From Booklist
In Reading Women (2006), Bollmann created a resplendent exhibit-on-paper of artistic portraits of women transfixed by books. An equally magnetic mix of pictures and commentary pays tribute to diverse women writers, past and present. In her smart and forthright foreword, Francine Prose praises the writers recognized here for their courage in confronting misogyny as much as for their literary talent. And what an inspiring and intriguing group Bollmann has gathered. Following a thoughtful and substantial introduction rich in observations regarding the changing status of women writers over the past 250 years, and the role the novel played in women's liberation, a series of succinct yet revealing biographical essays unfolds, each accompanied by a painting or photograph of the writer. All the usual suspects are here (Austen, Sand, the Brontës, Woolf, Plath) as well as less commonly known or remembered writers. The stellar list includes Johanna Spyri, creator of Heidi; Selma Lagerlof, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1909; Marguerite Duras; the recently rediscovered Irene Nemirovsky; Toni Morrison; Isabel Allende; and Arundhati Roy. Seaman, Donna
