The disciplines of musical scholarship (music theory, music history, and music education) are rooted in ideas and value-sets that were determined in the 18th-early 20th centuries by individuals who were profoundly racist and classist.

As a result, today’s musicians learn how to think about music in ways that are deeply at odds with modern understandings of who musicians are, who listeners are, and how music communicates. Ewell dismantles these ideological barriers to understanding and points the way to new systems of understanding music – and each other – that will make tomorrow’s musical world better, richer, more inclusive, and a product of our own time rather than the age of Jim Crow and Nazism: a music theory (and view of music history) for today. It’s essential reading.

Although a world without music is unthinkable, a world without racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, and misogyny is almost inconceivable. One big step in… show more.

It’s a very clever, very funny novella about a talented literary editor, Quin, told alternately in his own voice and by a long-term friend of his, Margot.

Margot defends and normalises his behaviour towards women until she is forced to reassess his actions in the light of numerous accusations, all of which fall short of actual assault or rape, sex, or even touching. Is he an abuser? Or is he just a playful, overgrown manchild who thrives on emotionally intense and intimate friendships with women?

I loved the book because it refuses to answer the question definitively.

Once I’d belatedly realised that women wrote noir, it was a short step to becoming obsessed with Margaret Millar, a Canadian/American counterpart to British Celia Fremlin.

This book kept me guessing right to the end. It has a psychological complexity that means the characters got under my skin, and it is crammed with razor-sharp insights into dysfunctional relationships. I just love Millar’s spare prose: "The smile meant nothing. It was one of habit. She put it on in the morning along with her lipstick and removed it at night when she washed her face. Jim liked this smile of Daisy’s…"

It is easy to see why Millar was celebrated in her own time – and, sadly, equally easy to guess the reasons she now needs "rediscovering."

Peter Gibbon has, at an emotional level, a magnificent capacity to admire heroes.  He provides snippets of many heroes’ lives and he savors their accomplishments. One of the most effective aspects of his book is his rejection of the modern anti-hero mentality that disparages heroes. “Biography today is rarely about greatness,” he writes. “At best, it displays a dispassionate balance. More often, it focuses on failure…and weakness and unveils the intimate life—slighting artistic accomplishment, scientific discovery, and political achievement. At worst, contemporary biographers self-righteously excoriate any hint of impurity, prejudice, sexism, or hypocrisy.” 

Unfortunately, a la many authors on the topic, he offers no rigorous definition of “hero” or “heroism.” He says: The definition of hero remains subjective. What is extraordinary can be debated. Courage is in the eye of the beholder. Greatness of soul is elusive.” Nevertheless, there is great value in his spirited accounts of numerous heroes.

Wake up Grandma! I know, as grandmother to four, how hard it is to choose things they’ll like.

Just like my grands, Ruthie loves to visit but does not enjoy playing “girl” toys and games Nana wants to share with her. It takes a while but Nana finally comes around and even joins in the fun.

I found A Fire Engine for Ruthie to be an excellent book to open a discussion about binary and non-binary things, and people.

I loved diving into this novel about mother-daughter artists and the devotion, love, and competition that binds them together. Personally, I have no skill or passion for painting or photography—the gifts granted the characters in this book—but as I immersed myself in Bensley’s world, I began seeing the world as visual artists do. That was an unexpected bonus to an already compelling intergenerational story. As I hungrily turned pages, eager to discover what would happen to the characters next, I loved learning about art, the sexism of the art world, and the compelling need to create regardless of external validation.

I am a huge fan of dual language books.

What’s more, along with being written in both English and Spanish together, One of a Kind Like Me / Unico Como Yo features a Hispanic family supporting their child’s desire to bust gender boundaries when choosing a costume for the school parade.

What I love most, the child’s choice of costume is not the problem; finding the items to create the costume Danny envisions is a welcome challenge.

This is another book that personally enlightened me to the core of my sister’s prosecution: misogyny. Before reading Kate Manne’s book, I had a broad and incomplete understanding of “misogyny,” despite it affecting every aspect of our society.

After reading this book—and understanding that misogyny is the way that women are controlled and punished in a patriarchal system—I couldn’t unsee the evidence of misogyny all around me. We cannot challenge gender-based violence without first understanding its fundamental building blocks.

How can we remedy the fact that wages in predominantly female jobs (e.g., secretaries) have been devalued historically?

For comparable worth advocates, women should be paid a wage equivalent to men who work in a different job with similar skills and experience. But how do we evaluate and rank skills in different occupations to create equivalence? Sociologist Joan Acker takes us through two 1980s comparable worth evaluation processes to answer this question.

Her thought-provoking research demonstrates that the evaluation process itself was laden with gendered assumptions about the value of different skills. It also helps us understand how we can evade this problem in the future and create procedures with more equitable outcomes.  

I begged all of my friends to read this book!

Rina Raphael discusses what's wrong and right about the wellness industry. She cites research articles and studies all throughout the book, not something you see in your fitfluencers post or hear on The Today Show. She tells us why a study wasn't significant or how savvy marketing somehow became known as a scientific fact. 

I've accidentally shared some of the misinformation she discusses and feel duped for believing it. But I'm much more informed now. I resisted some of it but checked my bias at the door several times. I threw away my embarrassment of what I believed. I told everyone that we can no longer have grocery-shame, fit-shame, and self-care shame after reading this book!