You're kidding, right?

All those books published in 2009, all those many many books, and you at Publisher's Weekly produce a top ten list comprised entirely of male authors. I'm not even touching the equally bothersome point that they're also white. Seriously? Seriously? Let's just be logical: fifty percent of the population is female. Dude, in case you're as bad at math as you are at reading, that's half. If you can't give up five, then three, or two, or even one. You're telling me that no woman wrote a book you consider a top tier read? Seriously???

As an English Literature major, I'm familiar with the traditionally white male domination of the literary canon. But I like to think that we're moving past that, that we're realizing that good literature comes in many forms, and that only through the wide and eclectic breadth of authors can it fully touch the wide and eclectic world population. PWs list represents a rebuttal to the promise of a new book-view.

I have a son and I have a daughter, and I am a writer. I would like to tell them both that the world is fair, that if they choose to follow in my footsteps the doors will be open on both sides, the paths equally rocky and trying. And I will tell them that, because having that hope is sometimes what it takes to keep moving forward, word by word and page by page. But in the end, I realize that in more ways than I know, life is not fair. Thanks, PW. I secretly hope that the angel watching over you is a big black woman, and that she's as pissed as I am.

Are you pissed too? Then check out She Writes. They're calling for action, and although the "day" is nearly over, don't let that stop you. Buy a book by a woman--I just bought Beth Moore's Breaking Free to help me build my faith, but I've also got Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris on my bedside table. Hey, woman have a lot of different sides, you know. Post something on your blog, or Facebook, or your front door. Take a stand for women writers, and for the little women who are following in our footsteps.