This month's selection,
The Bell Jar, was included on the 2012 reading list for a few different reasons: first, it is considered a classic, as in a
no English major worth their salt has never read Sylvia Plath kind
of classic; and second, it is important to me to read classic novels
written by women. I choose my reading list after carefully scouring
best-seller lists, lists of American classics, and recommendations from
other readers. It seems that, overwhelmingly, the books commonly
considered to be classics - both traditional and modern - are written by
men. Out of TIME Magazine's list of the top 100 novels, only 15 had
female authors. That's less than a quarter, which seems low to me, as
women have been publishing novels since the mid 1800s or earlier.
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