The Bookshelf.(Bibliography)

Attentive readers will note that we now have a new format for the Bookshelf, which aims to provide you with a little more information than in the past about books we've received in our office recently. As always, the Bookshelf is only a partial listing of the books by and about women published each month.

Paula Bernat Bennett, Poets in the Public Sphere: The Emancipatory Project of American Women's Poetry, 1800-1900. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003, 264 pp., paper. Through the use of various sources, including regional newspapers, Bennett examines how and why poems by ordinary women involving personal and social injustice, politics, and economics found their way into print. Bennett places these works into the broader historical context of women's poetical works.

Wendy Buonaventura, I Put a Spell on You: Dancing Women from Salome to Madonna. London: Saqi, 2003, 312 pp., hardcover. A dancer herself, Buonaventura discusses the history of women's dance and the social and religious constraints upon it. Using examples from icons such as Isadora Duncan, as well as personal experience, history, and contemporary documents, Buonaventura paints a vivid picture of how dance has evolved and women have both defied and complied with the demands of society regarding their bodily expressions.

Susan Gillman, Blood Talk: American Race Melodrama and the Culture of the Occult. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, 245 pp., paper. Gillman analyses the emergence of "race melodramas" between Reconstruction and World War I. This literature ranged across the literary and political spectrum, from sentimental novels and travelogues to the works of W. E. B. Du Bois. She discusses its entanglement with occultist fads, Freemasonry, spiritualism, and dream interpretation.

Judy Yaeger Jones and Jane E. Vallier, eds., Sweet Bells Jangled: Laura Redden Searing, A Deaf Poet Restored. Washington, DC, 2003, 212 pp., paper. Gallaudet University Press. Searing (1839-1903), who became deaf as a result of illness at age 13, wrote journalism and poetry under the pen name of Howard Glyndon. A sympathetic biography and brief analysis of Searing's writing introduce this collection of her poems.

Brooke Kroeger, Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are. New York: PublicAffairs, 2003, 280 pp., hardcover. Focusing on six people and their stories, Kroeger examines the various ways people "pass" in today's world. She explores the circumstances that lead some to deny a part of their identity, whether for social acceptance, adventure, or personal safety. She goes on to explore the various consequences of the decision to deny a part of oneself.

Michele Le Doeuff, The Sex of Knowing. New York: Routledge, 2003, 242 pp., paper. In this work translated from the French, Le Doeuff crafts a passionate and persuasive argument regarding the damage ...