Sarah M. Seltzer
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The Book of Esther still speaks to us, even in the “safe” diaspora without ruling monarchs — because governments may shift, policies change and antisemitism reasserts itself.
I never wanted to be a queen. I only wanted to be Vashti.
Before we say goodbye to 2020, here are our recommendations for the books, podcasts, television shows that helped us make it through the year.
Little Women’s classic journey from girlhood to womanhood is extra poignant on the other side of the divide.
Miriam Parker’s The Shortest Way Home goes deeper than its bubbly, clear surface, subtly questioning conventional definitions of success for its heroine, Hannah, who begins the novel with a lucrative job and a rich boyfriend.
Kalokairi, the fictional Greek island where Donna Sheridan decamps, is a matriarchal paradise: the animals are friendly and the men in thrall to the self-assured women who run things. It’s a place where “having it all” means having cake, dancing, and feeding other people cake while they dance.
Here are a few more 2018 books, ranging from slight to serious, that should give Jewish feminist readers (and indeed, all readers) something to curl up with as the summer hits its sultry stride.
These women were what I called bitchified–undermined and objectified, their progress thwarted by emerging media narrative that called them bitches and every derivative. The sexism was shocking to uncover.
We as a culture need to take a step back and ask ourselves why “guilty pleasure” is a way we write about women’s books, as if women should be ironically ashamed by things that are associated with women.