Looking back at 2019 I realized that the books I really enjoyed this year were by women authors. This seemed appropriate as women dominated in 2019; from Greta Thunberg and Fiona Hill to Nancy Pelosi, strong women made their voices heard in a big way.

Delia Owens who became a bestselling author at age 71, with her lyrical novel Where The Crawdads Sing, is representative of the new women’s voices that seem to be emerging. Her indomitable heroine, Kya Clark presents us with a woman who overcomes immense odds to create a better place for herself in the world and endeavors to find justice when justice is often just an illusion for a woman.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, describes the matriarchal culture of the diving women on Jeju Island in S. Korea. Young-sook, now in her eighties must reflect back on her life as a haenyu or diver and her close but fraught relationship with Mi-ja, a fellow diver, whose family comes to see her and asks questions. Their friendship plays out against the complicated political backdrop of invasions by Japan, WWII, and the Korean War which wreaked havoc on their country and their lives.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews is a disturbing but amazing novel based on true events that occurred in a South American Mennonite community where men of the community drugged women as old as eighty and as young as 3 with veterinary grade drugs and then raped them. The novel centers around a conversation a group of women in the community begin as they decide what to do now that the accused men are being released on bail and will be returning to the community in a short while. Should they stay, and if so what conditions do they want to impose for their own continued safety?  Should they go and if so where should they go and how will they get there? A;though this book is very disturbing, it is also very empowering as we hear these women grapple with how to take control of their own lives.

Finally Barracoon: The Story of the “Last Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston is an amazing account of interviews with Cudjo Lewis, one of the last living slaves who remembered crossing the Middle Passage from Africa to the United States. The interviews were conducted in 1927 when Cudjo was eighty-six years old. Hurston tried to publish her manuscript when it was completed in 1931 but there was very little interest but she went on however to write many other works, including  her most famous, Their Eyes Were Watching God.  Recently revised and edited for modern readers by Deborah G. Plant, this book, Hurston and Cudjo Lewis are finally being allowed to  be heard and shine a light on an important and ugly part of our history.

I hope that in this new year we may find many more voices and stories that we have not yet heard so that we can become more open to the unmeasured and amazing diversity of the human experience!

Brenda Seat.