ONE good thing about 15,000,000 new book titles by Jay

From 2011 to 2012, the number of books published increased by 500%.  Just for nostalgia’s sake: in 2003 there were only 300,000 titles published.  One good thing about this huge increase is the prominence of fantastic new women authors. 

Sure, there have always been books written by women, including some of the top literature, such as award winning “Them” by Joyce Carol Oates.  But it was hard to build a collection of female authors when there were literally only a handful of titles available, even up into the 1970s.  With a proliferation of female novelists and tens of millions of choices today, Stillwater Public Library has been able to build a collection of books by new, exciting, and groundbreaking female authors who write with jarring honesty. 

Here is a brief list of some of the great new fiction by female authors I have read in the past 12 months (and be sure to have “The Do” as an appropriate modern soundtrack for your reading):

·           “Sherry and Narcotics” - Nina Marie Gardner’s first novel is about a young grad student who falls in love with a Facebook poster, then moves to Manchester, England to be with him.

·           “How Should a Person Be?” - Sheila Heti’s bold and experimental new novel is about a young artist who tries to figure out how to be a genius.

·           “The Correspondence Artist” - Barbara Browning has written an epistle novel where the action takes place through a series of emails and texts.

·           “Zazen” - Vanessa Veselka writes about a recent geology graduate who moves to the big city, but cannot find a job anywhere.  She then gets caught up in the apocalypse.

·           “We Only Know So Much” - Elizabeth Crane’s debut novel delves into the common theme of “family,” but what a family it is!

·           “Drinking Closer to Home” - Jessica Blau writes another family tale, this one about one of the craziest families you’ll meet.

·           “Ghost Lights” - Lydia Millet too writes about a California family torn apart by a lack of communication and modern age.

·           “Paper Conspiracies” - Susan Daitch has written a historical novel about an event set in 1880’s France, which is being investigated by a twenty-first century film preservationist.

These eight titles are just the very beginning of exciting, bold and truthful new female authors at Stillwater Public Library.