When Women Were Dragons | 
pickFantastical & emotional. Beautifully written allegory that celebrates acceptance of self in a highly feminist telling. The writing is gorgeous & lyrical with amazing interpersonal relationships between female characters. The plot is occasionally a little repetitive & slow-paced, but it feels as if it is simply like a way to “circle back“ & reinforce ideas as the story progresses. Barnhill's intentions felt wholesome & welcoming. A lovely read.
“How do we remember the moments when we fall apart?” 💔🔥
pickLoved this book and it‘s hard to describe adequately why. It‘s feminist and thought provoking, but there is love (both family and romantic) and hope and dragons and smash the patriarchy and social justice. Yeah, I just loved it.
And I had the perfect bookmark.
#booked2023 #titlestartswithw
#quicklunctimeread and my Wednesday lunch time treat!
This book is great 😁
pickThis was my last book of 2022. It was strange, and I wasn't always sure where the author was going, but I loved it!
pickLovely and strange alternative history where thousands of women in the 1950s change into dragons in a rebellion against the patriarchy. It‘s an awfully long extended metaphor for the feminist movement, but a fascinating look at what the world might look like if women took their power away from the men.
I am so excited to have received this book for #Jolabokaflod and can‘t wait to dive into it and all the lovely chocolate. Thank you, Jamie!
Thank you, Chelle, for hosting this swap and also for introducing this tradition that my family and I now include in our traditions.
Wishing you both a very happy holiday!
pickA beautiful genre-busting historical fiction/fantasy/alternate universe story. What would the world look like if a lot of women sometimes just...turned into dragons? There is a lot of darkness in this book, but also so much joy. It is absurd and remarkably poignant, and I loved it.
pickI read a lot of feminist lit in my late teens, early twenties (a long time ago) It “spoke” to me in such exciting ways. For that reason, I continue to read new iterations, but mainly find them tiring. This novel, with its ridiculous, fantastical premise spoke like those books did in the early 70‘s, largely due to young Alex‘s voice. Set in the ‘50‘s & 60‘s, there has been a mass “dragoning” as (largely) women escape their their lives. Great read!
I love Feminist Book Club subscription box delivery day! This month‘s theme is Joy. ☺️
Honestly, this book was a let down to me personally. Described as women being sick of men‘s shit so a bunch turn into dragons and disappear. thought this would be feminist and about female rage but it was really about silence and erasure and focused on white women which is sooo not feminist for a 2022 book (or ever but seriously now). maybe this is just me idk someone let me know if they disagree
pickI loved this book. I fell in love with the characters. I wish I had "aunties" and bread and knots. ❤️
I started following Kelly Barnhill a couple of books ago. I just finally started this book. I had to get so many books out of the way and put it in hold. Now, I just need to focus.
The beautiful thing about science is that we do not know what we cannot know and we will not know until we know. It requires an incredible amount of humility to be willing to be wrong nearly all the time. But we have to be willing to be wrong, and proven wrong, in order to increase knowledge overall. It is a thankless, and essential, job.
Reading this for a book club and I‘m not sure… so many co-workers were raving about it as a brilliant summer read. That always makes me nervous 🙃
pickThis was amazing!! I loved every minute of it and highly recommend! Especially on #audio. Inventive premise, powerful point of view and a story I‘ll be thinking about for a long time. I went into it not knowing much and I think it was the perfect way to approach this book so that is all I‘m going to say. Just read this compelling, original, feminist story-with dragons! ❤️🐉
pickI don‘t even have the words to describe the feelings this book brings out. The tears I shed, not because I was sad, but because this author was able to exactly express what it is like to be “other” or a woman. This one will be read over and over and over ❤️
“I was four years old when I first saw a dragon. I was four years old when I first learned to be silent about dragons. Perhaps this is how we learn silence -an absence of words, an absence of context, a hole in the universe where the truth should be.”
This is only page 9 😲
pickI wish I could rate this book more than 5⭐️. Something about the writing style and the story kept me not just hooked, but in tears from the very first page. Why did I cry the whole way through? Honestly I haven‘t a clue. It‘s not a sad book. It‘s not an overwhelmingly happy book where you cry tears of joy, or a book that angers you until you sob. It defies categorization, and that makes it beautiful.
pickIf you enjoy these things - dragons, chipping away at the patriarchy, dragons, fabulous writing, dragons, science, social justice issues, dragons, a bit (or a lot) of rage, dragons, found family stories, SO MUCH LOVE, and dragons - this book is for you. And to THINK the author almost stopped writing! Thank heavens she didn‘t. I LOVED this book so much! 🐉♥️🐉♥️
pickI loved every minute of this! Not sure I would have made time for it had it not fulfilled the “Book Featuring a Dragon” square on my indie summer bingo card. Got extra excited when it turned out to also fulfill the eternal square on the bingo card living in my head of “Set in Wisconsin.” Nerdy, funny, moving, feminist, and fabulous. 💚💜💚💜💚
Thank you @LiteraryinLawrence for this epic swap!! I‘m so excited to read both of these immediately!!
😍🐉👑
Some other books put forth by my book club (not by me). I‘m most excited by the tagged. I read her Newbery Medal-winning middle grade novel & loved it; it made me cry on a plane. 🙈
I love the idea of women revolting against 1950‘s society norms by becoming dragons, but I‘m just not feeling the main narrator Alex. She‘s young and struggling to meet everyone‘s expectations and I want to holler at her to stop, look up and look around. Hoping the story will get there.
Congressman- “All I know is that we just spent a lot of damn time learning nothing of consequence except what it feels like to get your ass handed to you by a goddamned librarian!”
I love that the hero in this story is a librarian!! 🥰
Still chipping away at this one. I really am loving it but it isn't one I can rush through.
"Embarrassment, as it turns out, is more powerful than information. And shame is the enemy of truth."
pickThis fiercely-feminist book tells the fictional (maybe?) story of when women threw off the chains of society and stepped fully into their power. Women from all walks of life dragonned, then set off to burn the houses, factories and offices where they had been held down by the patriarchy. The story of Alex, Beatrice and Marla is fraught with burdens and responsibilities, but also has deep love, caretaking and growth. Become a dragon? Yes!
I don't think I will ever get sick of this cover - it is just gorgeous 😍 I find myself taking my time reading this one because I don't want to be done. Sure it will look good displayed cover forward in my barrister bookcase, but I don't exactly sit and stare at that so I'd rather have it with me for a bit longer. Am I the only one who does this sometimes?
pickI loved Barnhill‘s The Girl Who Drank the Moon, so I was excited to find this new release!
The audio narration was good, a main narrator and a second reader for the letters and scientific journal articles sprinkled throughout.
A fantasy that imagines women could transform into dragons. At first it seemed they did so to get revenge on men who had wronged them (bosses, cheating husbands, etc), but maybe some just always were dragons inside. 🐉💚
Coffee on the porch this morning while starting this book. I never would have picked it up if Jeff from Book Riot hadn't sold the idea so well on the podcast...and I am so into it!
pickI enjoyed this one a lot. Basic concept: Throughout history, when women are oppressed, they can change into dragons. The book centers on the uprising of 1955. Alex is left wondering if her mom chose to be a dragon, or her aunt didn't, would this have changed her fate? There are also research snippets from other uprisings to show what women were facing throughout the centuries. Unlike some feminist writings, not all men are portrayed badly here.
pick⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️. This book is an unapologetic feminist perspective about what it means to be a girl and/or a woman in a patriarchal society. It is also about what happens when girls and women fight back, naming, recognizing, and enacting their power. I recommend this book for readers who enjoy magical realism, strong female characters, and blatant feminism. Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4812945230
so-soGreat book based upon metaphor of housewives in the 1960‘s leaving that oppression. (I don‘t take to metaphors wel) I did enjoy the book, but my expectations were high and it wasn‘t met. Alex is trying to figure out this world as someone who wants a part of the mass dragoning, finding herself left behind to grow up quick. Strong feminist book told mostly calmly. Alex wants to be a good girl and be quiet. She struggles with all this constantly
The beautiful thing about science is that we do not know what we cannot know and we will not know until we know. It requires a great amount of humility to be willing to be wrong nearly all the time. But we have to be willing to be wrong, in order to increase knowledge overall. It is a thankless, and essential, job.
"They stepped out of their robes like nymphs, and they stepped out of their bodies like monsters,"
Treated myself to four books after my doctor's appointment this morning. Anyone else do this to reward yourself after doing something stressful? 😂
I heard about this on a BookRiot podcast and thought the concept was so fun. When I saw it today at my local bookshop I couldn't resist! #mountTBRgrowsagain
pickA fantastical feminist metaphor of 1950's housewives breaking free of their patriarchal oppression by turning into dragons. Told as a coming of age story of the protagonist Alex who observes the females closest to her transforming. In addition, the McCarthy witchhunt and politics of the time come into play in this literary read.
pickAbsolutely loved this. A friend asked what the genre was and I thought…💡feminist fantasy!
pickIn this work of alternative-historical fiction, hundreds of thousands of wives and mothers seemingly spontaneously transformed into dragons in the Mass Dragoning of 1955–but society has repressed all acknowledgement of it. I love the premise of Kelly Barnhill‘s adult debut but I wish I‘d been better prepared for how focused on the quotidian it is, despite all the dragons. Still, recommend for fans of The Power and The House in the Cerulean Sea!
Another #BlameitonLitsy library hold! The cover is gorgeous and I was immediately pulled in to the story. Can't wait to devour as much as possible this evening 🤩
#currentlyreading #preview #printedproofcopy #julyrso2022 Amazing concept, let‘s see how it‘s executed. Also, I am not reading these July arcs quick enough. Too many books, yada yada…
pickWow. One day in April, 1955, almost 700k American women turned into dragons and flew away. Some after eating their husbands. Society immediately tries to forget it and say it could only happen once. This is the story of a girl who will eventually be a scientist, growing up in the aftermath of losing an aunt she‘s not allowed to speak of, taught to keep everything- that her sister was her cousin, her thoughts, feelings- tucked close to her chest.
