books

To celebrate the release of our new Pulp issue, I dredged up a handful of pulpy 1960s bottom-of-the-barrel paperbacks from a Portland vintage store. I’ll be bringing three of these long-forgotten titles back to light this week. 

Today’s title:

The Promiscuous Breed

 

Good morning! Happy Monday! Here's our list of feminist news links to kick off your week. 

• Grammy Time: Was Frank Ocean stiffed awards because he's unconventional? [Guardian] Will we all let out a collective sign of relief at some future date when Rihanna dumps that jerk Chris Brown? [Jezebel] 

• Millions of immigrants could be cut out of immgration reform. Here's the infograph to prove it. [Colorlines] 

• FOX News accidentally endorses same-sex marriage: The news agency mistakenly runs a photo of a lesbian couple to illustrate a story about the need for traditional gender roles in marriage. [Feministing] 

• Standing up to domestic violence... on Social Media: An American woman living in China posted photos online of the bruises she received from her husband, building support as she fought for justice through an apathetic and discouraging court system. [NYTimes]

• Hooray for contraception! The US teen pregnancy rate is at an all-time low. [Jezebel]

• Science says: Gender doesn't determine whether you're "assertive" or other traits traditionally thought of as male. [Buzzfeed]

• Who are these "female readers"? A great little historical retrospective on peoples' conceptions of what women want to read. [LA Review of Books] 

• Sylvia! Today is the 50th anniversary of great writer Sylvia Plath's death. [Guardian] 

• One more reason to never listen to Rush: On gun control, he disrespects and distorts the histories of African-Americans. [Miami Herland] 

• Who made Mardi Gras for tourists? A history of the race and class behind Mardi Gras Krewes. [Sociological Images] 

• Finally! A statistical analysis of what rappers actually say about the police [Sociological Images] 

Did I miss anything? Post it in the comments!

Here are a few key words regarding Jim C. Hines's The Stepsister Scheme. Snow White, promiscuous mirror witch. Sleeping Beauty, Middle Eastern assassin. Cinderella, Pregnant Prince-rescuer. Intrigued? I was, and also by the statement given me that this was "Feminist YA fantasy! Written by a DUDE!" when it was given to me. I was not disappointed. C'mon! Princesses with weapons, spells, and babies on board? I'M IN.

Let me start by saying that I'm a Hunger Games gal. I thought that series was the end for me; the top of the bold, brave mountain of perfect Young Adult (YA) literature. I would keep reading YA, I figured, but I would be standing at the top of Everest looking down to do it. How would it get better than Suzanne Collins' frenetic pacing, allusion to contemporary politics, consice, brutal descriptions, gasp-inducing action, and the name Katniss Everdeen? Let me tell you, friends. It could be about a war that has ALREADY HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE, equally terrible to Panem's child slaughter. It could have a female protaginist infinitely more invested in directing her own fate than Katniss was, Collins forgive me. It could still be as tightly wound as a top, as intricately plotted as any good twist-ending requires, and equally stupefying in violence and intrigue. It could contain the names of monarchs and spies, Nazis and codes. It could be Code Name Verity, the best book I've read this year, and the new YA Everest.

Kate Zambreno has had a busy couple of years. In 2010, she published her first novel, O Fallen Angel, followed by Green Girl a year later. Her latest book, the just-published Heroines, is a personal narrative woven with the rich and often overlooked history of a group of modernist women writers she calls “a union of forgotten or erased wives.”

Zambreno carries readers through the lives of women like Zelda Fitzgerald, Vivienne Eliot, Jane Bowles, and Jean Rhys, using the lens of their experiences to dissect her own role as an emerging writer and a new wife, and challenging the negative stereotypes around women writing subjectively by doing just that. The result is a brave, enlightening, and brutally honest historical inquiry that will leave readers with an urgent desire to tell their own stories.

Positive images of transgender women in American culture have been few and far between. Television shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and films like TransAmerica have increased visibility of the MTF community over the years, but there is still a lot of progress to be made, and one person who stands to help change that is Brooklyn, New York native Ceyenne Doroshow. Growing up transgender, cooking became her way of escaping the sometimes confusing and harsh realities of her life. Inspired to write her own book after a prison conviction, Doroshow is ready to share her wisdom—and her delicious recipes—with the world.

Our very own Andi Zeisler reviewed Katie Roiphe's new essay collection In Praise of Messy Lives for the Los Angeles Review of Books. As Andi puts it, "Spoiler alert: It annoyed me." Andi's review, however, is the opposite of annoying. You should read it!

I'll admit, I kind of fudged when I said this would be a three-part series about zine artists I love. Honestly, I could probably do a fifty part series on zine artists I love, then publish it as a memoir called Can I Be You? But I'm not doing that, and instead, I'm going to take a few minutes to tell you about something really important. A couple of weeks ago, you might have stopped by the Portland Zine Symposium (or any zine fest anywhere) and thought to yourself "Wow, there are a lot of white people here, where are all the zinesters of color?" Or at least, that's what I was thinking. I scoured the entire space looking for people of color only to find one table all alone, in the back of the warehouse. One amazing table, to be sure,, but I still left wishing for something more. I'd imagine Daniela Capistrano had some similar thoughts when she founded the People of Color Zine Project in 2010 in order to make zines by folks of color accessible, available, and distributable for all, because really, these things can be incredibly hard to find in such white dominated DIY, activist, and artist communities.

You may recall former Susan G. Komen executive Karen Handel from from Komen's grossly mishandled defunding and refunding of Planned Parenthood earlier this year. Well, Handel may have lost her job at Komen, but she's gained a book deal. The title of her upcoming tome? Planned Bullyhood.

Thanks to a generous grant from the fine people at Oregon Humanities, we'll be spending the next few months exploring identity and sexuality in young adult literature here on the Bitch blogs.

Judy Blume is known for writing about topics like teen sex, masturbation, and menstruation before it was cool to do so, and she's often credited with redefining young adult literature as we (or our parents) knew it. Fast forward to 2012, and we're in the middle of a young adult lit heyday. YA lit sales are way up and publishers and book stores are catching on. As the book business continues to invest more money into bringing YA lit to the masses, we're seeing more and more books that are pushing the boundaries of YA lit in really exciting ways, exploring issues of teen identity and sexuality while remaining honest and challenging. During this series, we'll talk with authors, teachers, librarians, and teens who are dedicated to making sure that every teen is able to find books whose characters they can relate to and be inspired by.