As you might guess, Women’s History is big this month at AudioFile! Each month we brainstorm about audiobook titles that we can recommend around themes, holidays, or current events—think Women’s History, Groundhog Day, or immigration. Our newsletters, Twitter posts, and website use the titles to suggest listening. I’m also excited about using the “playlist” option of our Soundcloud channel. We have 16 clips from, and about, Outspoken Women and will be adding more each week through the month. I love the fact that this is an ongoing project, so we keep adding new voices.
Even this week we’ve published new reviews of titles you may soon find in the sound queue, including Peggy Orenstein’s DON’T CALL ME PRINCESS; a biography of Katharine Graham, KATHARINE THE GREAT; and a biography of two WWII pilots, THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER. There’s also the biography of activist and labor organizer Lucy Parsons, GODDESS OF ANARCHY.
We heard last Sunday from another “anarchist”—Frances McDormand, who gave a truly great acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best Actress.
Are you wondering if Frances has done any audiobooks? Yes, she has! She recorded Armistead Maupin’s TALES OF THE CITY and MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY and also took home an Audie Award (2006) for HIDDEN KITCHENS, from NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters.
Also on the radar this week is the film release of A Wrinkle in Time. The richly imagined film will certainly have you thinking about revisiting the book. I was fascinated to see that the publisher has added a new introduction to Hope Davis’s 2012 recording. When I listened to it, I was even more delighted to hear film director Ava DuVernay’s introduction AND an archival clip of Madeleine L’Engle introducing A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Some listeners may not know that WRINKLE is a frequently challenged book in libraries. If you’d like to explore some of L’Engle’s nonfiction, we just reviewed THE IRRATIONAL SEASON, one of the four Crosswicks Journals of her personal reflections.
I’d love to hear what you’re listening to, and which outspoken women have made a difference in your life.
