My Woman Books

I was telling a friend recently that I've been voraciously reading books and consuming content made by women, and she said, "Oh yeah, me too. I call them my 'Woman Books'." I recently read When Women Were Birds. It's a fragmentary chronology of Terry Tempest Williams's life, her attempt to make sense of her mother's empty diaries: what the blank pages mean, how a mother's voice gets translated through a daughter's conjecture. And I am just eating at the podcast buffet: How To Fail with Elizabeth Day; Mad, Sad, Bad with Paloma Faith; Biological Age with Katherine Ryan; the House of Maher with Ilona, Olivia & Adrianna Maher; Would You Date Me with Nicole Byer; Long Winded with Gabby Windey; Good Hang with Amy Poehler; The Interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro; Wild Card with Rachel Martin; IMO with Michelle Obama; and Baby, It's Keke Palmer. Women talking about miscarriages, bodies, abortion, motherhood, relationships, therapy, and also careers, humanity, politics, and money. Something about hearing women talk convinces me that I have been missing some kind of essential nutrient.

Looking at this list, part of me thinks I have nothing to add, nothing to say. That it'll just get in the way. That I don't really know what I am talking about. That I should keep it to myself. It's like when I was dating in college. A guy would ask me what my favorite movie was and I wouldn't want to tell him because I knew he would make fun of me because it would 100% be a romcom or a romdram and he would think that was dumb. Or I would be talking with an investor about my business and he would say something like "Is your boyfriend paying for your apartment, then?" And I guess I somehow came to the conclusion that my voice, my authentic voice, talking about stuff that mattered to me, that I was interested in, should stay silent.

But the magnetic pull of the voices of these women showed me the reality that joy and gratitude and appreciation are limitless. I don't have to choose a favorite: french fries AND blueberries AND pickles can exist and be enjoyed; Jacob Collier AND Dua Lipa AND Trousdale can be on my roadtrip playlists. The possibility of connection? That possibility has to be greater than my fear of criticism.

I like hearing women talk about anything, big and small, the mundane and the earth-shattering. I love hearing their voices. And they're teaching me to love mine.