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Recollections of My Non-Existence | 
This jumped out at me, in the context of the bear/man thought experiment going around.
pickAbsolutely love this cover photo of Solnit as a teen. I have not read enough of her work, but her "Men Explain Things To Me" has had a huge impact on me and so many others, this has been on my TRB since it was released in 2020 and I am sad I am just getting to it, I got to the last page and immediately knew I needed to order a copy so I could read again with a highlighter. She is exactly the intersectional feminist I strive to be, so aware ?
June was an excellent reading month. Favorites included Rebecca Solnit‘s Recollections of My Nonexistence, Leonarda Carranza‘s Abuelita and Me, A Lost Lady by Willa Cather, and Natalie Goldberg‘s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, but actually all of the titles pictured here were great reads.
I came to understand visual art as a kind of philosophical inquiry by other means.
pickA brilliant, clear-eyed and compassionate look at herself as a young woman becoming herself and a writer within the ever-present and harmful context of patriarchy. I highly recommend the #audiobook read by the author.
I am fond of sentences less like superhighways and more like winding paths, with occasional scenic detours, or pause to take in the view, since a footpath can traverse steep & twisting terrain that a paved road cannot. I know that sometimes what gets called digression is pulling in a passenger who fell off the boat.
It is the reader who brings a book to life. I lived inside books & though it‘s often assumed that we choose books to travel through them to get to the end, there were books I took up residence in.
All our struggles can be imagined as turf battles, to defend or annex territory, and we can understand the differences between us as being, among other things, about how much space we are allowed or denied.
(Internet photo)
I think that a lot of girls and young women have this yearning, that is part desire to have a man and part desire to be him, to merge with this force, to be where power is, to be powerful.
It could have been me who found myself in a moment in which my fate was not my own, my body was not my own, my life was not my own. And I hovered on that brink & was haunted by it for a few years that reshaped my psyche in ways that will never be over, which was perhaps the point: to remind me that I would never be entirely free. 👇
To get a car. To spend money I didn‘t have on taxis. To cut my hair, dress as a man, or attach myself to a man. To never go anywhere alone, get a gun, learn martial arts. To adapt to this reality, which was treated as natural or as inevitable as the weather. But it wasn‘t weather & it wasn‘t nature & it wasn‘t inevitable & immutable. It was culture. Changing that culture & those conditions seemed to be the only adequate response. It still does.
pickRecollections of My Nonexistence is soft spoken and poetic about hard hitting topics regarding PTSD surrounding womanhood, the gender violence towards women, and the social conditioning of self doubt in efforts to silence women. It‘s a powerhouse of a story. It also focuses not only on trauma of womanhood, but joys of queer culture and of finding small spaces to feel heard in a world that ignores women.
pickThis is the first book I read/ listened to by Solnit, and I‘m not sure this is the best book to start with. And I also needed some time to get used to Solnit voice since she narrates the book herself.
In this Solnit looks back on her time in San Francisco in the 80s when she was trying to find herself.
She also looks at how men dominate the spaces;the pavements, harassment and art. A lot of the time is also spent focusing on rape.
pickWhere have you been all my life, Rebecca Solnit?!?
I mean, I know she was doing her thing, writing about artists and western America and whatnot... not things would have crossed my path as a Canadian teen living out in the country ... but had I read this 20ish years ago, I think it would have changed my life 🖤
#selfcare
#booksandbooze
pickI love Solnit‘s writing, particularly on feminism, and I most enjoyed the parts of this book with that focus. This is in essay form (of course) and looks primarily at the 25 years she spent in a studio apartment in San Francisco starting when she was about 19. It didn‘t hold my attention as well as her non-memoir essays, but I did enjoy it.
pickEssays from the author of Men Explain Things to Me (which I still need to read!) Solnit writes widely on feminism (which is what I know her for), social justice, environmental protection, and politics. This collection connects her past experiences with the current moment. Reflection about how far we have come as a society provides hope that our activism will bring about change for how far we still need to go. #essays #nonfiction #audiobook
pickSolnit's writing style is mostly what keeps me reading her books. Here she is talking about her start as an author, but also connects it to the present.
Now I want to read "Savage Dreams", her second published book....
pickGlorious!Solnit used everything in the toolbox to become the great essayist she is.Her often solitary life in San Francisco , her education, her jobs .Her reflections on women being thought of as “less than “ or being victims of a culture that often vilified women or reduces them to objects has her analyzing gains made & how far we need to go.She casts a wide net to include many people who have been marginalized.
It‘s not you,it‘s the patriarchy.
OMG. I love you. A booknerd soulmate. 📖🤓❤️
Got out a bit today and went across the bay to walk. I was the only person wearing a mask. 😞 I hope I finish Land of Shadows before it‘s due back to the library. I‘m settling in for the night and reading Rebecca Solnit‘s memoir.
pickBeautiful. I love this memoir which has a decidedly softer tone (although not too soft) from the very articulate Solnit. Perfect for women who are pursuing lives as creatives.
pickI love Rebecca Solnit's writing and was not disappointed with her newest book. (And this cover! 🖤) Solnit's essays always provide me with so much to think about and return to as indicated by the pages I've tabbed.
In Phoenix, the library is closed , I was out already , my local indie was open. I can count this as a book emergency even though I have tons to read at home,right?
pickA excellent book on being a beginning writer, what it is like to be a young woman in the world, and how women shape themselves to fit men standards so they stop existing (not a good thing, obviously). It is part autobiography and essay. There is lots of writing about the fear of rape and assault for those who may have triggers.
So many good books today! I had to limit myself to three picks. Which to start with though? I think it might be Solnit. #womenauthors
