the life of a seven-year-old girl who is a prostitute, we can already imagine the scandal she caused. But the narrative is told by Lori herself and the childish and innocent tone permeate the experiences. It is a reversal of the abominable, the worst sexual behavior with one of the most unexpected twists in the literature. It is said that the critic Prof. Dr. Eliane Robert Moraes was almost expelled from California for suggesting such a book in a university course.
Then the second tale, Tales of Scorn – Grotesque Texts, relates the sexual life of Crasso, a middle-aged man with good humor and lack of modesty. Recalling his past, the story is almost as if Brás Cubas was being narrated by Charles Bukowski. You’ll be astonished with so many synonyms for penis and vagina that we can found in the book.
Lastly, Letters from a Seducer builds a romantic sex world. He does not take love out of sex, and does not take sex out of his life. Karl, is a twisted man who sends sexual letters to his own sister. An absurdity. But the boundary between real and imaginary gets more confused with each sentence. Just like all of Hilda Hilst inventions.