Bookshelf Newness: White Oleander, Dusty, Fire This Time, Herland, Black Eyed Susans

"I don't need to buy any new books" --- said no one EVER. 

Last month was my birthday (*throws confetti*) and all I wanted was a messy cheeseburger, a margarita, and to spend the day among dusty bookshelves. Wish was granted...well, a few weeks later, cause that's what happens when you get your adult on --- things just don't work out when you want it. But better late than never, right? So these are the first books I picked up as a 32 year old...

White Oleander, by Janet Fitch

This is one of those books that has been persistent in making itself known to me. It's a book I often come across when browsing bookshelves in stores and libraries. A book that is often recommended to me whenever I finish a novel akin to it. A book that was turned into a movie that comes to me whenever I browse movie titles online. After all these years of it nudging at me, I have relented and picked up Janet Fitch's debut novel in a nice paperback with an Oprah Book Club sticker on it (see even Oprah wants me to read it...) All I know about this book is that it's a story about a young girl who gets ensnared in the foster system after her mother is sent to prison for committing murder, and since I'm all about character studies that explore the complex intimacy of mother-daughter relationships, I see why this book kept being relentless.

Dusty: An Intimate Portrait of a Music Legend, by Karen Bartlett

I love my music biographies, and love them even better when they are about women in the industry. Back when I was writing music reviews, I noticed the lack of in-depth analysis on female singers and songwriters, especially those outside the rock genre. It's why my previous blog (Audio Diva, for those who wanted to know) was reinvented to be more female-focused, as I attempted to really analyze and celebrate a lot of the women artists I adore. I'm quite the Dusty Springfield fan, after being exposed to her music by way of an Internet friend many moons ago, and really get annoyed when she's not mentioned among the great voices of the 20th Century. She was one of the few white singers who sang soul without gimmick as she churned out searing classics such as 1969 classic, Dusty In Memphis. I saw this book sticking out on a shelf, right when I walked into the store, so like White Oleander's persistence, it was fate. The reviews on it are spotty, and less than stellar, but it's about the only book on Dusty Springfield that is in print, available on American shores, and is updated, so I will definitely dig into it.

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward

When this book was first announced last year, it immediately went onto my to-reads list. I'm figuring this book is even more necessary now than when it was published considering the shitshow that is our government at current, but as long as America keeps entertaining racism, such topics will (unfortunately) never read as ancient news. Reading about rampant racism in America as a Black American is never what I call a "leisure read", but I'm up for the challenge, and to be enlightened as well as keep that fire lit for change.

Herland, by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman

Thought the classic that gave awareness and a voice to post-pardum depression, The Yellow Wallpaper was Charlotte Perkins-Gilman's only proto-feminist rodeo? Nope. She had this slim little number in her bag as well, and it's about an all-female society that is discovered by three male explorers, who freak out as they for the first time have to think about their position in a society where they are now considered inferior. Oh yeah, this is pure fantasy feminism, with a smattering of early science-fiction to make this book a curiosity for the 21st Century mind. Since it was written in 1915, I'm going to be forgiving of some of the politics and sociological faux pas that I know will leap out of this (wanna bet this society is an all-white female society?) because the concept as a whole sounds so damn fascinating, and sounds like something that could be turned into a Netflix series in 5, 4, 3....

Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories By and About Black Women, edited by Mary Helen Washington

This is yet another book that leaped at me from the shelves (that happened a lot on this trip...), and couldn't resist having it in my little hot hands considering it's a collection of Black women writers and you know I'm ALL about that. Scanning the pages there are some writers who are unfamiliar to me (Jean Wheeler Smith, Frenchy Hodges), and there are familiar names (Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison) with works here that I'm un-familiar with so it looks to be a good mix of rare gems to unearth. Only bummer is the portion focused on auntie Alice Walker feature selections from her short story collection, You Can't Keep A Good Woman Down, which I've already read. Still, it doesn't hurt to read them again, you know?