Summary and Reviews of 500 Great Books by Women by Erica Bauermeister

Media Reviews

The Los Angeles Times Even avid readers may be astonished at the breadth of works presented by Bauermeister, Smith and Larsen...A sense of celebration comes through in the light, swift prose.

Glamour Meets the needs of the browser as well as the special-interest reader...the recommendations are inviting and the freshest picks sound truly grabby.

New Orleans Times This lively and entertaining annotated book list would be a perfect gift for any book group member.

The Bloomsbury Review [E]clectic but thorough...500 Great Books by Women will be a resource for teachers, educators, and book clubs, but it is also for anyone who loves great books.

Booklist Although this work is a welcome addition to the numerous bibliographies pertaining to women, it is not without flaws. First, the compilers' decision to include only in-print works results in a distorted picture of good books by women. Only 51 of the titles included were published before 1900, while more than half were published between 1980 and 1993. Because the status of being in print is ever-changing, it would have been better to list works based on their merits and let users rely on their libraries for copies of out-of-print works. Secondly, the compilers themselves note that they make no claim to objectivity, and this seems particularly evident in their nonfiction selections, which appear to have been chosen with a bias toward works about women or women's issues.

 Kathryn Cullen-Dupont,coauthor of Women's Suffrage in America Imagine an unhurried afternoon spent browsing among the best possible selection of books by and about women. Imagine further that you're with friends who take the time to browse along with you, occasionally murmur over a prized find, 'you must read this' or 'I loved this book because...' Then buy this book, fix yourself a cup of tea, and enjoy.