My first copy of Oroonoko (1688) by Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was a skinny little volume bound like a play. It felt a little like a travelogue, and a little like epic poetry—harder to read than either—with a love story (if one calls Romeo-and-Juliet a love story). I knew Aphra
Writing about women writing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Rebecca Romney outlines some of the risks for those who dared to venture out of the “private” sphere into the “public” in that fashion, echoing ideas expressed by Sandra Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Elaine Showalter, Dale Spender, and Ellen Moers.
The past couple of reading years have been the right blend of challenging and fun for me—so my plans for 2026 won’t vary much. But I’ll share a few specifics, just in case any of the books I’m eyeing are on anyone else’s TBR or figuring in your 2026 plans:
Each of us who obsesses about reading and books has an idea of The Reader we are, the books we choose and the writers whose stories we most value and prefer to share. Note: obsesses, I'm aware that this is weird. But tracking our selections is one way to
Continuing yesterday’s talk of remembrance reading, while I reflect on other reading from 2025 and possibilities for reading this year. The first of his books published in his mother tongue (Gikuyu), Weep Not, Child is the second novel by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (b. 1938), who
