Mary Shelley's Frankenstein blew me away. It was such a shock to go back and read the original text that has inspired so many aspects of Western horror and science fiction. It made me realize how different Shelley's concept of Frankenstein's monster is from the monster depicted in most media today.

For this prompt I wanted to highlight the Reading Women Award. Each year they celebrate outstanding books written by or about women. The award winners and shortlisted books also function as a great resource to find new and wonderful books to read.

I don't often get the chance to say this, but this is a book that every person should read.

Responses to chronic illness and disability in U.S. society tend to take two forms. Either disability is 1) rendered invisible or 2) blamed on the individual. Both these responses erase the real lived experiences of disabled people.

Did you know that fewer than 30% of translated books published in the U.S. are written by women? This, coupled with the fact that only 3% of books published overall in the U.S. are translations, can mean that reading the translated works of women authors is an uphill battle. It requires us to make intentional choices.