hi everyone!! with the SimonBooks Quest on its way out on June 30th (we'll miss you!!) and everyone finishing up their final books for the badge, i've been curious about how everyone has been reading the books together. when i first saw the book list, i thought they might be a bit disjointed or grouped too broadly under "Women's Lit"

what i realized while finishing the Quest up is that "Women's Lit" can be much more than just a marketing term. these books offer womanhood not as a stable, universal identity but as a condition formed through lived experience which looks different for every single woman

womanhood is shown as a set of pressures, roles, inheritances, and survival strategies. the women in these books are formed by class, race, marriage, motherhood, work, grief, trauma, and desire. they navigate systems of power, family histories, and material conditions that pressure them into choices unique to their own lives

these books really challenged me to think about the lived experience of womanhood outside of my own perspective. as someone childfree/marriage-free, a lot of these books were not something i would have chosen on my own. but reading them together and finishing up the last books made me realize that it wasn't about whether or not i "related" to each woman's life, but more about how many different pressures get grouped under the single term "womanhood"

i think the most powerful perspective for me was thinking about the many layers of motherhood. not just motherhood as following the provided "correct" path of domesticity, but the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, marriage as a survival tactic, and the inheritance of family roles. especially, many of these books explore the complex inheritance of daughters, who often become containers for the family's silences, projections, and grief

you also have books like Like This But Funnier or The Plans I Have For You which present a darker side of intimacy and ambition. showing how sometimes connection can become distorted and toxic when women are forced to navigate structures that diminish, sexualize, surveil, and devalue their lives and work

i'm still finishing up Artifacts and Livonia Chow Mein, but i think they will explore these themes in unique ways as well. overall, i really appreciate how these books expand upon the idea of womanhood without chalking it up to simply "being a woman is varied and beautiful". these books at times are saying something bleaker, that women are often forced to build meaning from roles they did not fully choose or consent to

i'm curious if any of you had similar feelings while reading these books as a cohesive set? were there any pairings that felt like they were in conversation with each other? any connecting themes that stuck out to you? which exploration of womanhood stuck with you most?