So excited that the top four books were written by WOMEN!
So excited that the top four books were written by WOMEN!!
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So excited that the top four books were written by WOMEN!!
?????
Non issue for me.
I have read all the top 10.
Kinda cool
My thoughts exactly!
Lots of WOMEN voted
But how do we get the young to read.
Support libraries.
Thank JK Rowling – she has done more to get kids reading than any other recent person.
My father read to us alot and I saw my mother reading. I think that’s important to see parents loving books
Still not enough. They are not reading…neither are their parents
Read to them and read ourselves. Give books as gifts.
When children are raised in an environment where books are part of the fabric of life, they will read. My grandsons read all the time.
Start young and keep it interesting.
Read to them- often. And let them see you read and see how much you enjoy reading. Take them to the library at least once a week. Sign up for reading programs. Give them books as gifts and have book tea parties. Books are just a part of me so I share them with my kids. It is natural for me. But I can see it not being natural for others. Sometimes I wish I could create a job where I visit houses and do impromptu readings and parties and book clubs where ever I go.
@Larissa My coffee and book time is sacred and my boys know it haha.
Oh, come on…….
i thought it isn’t supposed to matter what your race, gender, religion, etc. was.
It’s just a comment. Don’t get all bunched up
@Amy , i just always wonder why such things are brought up when i am told that they are irrelevant things-and then someone says things like this. Yes, it’s just a comment, and i am not “all bunched up,” just challenging, then moving on.
i’ll tell you why it matters: given the patriarchal history of everything—including books, including fiction, including novels—given the fact that, 100 years ago, women authors had to write under a male pseudonym to get read, and that, even as recently as JK rowling had to hide her sex in order to get read, given the fact that, even now, the industry is dominated by men, caters to men, disproportionately promotes men, and the biggest best-sellers belong to men, even though the vast majority of readers are female—it’s a MONUMENTAL accomplishment.
Oh dear God do you need to bring the patriarchy into everything? Enjoy the book or not. I have read plenty of books written by women that I hated. Does that mean I hate women?
@Shilla ♥️♥️♥️
@Shilla – I’m with you! I teach literature and the patriarchy predominates college-prep literature courses. I get so happy when ANY literature that’s not patriarchal gets validated. It gives me an excuse to teach it.
it was a great show,sad its over
???
I’m proud too.
I think it’s ok to recognize that women are being recognized. It has not always been so.
Haters gonna hate.
It takes too much energy; just keep scrolling
#byefelicia
I don’t choose books based on the sex, gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, etc… of the author. I respect them all as writers.
@Michelle I do, fellow Michelle. 🙂
I prefer to choose from the broadest range of books to ensure a variety of perspectives and take me out of my comfort zone. Limiting my choices to authors of certain demographics would be counterproductive to me. And please don’t call me “fellow.” 🙂
You think I get the widest variety of perspectives by searching out those perspectives. In a world of too many books, too little time, I prefer to at least weed out some of the stories I know all too well. On the other hand, I like some books where the author “gets me.” I don’t think I need any more Franzen in my life.
Mockingbird deserved the win. Stoked
@Victoria It’s just her brains coming out of her mouth from too much intellect.
Femenism at its best!!
But it is not…it has become man bashing
I didn’t notice that! Wow!
Nothing to do with gender. Its 100% talent. Lets not get carried away.
@Maureen gender doesn’t matter or shouldn’t matter, but for so many years, women couldn’t be writers. Don’t you think it’s an amazing accomplishment in so short a time for women to have equalized that playing field?
I agree. There have been many talented women who wrote under masculine-like names in order to be published. So yes very cool
Not surprised
Me too!
For some reason, this didn’t occur to me until now…The reason: Fatigue; that is, actual, physical fatigue, especially last night!?
Me too?
Me, too.
It does not matter what gender is the writer. I agree with the previous comments with that Men and women are equal
Luba Korshunova It doesn’t matter or shouldn’t matter, but for so many years, only until the last 100 years, women couldn’t be writers. Don’t you think it’s an amazing accomplishment in so short a time for women to have equalized that playing field?
“Equal” and “same” are different. My opinion.
Pride and Prejudice punished 1813.
Under an anonymous name…Same as most women who published in that era. They knew they wouldn’t be taken seriously in society/have their reputations “ruined” if it came out. At least women don’t have to do that now.
Harper Lee was assumed to be a man by most. A lot of men also use pseudonyms.
@Kat Not to change or hide their gender.
@Kat I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.
Yes to hide their gender. Or whatever other reason they felt was necessary. Not all women in Jane Austen’s time used pseudonyms, either. It’s entirely at the author or publisher’s discretion.
That focusing on gender now is just as silly as it was. And that 200 plus years isn’t a sudden feminist outpouring.
What man has published under a woman’s name?
@Kat, I’m really sorry you think that way. Good luck in life, I hope you never have to deal with any prejudice that forces you to see reality.
@Katie There are many.
@Laura is right, though it is a relatively new phenomenon.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/men-are-pretending-to-be-women-to-write-books/535671/
That said, women using male pseudonyms was a much bigger deal…
https://mashable.com/2015/03/01/female-authors-pen-names/#y8a36ZQy8Pqk
Kat Meredith “Everytime I read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” — Mark Twain
You have an amusing autocorrect error in your post (punished instead of published). Made me think of Twain’s quote. 🙂
I hadn’t made that connection myself, but that is nice! The voters have spoken. ?
Love it.
Me too! & so happy that my favorite won . Congrats Harper Lee❤
I would like to see some of those tally’s – for instance, I’d like to know how my little state in the Northwest voted. LOL and I’d like to see how many women vs men voted, and where my current age group came in at… plus more.
My state of Maine had their own voting and ” To Kill a Mockingbird” won here as well.
and the women came out and voted.
Missed the program, what were the top four?
Didn’t notice that ?
Wow!
Dd not see the final, what were the books?i
Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Outlander, Pride and Prejudice (not in order).
And the winner head too‼️
That’s cool
Good point!
I noticed that also. Way to go ladies of today and yesteryear.
Does it matter what nationality the winners are? Race? Religion? No! Neither does it matter what their sex is, or their sexual preferences. What a silly comment! I think probably most votes were cast by women as well.
??????????
Actually it does matter! As a high school student, I rarely read works by women, people of color, non-Christians. It matters that we recognize these authors because traditionally they’ve been ignored
I don’t know where you went to school, but even way back when, when I was in high school, we read books by women and by people of color. I don’t know if there were any non-Christians, but I feel like there were. I think not as many as by men, but there weren’t as many to read ,we didn’t read romance novels in class!
Laura Martin It’s awesome that you read works by diverse people in high school. I go to school in California and I’m telling you as a current student that is typically not our high school experience. It matters to me as a high school student and as a woman that these authors are being recognized for their work! So many women had to write under pen names and take precautions to ensure that people didn’t know they were authors. Now some of those same women are being recognized-that matters. You highlighted my point that if women (and other minorities) are read in schools, they are simply not read and appreciated at the same rate of WASP’s books. Also your last comment implies that women write only about romance which is demeaning and simply untrue
Wow really? It was an observation. AND since women are traditionally underrepresented in many fields, it actually is very interesting and wonderful that they would be so well represented on a “best of” list. What is your problem with that?
I think they are well represented, but I think it is by other women. I just get a little feeling of anti-male-ism here and therefore get a little defensive. It’s still women voting for women, so not that interesting or wonderful, it was expected.
@Caroline Were any of the top 100 authors forced to write under a male pen-name? I live a couple of hours from Harper Lee’s hometown, and I promise you that everyone around here knew that she was a woman. I don’t mean that women only write about romance, or that only women write romance novels, but if you were to compare romance authors to non-romance authors, I think that you will find that the percentage of romances written by women greatly outweighs that of men. Therefore, we read more books by men in high school, but not exclusively by men, or by white people, or by Christians.
What difference does it make. When I pick up a book to read. I don’t look for a gender and all of the above. and I’m sorry but if that’s how you choose to pick out a book to read then I feel sorry for you.
@Jeanne I agree.
@Laura What a silly response–a put down, one upmanship. Where you been?
I’m from the generation of white- men authors. Bronte sisters? Who else please as long as youre the smart one here.
There were no black women about then. Gloria Steinem too came much later.
@Laura I agree, I am surprised that there’s no race thrown into the stirring pot considering today’s climate of all the movements going on.
@Lila Wow. We have some significant black women writers. Neither of them on the list?
There you go….it was only a 5 minutes time someone will declare the great American read being racists. I knew it!
@Wendy There was Anne Frank, Corrie ten Boom, Edith Hamilton was ever popular with our teachers, Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurton, (my kids read her, though, not me)
@Caroline California. That explains a lot.
@Laura None of those were on my high School recommended list. That’s the point. ?
@Lila Your notation; my response. You opened the door to your own racism, clearly. ?
@Donna Nasty. Troll?
@Wendy Not really. Just a woman who is ashamed of the liberal, biased, and racist agenda.
@Donna This is a light fun arena for positive sharing. How sad that you bring your politics to the table. You should be “ashamed” of yourself. ?
Wendy Shinn clearly you were in a bad High School. because they were most definitely on the list when I was in high school.
@Jeanne Bad school? Hmmmmm….quite a bit of critical judgement here. ?
Lady you’re a piece of work I’m done with this. I have better things to do. without making a decision about whether or not to do them based on gender. You go back to your me to. And leave me alone.
@Wendy The original poster is the one who brought politics to the table. I am just calling her on it. She should be ashamed for doing so. And you should be ashamed for not realizing it.
@Donna Only Trolls arrive at sites to breed discontent. ???
yep
You know I did not focus on that. Excellent point!
Hooray.
Could it be that more women voted than men? Just asking.
Probably. I’m actually getting pretty tired of the MeTooers. A good writer is a good writer is a good writer. Who even cares if they are male or female?
@Donna This has absolutely NOTHING to do with #MeToo. SMH.
@Barbara Yeah ok.
@Donna It doesn’t. It’s about women authors.
That’s definitely possible. Although I think three of those books for sure would not be classified as what we might think of as books read by women in larger numbers. But yeah — I would bet more women voted.
Donna Sperano Campanella One of the things that got “Little Women” into the top 10 is the fact that Jo March had such an impact on little girls who wanted to be writers. She inspired a whole slew of women, from Sylvia Plath to J.K. Rowling, to believe that they could make it.
As I am a big supporter of “Little Women,” the large number of women authors in the top 20 is important to me.
@Barbara Truthfully, I don’t care if the author of a good book is a woman, a man, a transgender, or whatever other label this politically correct messed up world chooses to label people. If a book is well written it makes no difference to me. I look for good literature and I applaud good writing. The gender of the author is inconsequential when rating its quality.
Barbara Pfeiffer And yet it was mentioned. I didn’t say “women” was PC word. I am referring to all the other garbage labels that have risen up over the last few years. To even make the comment that many of the books voted in were written by women is to insinuate, ever so subtly ( or maybe not so subtly) that women are notoriously unrecognized in various fields and it’s about time. I don’t go along with that philosophy. Give credit where credit is due. Not for gender, but for excellence. I’m a woman, I’m educated, have done well in my field because I’m good at what I do and work hard. I expect no favors because of my gender. And no applause unless I earn it.
Seven of the top 10 were written by women! And several more in the top 20.
I hadn’t realized but that’s true! And very exciting!
I thought the same thing. Bet most of the voters were women too.
I think it’s very possible that more women voted, but in my case at least, whether the author was male or female had zero to do with voting. I really hadn’t even thought about it at all- just what were my favorite books! I think it’s exciting that the top four books were authored by women because there was a time when women authors were looked down on, told no one would buy or read their books, not even given a chance because it was written by a woman, and even the authors having to either write under a pen name as a man/pretend their book was written by an actual man just to get it published! There is a movie coming out about that starring Keira Knightly, incidentally. Anyway, now that it’s been brought to my attention it makes me happy to think of women authors being able to publish and be successful!
@Lynda looking at the audience-I would agree.
@Lynda Progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go. J.K. Rowling used her initials so that it wouldn’t be obvious that she is a woman. It is sad that she felt the need.
too true…
Oh. That hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks for pointing it out.
Bravo!
Hurray for women writers❤️?
@Deborah Hurrah for good writers. Gender is of no consequence when rating the quality of a book.
Didn’t even realize!
Why not? The readers here are mostly women!
Oh! That is right! Yay for women authors?!
So sorry this has ended.
Ditto
I just thought about that and in the top ten 8 are women??? Is this right?
only one male author made the top ten I think
I hope they will do this again………soon.
There were BUNCHES written by women.
Yess
Enjoy reading any book! It doesn’t matter who wrote it, man, woman, black, brown, white etc. I think it’s asinine to point out a gender. These titles were voted in by people and of course some liberal person would point out gender. Who cares! Just read!
Wish I could like your comment 100 times!
Lila LeCompte I like your comment. And more than that I like this word in your comment ‘ asinine’.?
If you research book awards and gender, it’s not females who typically get recognized. To celebrate this is not political but historical. I found your comment about “some liberal person” telling, on your part. Not necessary.
Cindy Bordonaro Hargest Yes. This should be celebrated. But with due respect Ma’am, Agatha Christie is the best selling author of all time along side Shakespeare. So females have also been recognized as far as books are concerned.
And two of them still living and still writing!
I love Outlander , but was so surprised it beat Harry Potter. And that Gone With the Wind wasn’t in top 5.
I had not noticed that, but it is definitely noteworthy. Women have had an uphill struggle in publishing as in so many other endeavors.
Wow! My sister said three were written by women, but she counted wrong and so did I! I’m so glad that 4 out of 5 were written by women!
Why?
@Phyllis – my bad!
They missed name the program to begin with great American read. it should have been what women read. The whole program was for women and voted on by women. women statistically read more than men. I think the top five would have been a little bit different if men would have been more involved.
If women statistically read more than men (as you state), then it is still representative of what Americans are reading. Men certainly weren’t barred from voting.
It’s a fact look it up. Then it should have been named what American women read. No men were not barred. And you just proved my point.
I voted every day since they first announced the contest. And, my favorite book won.
@Jeanne I did not prove your point.
I have never disliked a book my wife has recommended to me but most of the books she reads she tells me I wouldn’t like. She is right and I am fine with that. It works the other way as well. The last book(s) I recommended to her was the Century series by Ken Follett, she liked them.
@Jeanne What’s the point? Rename to exclude men?
Complain cause they didn’t show up?
Don’t get the relevance of what appears to be your concern or do you just want to gripe about something–like a Troll?
Your name pops up in just about every thread. Who’s the troll?
7 of the top 10
And then # 6??? my fav.
me too!!
I wonder what the voting ratio was? It would be cool to see age/sex numbers.
I wouldn’t really be happy if they had that information.
@Terry I’d like that too. Generation differences in reading tastes might be really interesting. ?
Yay!!! I love reading women authors
Me too.
What were they