Good Reads for March

Toni Morrison's Paradise, a haunting book.

I am always reading, and it seems books can't leave me alone. I am talking about old books, new books, soon-to-be-new books--lots of books, but I am not complaining. Now I am thinking of doing themed readings for each month, certain books can be read in February, then others in March, April and so on. This idea is not new, really, but the difference is that I will make a conscious effort to set aside certain books for specific months.

In March I am participating in a Women History Month panel, where we will be discussing women characters in poetry and fiction. When I was approached to participate, I agreed without a clear idea of what my contribution would be, but I remembered that the last time I participated in a Women's History month event, I told a story, honoring all the women who told me stories when I was growing up in Mototi, Mazvihwa, Zvishavane, Zimbabwe, Africa. It was while I was telling a story in front of a big crowd that I realized that there was nothing easy about story telling, that those women--a grandmother, a sister-in-law and a distant relative--were very talented; I could not deliver the story with the ease that they had seemed to deliver theirs. It was then an honor that I had been asked to tell a story, and the second invitation for 2010 is another great honor.



Since the day I agreed to be part of the panel about female literary characters, I have already been exposed to books that seem relevant to what we are going to discuss. I started thinking about the obvious titles first: Nervous Conditions by Zimbabwe's Tsitsi Dangarembga, because I love Tambu Sigauke, who, if I was one of the characters in the novel (since I am a Sigauke too), would probably be my....niece, but I would not be the older brother of her father, I would not be Babamukuru; I would definitely avoid being her brother because everyone who has read the book knows what happens to Nhamo...; then I thought of the Ama Ata Aidoo characters in No Sweetness Here,a breathtaking collection of stories that shows that its author already covered some of the themes that new African stories are spellbinding the world with; or Bessie Head's characters in The Village Collector, a collection of stories that incorporate elements of Southern African folklore.



I quickly realized that all these titles were centering on Africa, always my starting point, so I said to myself, I am in America now, let me, without rejecting the African titles, expand my horizons...expand and expand. So how about...Flannery O'Connor...anything in Flannery O'conner, the short stories, the two novels; how about William Faulkner's female characters--Caddy...much talked about than talking...yes, Dilsey, or the dead woman in As I Lay Dying? Is she great, very influencial in her death than in her life? Then I considered Kate Chopin, and said, wait, how about The Color Purple? Toni Morrison's Beloved, Toni Morrison's everything? There were just too many choices: Zora Neal....Their Eyes...and I immediately thought about Yvonne Vera's women,Chenjerai Hove's women.... This could go on forever.

Then the coolest thing happened. From nowhere (in my view at the time), I received my February box of books to review (ten books inside), but the one that quickly grabbed my attention is Jerome Charyn's The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. Emily is the protagonist, taking us to her 19the century world, generously taking us there, letting us in on the "secret" life of Emily Dicknison.



Then another good thing happened. A participant at the UCD Extension allowed me to borrow her copy of a book entitled A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert, one of whose chapters was published as "Do Something" in the 2007 Best American Short Stories, edited by Stephen King. What a fitting title--A Short History of Women---for March.



With these and many books by women or featuring female protagonists, I am ready for March, and I look forward to the panel at CRC.