Emily Rhodes of the book blog Emily Books has her (hard) back up about undervaluing the female-authored novel. "How can publishers tell a woman that her choice of book is only worth £12.99, but a man’s is worth £18.99? And, worse still, how can they deny a woman’s book all the trimmings – hard covers, dust jackets, a decent RRP – that belie confidence in its publication?" So she writes in 'Death of the Woman's Hardback' for Spectator UK.
You can bet Diane Keaton's memoir, Then Again, will come out in hardback, just like Joanna Lumley's Absolutely and Patricia Bosworth's Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman (a memoir and biography is surely deserving of hardback status?). You can catch a glimpse of Diane talking about her book – which contains reflections on her mother – here. Did you know she got her inspiration for wearing men's hats shopping in a Salvation Army store? P.S. There is a retro David Jones dress just waiting for someone to love at the Salvo's online shop.

Do women in leadership make a difference? You bet! The Australia and New Zealand School of Governance recently convened a panel of high-achieving women, including former Democrats leader, Natasha Stott Despoja, former chief of Victoria Police Christine Nixon, company director Wendy McCarthy and ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, with the event opened by Governor General Quentin Bryce. Well worth a watch if you have an hour to spare!
The ABC's online political commentator Annabel Crabb (above) is to many female journalists what Annie Hall is to Woody Allen enthusiasts. Watch her present her thoughts on media and politics, and the ongoing story of democracy, to The Sydney Institute here, at your ABC. Viewing will increase your IQ by at least 5 points!
It’s an occupalypse! While mega music mogul Jay-Z has attracted criticism for capitalising on the Occupy Movement “brand” with a slogan tee, somewhat contradicting the movement’s anti-Capitalism purpose, the movement has now set its sights on the poetry scene, aiming to liberate artistic authenticity from the trappings of commerciality and the clenches of benevolence from the wealthy, reports Salon. The movement is also making inroads on college campuses.
Perhaps the Occupy movement could take a cue from poetry? Research by Janina Marguc of the University of Amsterdam published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that typical poetic structures open up writers to “broader perceptions” with links to “seemingly unrelated concepts”. Or, as Wired‘s Jonah Lehrer puts it, “because poets need to find a rhyming word with exactly three syllables, or an adjective that fits the iambic scheme, they end up uncovering all sorts of unexpected associations. We break out of the box by stepping into shackles.” As apposed to messy and chaotic movements, the challenge of rules and order can lead to greater creative expression. This is an idea emulated by Richard Doster in his essay on Christian fiction: faith gives you a solid foundation to work from.
What every woman needs now is a rucksack... at least that's what I'm sensing looking at Sara D'Souza, travel editorial assistant at UK ELLE magazine, whose Forever 21 sack looks extremely practical. An update on last season's smaller backpack, GWAS will be hitting the streets of New York soon (more on that to come!) in a similar ensemble for the wintry season (only with a satchel, not a rucksack, of course!).
"But," writes William Deresiewicz for The New York Times, "style is superficial. The question is, what’s underneath? What idea of life? What stance with respect to the world."

Does the world really need another magazine devoted to "celebrity"? American Media Inc, publisher of OK!, National Enquirer and Soap Opera Digest, thinks it does. The publisher is launching Reality Weekly in 2012. "It reflects the fun and unpredictability of reality TV," editor Richard Spencer told Min Online. "It's uncensored and addictive." Addictive. That's a worry to me. While Pip made a convincing case for reality TV on JUSTB yesterday, my thoughts are this: you need a really healthy sense of self like Pip to consume such media without it warping your world perception. Research shows that viewing of reality TV is linked to teen cosmetic surgery, aggression and the normalisation of bullying and gossip. This is high-risk stuff for younger girls and women.

Ginger Meggs, the comic strip based on the mischievous antics of a red-haired 12-year-old, has celebrated its 90th birthday. The strip first appeared in the Sydney Sunday Sun in 1921 and has been drawn by four cartoonists since. "Ginger has captured the Aussie spirit over nine decades and has inadvertently become a bit of a time capsule of the Zeitgeist of those years," Jason Chatfield, the comic's current cartoonist, in The Sun-Herald.

This is an update of a post that appeared at JUSTB.
Girl With a Satchel
0 comments:
Post a Comment