When I saw the Women Unbound challenge I just knew I had to join it! Have you heard about it? Well, you can get all the details on the challenge blog but basically it’s a challenge to get readers to read books related to women studies.

Eva, Aarti and Care are co-hosting this one and have come up with great reading lists, reading levels and of course cool buttons. So check it out and join in.

I’m going to try and shoot for the Bluestocking level (because I just love the word bluestocking) which means I’m going to try and read five books between now and Nov. 2010. As usual, I’m going to select books from my stacks. Here are the books that sound good to me so far but you know I’m a moody reader so my list is probably going to change but that’s for later.

• A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. How one woman seeks to free herself from the demands of city life.
• West With The Night by Beryl Markham. She was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. She definitely sounds like a woman who lived quite a life.
• The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell. A tale of sisters who were seen as funny, glamorous, intelligent, beautiful, and quirky.
• Leaving Home by Anita Brookner. At twenty-six, Emma Roberts comes to the painful realization that if she is ever to become truly independent, she must leave her comfortable London flat and venture into the wider world.
• The Vagabond by Colette. A story about an actress who rejects a man she loves in order to live in an independent way

Who else is joining and what are you a reading?

I think I’m going to have to turn in my Bookgirl credentials. I didn’t go to the Texas Book Festival and I didn’t read any spooky stories over the weekend. Now, that’s what I call horror!

I had a really good weekend though. I guess I’m still a bit on a high from Journalfest and all I wanted to do was stay home and create. So I spent hours in the studio cutting, sewing, etc. and made some new journals for the shop. I finally have sketchbooks I’ll be listing this week.

And, while I didn’t read any more spooky reads I did finish my R.I.P. Challenge, granted I only promised to read two books. I read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which I loved, and A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb, which I found quite entertaining too. Oh and I also read one short story from 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. So many, many thanks go out to Carl V. for hosting such a fabulous challenge.

Today I’ve been finding it hard to find what to read next. I’m not sure what I’m in the mood for. Actually I know what I was in the mood for but I can’t find my books. As Dia de los Muertos is here I wanted to read some Mexican folk tales but those books are at my mom’s house. So, I settled for some Pan de Muertos instead.

For now it’s back to the bookshelves to find a new book.