Women’s History Book Tag

Reader, as you may recall, it is women’s history month which means feminism themed things are happening on this blog. And what more appropriate book tag for women’s history month, than the Women’s History Book Tag?

This tag was created Margaret at Weird Zeal. Nobody tagged me, but it looks fun, so we’re doing this anyways. The point of this tag is to answer the questions using only books written by women, which shouldn’t be too difficult for me, because I primarily read books only written by women. So let’s get right into the tag!

1. Rosa Parks (1913-2005): A book about a female character who doesn’t do what she’s told.

The Hate U Give would be the obvious choice for this one, but I’m actually going to go with On the Come Up, also by Angie Thomas. Like Starr, Bri has no desire to do what she’s told, and she’s possibly more in your face and proud about it than Starr is. Her desire to be one of the greatest female rappers of all time means she’s constantly defying expectations and breaking the rules, and it’s exhilarating to read about.

2. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852): A book with an intelligent female character.

Given the context of this book tag, I think it’s appropriate to choose The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. This is an historical fiction about the life of film star Hedy Lamarr, including her invention of a radio guidance system that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology, principles of which are now incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology, and which she gets no credit for, because history likes to erase the accomplishments of women. So I’m using this question to give a shout out to the brilliance of Hedy Lamarr, and The Only Woman in the Room.

3.Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603): A book about a woman in a position of power.

Once again, it seems like the only appropriate answer to this question is The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (and the other books in the series too). There are definitely some similarities between Queen Elizabeth and Queen Kelsea Glynn; both were the only woman in a court full of men trying to undermine them, facing rivals who want their crowns on their borders, and facing a supremely unhelpful Catholic Church trying to have them executed. Of course, Kelsea also has to deal with evil creatures living in her fireplace and magical sapphires trying to take over her mind, which wasn’t the case for Queen Elizabeth (at least, I don’t think it was). So the fantasy nature of The Queen of the Tearling does make a slight difference in the fates of our two queens. Regardless, there are a lot of similarities.

4. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941): A book with beautiful writing.

I could choose literally any book by Miriam Toews, who has a gift with prose unmatched by anybody, but I think I’ll go with Women Talking, which has some particularly gorgeous turns of phrase and metaphorical discussions.

5. Joan of Arc (1412-1431): A book about a female warrior.

Not to be too predictable, but there’s just no way I can’t choose the Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce, which follows a girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can train to be a knight. It’s a foundational series for both feminism and fantasy, with lots of fun adventures and frankness about the difficulties a girl would experience in such a disguise.

6. Mae Jemison (1956-): A book set in space.

This was actually extraordinarily hard to come up with, because I read so little sci-fi to begin with, finding one written by a woman made it even more difficult. But I finally remembered a delight I read, like four years(ish) ago now, which is Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne, which was a Jane Eyre retelling, but set in space, on spaceships instead of in manor houses. Like, how can that not be awesome?

7. Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958): An underappreciated book.

I have to go with Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky. I’ve been shouting about this book for years, I even have a full review for it, and not nearly enough people have read it. Seriously, people, read Kill the Boy Band. It’s so incredibly good.

8. Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992): A book about LGBTQ+ characters.

Let’s go with a more recent read, The Lucky List by Rachael Lippincott. It’s a very sweet story about a teen girl coping with the loss of her mother and coming to terms with her sexual orientation over a summer of self-discovery, and it’s just very wholesome and touching.

9. Amelia Earhart (1897-1937): An award-winning book that deserves the hype.

Let’s go with a more feminist option for this one, and although you may be expecting me to choose a Margaret Atwood, I’m going to go with something inspired by Atwood, which is the The Power by Naomi Alderman. Set in an alternate-reality where women have developed a power to control electricity that men have not, the book is all kinds of creative, unsettling, and terrifying. It’s been praised by everyone from Emma Watson to Barack Obama and I’m telling you right now, it is absolutely worth all that hype. It’s incredible.

10. Your choice: bell hooks (1952-2021): A book that inspires you.

For this question, you were supposed to choose another historical woman not already listed who inspired you, so I chose the incomparable genius bell hooks. As for the book that inspires me, It’s got to be A Court of Mist and Fury. I know I’m like a broken record when it comes to this book, but it is pretty much my favourite book of all time. It changed the way I read books, it inspires me, and I just love it to pieces.

And that’s all I’ve got for you today, you guys should let me know in the comments your answers to some of these questions or which women inspires you, stay safe, wear a mask, get vaccinated, and I’ll see you on Saturday.

Until the next time.