My turn for the book meme

Number Of Books I Own: I'm with Shades on this one: if I could count my books that easily, then I shouldn't have been pegged for a meme. I did build my own bookshelf just last fall that is 60" high, 77" long and is completely full already, with 2 stacks of books almost the same height of the bookshelf on the floor beside it. Then there is the hall closet that I share with the towels. Need I say more?

Last Book I Bought: Funny that Shades pegged me for a book meme just as 8 books mysteriously showed up at my house yesterday afternoon. But I didn't pay for those which means I didn't buy them so they weren't the last book I bought, either. The last official book I bought is a wonderful book everyone should read called Operating Instructions by Annie Lamott. It's an older book and a published journal about her first year after having Sam, her son, as a single mom. It's great I tell you! Before that it was three books by Alice Walker which were purchased by Flea at The Honeysuckle Shop.

Last Book I Read: Hmm, this would require me to actually finish one. I've started Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd, Now is the Time to Open Your Heart by Alice Walker, Operating Instructions by Annie Lamott and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. How's that for summer reading?

Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me: I didn't know this at the time, but

Animal Farm by Orson Wells has come in handy throughout the life I've lead after finishing that book. I remember that half the school was reading 1984 and half was reading this and it's been a good resource just as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has. (I know, scary isn't it?)

Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd definitely counts in this category in case you couldn't tell already. She charts her journey back into the Sacred Feminine, but spiritually. She starts the books with a flashback of her walking into the pharmacy where her daughter worked and as she was approaching, 2 guys were standing behind her daughter and 1 man said, "Now that's where I like to see a woman, on her knees." Kidd walks up to the men and replys, "That's my daughter and we don't belong there. We don't belong there. She started off as a devout Baptist, tried to be an Episcopalian for a while then ended up not being a part of any organized religion.

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinam because this was the first actual feminist piece of non-fiction I read about 3 years ago. Yes, I'm still kinda green but that's okay. I have my whoole life ahead of me to learn more! Before this book, it was John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Dean Koontz and others of their ilk. Thank Gloria for turning my lightbulb on!

Books like Passing by Nella Larsen and The Diary of an Ex-Colored Man because I'm a white woman and don't have to think of these things and how important it was to "pass" in order to decrease your chances of being lynched. These two books, amongst others of course, helped open my eyes to a whole new world (although I was not completely unaware of it but also didn't really think about it).

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen and "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. Both of these were written in the early 19th century and were my first taste of feminist fiction plays. It gave me hope that not all of the work was anti-woman from the very beginning. Of course, then I was introduced to Sappho and talk about excitement!

Like Shades said first, these leaves out a lot such as The Color Purple and From the Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker, Elizabeth Berg isn't bad though her endings kinda suck, Jan Karon writes cute, quaint tales about an Episcopal priest in Mitford (can't remember the state but who cares since it's all made up anyway), The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (it was banned from England in the early 1920s because it was unapologetically homosexual in nature and was okay'd in America after it gained notoriety). But I could go on...I have over 100 books to choose from.

So read up and enjoy. Now I'm gonna go read one of my 4 books that I can't seem to finish.