Great pick or not is not the point of this post. I've been keeping score on Oprah: since Jan 2005, she's picked 12 books.
All of them have been by men. Every one.
If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 18 titles. 16 of them are by men.
I'm not suggesting affirmative action here. I never am. I just continue to find it curious.
FYI: She has 2 million readers in her book club over 80% of them are women and 40 million plus viewers watch the show every week and the majority are overwhelmingly female. More than 80% say some searches.
What I want to know is
why
when men write about love,
it is called "literature"
and
when women write about love,
it is called "romance"?
Posted by: Kimber Chin | September 19, 2008 at 08:28 PM
Amazingly, Oprah chose to endorse a male candidate for President, passing over a fully qualified woman. Perhaps Oprah is actually not a true woman? Perhaps MJ rose will write an expose.
Posted by: Thriller Lover | September 19, 2008 at 11:21 PM
"But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag — . . .
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face . . ."
Interesting indeedly; thanks for the eye-Oprahener; but, talk SNAFUBAR REDUX :) . . . [*sigh*].
Posted by: Judith Fitzgerald | September 20, 2008 at 07:19 PM
p.s. While I'm commenting, might I confess I *love* the titles of your books; they're all magnif; but, none more magnifico than LIP SERVICE (with THE HALO EFFECT a close second)? In fact, they actually seduced me into buying them (and, I'm not sorry I did so, not at all).
BTW, did you know the name of the Large Hadron Collider was just changed to HALO by popular vote?
(Probably :).)
p.s. Kimber Chin? Perhaps it's because men tag 'em and women such as OW (don't) promo 'em?
--
http://booksinq.blogspot.com
Posted by: Judith Fitzgerald | September 20, 2008 at 07:46 PM
you're very diplomatic. i think it's appalling.
Posted by: moonrat | September 22, 2008 at 11:09 AM
From the google homepage today:
If you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men, try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations, looking for women's names.
- Elaine Gill
And, I've noticed the same thing in the "A Life in Books" section of Newsweek: when authors (yes, most are men) are asked to name their favorite 5 books, most often they list five books by male authors.
Posted by: Sarah | September 22, 2008 at 01:21 PM
Haven't been counting Oprah's books since 2005 but I remember lots of women authors--maybe they were before '05? Billie Letts:"Where The Heart Is", Jane Alexander (I think)
Toni Morrison, Mia Angelou, Edwidge Danicant, Janet Finch, Anita Shreve- Kaye Fowler, just to name a few. Now I know I've mispelled names and gotten some just plain wrong, but maybe I jarred some memories too? So correct me...
Posted by: Mary | September 23, 2008 at 07:09 PM
Yes, before 2005 Oprah was picking books written by both sexes... since then she seems to have made a conscious decision that only men are writing quality worth noting.
Posted by: M.J | September 23, 2008 at 09:52 PM
Kimber Chen,
I think that's a little reductionist. There are lots of genre ghettos, of which romance is only one.
Basically, following some set of genre conventions (mystery, scifi, the happily-ever-after-ness of romance) means you're gaining marketability and a built-in audience (and usually moving more copies) but giving up literary "respectability." If you write a book that satisfies all of romance genre readers' expectations for a romance novel, you might not *want* to get labeled "literary fiction."
Posted by: AN | November 14, 2008 at 06:21 PM