Tag: women

The Power by Naomi Alderman

She thinks, That is how a man speaks. And that is why.

The power seeks its outlet. These things have happened before, they will happen again. These things are always happening.

My choice of quotes from The Power, this year’s winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Film: Lady Macbeth

lady_macbeth_still_1

I had such an interesting evening at the Dublin Film Festival tonight listening to William Oldroyd talk about the inspiration behind the wonderful direction and cinematography of his first feature film Lady Macbeth. The film itself is fantastic and the performances by Florence Pugh and Naomi Ackie are inspiring. On my list for this weekend? Devouring everything I can find written by Alice Birch and getting in some walks in nature…

(Pic from the Hollywood Reporter)

Asking For It.

They are all innocent until proven guilty. But not me. I am a liar until proven honest.

I’ve started writing this paragraph more than once and what keeps coming to mind is how  quick we can be to judge others without even knowing the facts of the situation.  We may have seen a photo or a video, or listened to some gossip and think we know exactly what happened. This book addresses many issues, including rape culture, sexism, victim-blaming… and it does so extremely effectively. This book will make you angry. Yes, it’s dark and graphic at times but only because it needs to be. It has to be to address these issues correctly and to give us no choice but to talk about them, as we should.

I know I will.

The Girl on the Train

“That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps”.

The Girl on the Train is gripping.. fast-paced.. mysterious.. and I loved the concept. The imagination can be a powerful thing. Like others have said, it’s quite similar to Gillian Flynn with our protagonist the struggling and flawed female, and Rachel is definitely that, but (spoiler!) her husband didn’t really help now did he? All the females are a little dark in this one but they’re also quite strong. When they need to be. I liked that. I also really enjoyed that the story was told from so many different points of views. It changed it up a bit, and influenced your opinions on the characters. Bottom line? The book is definitely worth a read. But be warned – once you start, you can’t stop.

My Life on the Road.

If I could, I would leave an open space for your story on every page.

Gloria Steinem leads an interesting life and has so many entertaining stories to tell and lessons learned to share. I especially enjoyed the format of the book – how she tells her stories in short anecdotes throughout. In the same way that I’m now going to share my favourite quotes with you..

I wonder: If you think of someone you love, do you become a little more like them? I would like to think so.

If you do anything people care about, people will take care of you.

Just pause, let the audience absorb the hostility, then say, ‘I didn’t pay him to say that’.

Gina Prince-Bythewood: Lenny, Oct. 13 2015. 

My favorite stat — 90 percent of female CEOs played sports. Swagger is the belief that we belong in any setting. That we can succeed in any setting. That it is okay to want to be the best. To be in charge. To lead. To have say over our own bodies. To demand equal pay. To be president. Talent has no gender. Leadership has no gender. Badass has no gender.