Women of Mystery

What do authors Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and Marcia Muller have in common? Their
novels about courageous, strong, intelligent women private investigators have revolutionized
contemporary detective fiction. With V.I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone and Sharon McCone,
the female private eye entered the scene of detective fiction. Diving into the wilderness of the unknown,
she saw what no one else had seen and told a new story. WOMEN OF MYSTERY is the first film
to celebrate the writers who started a literary revolution and, in the process, captured readers'
imagination around the world. WOMEN OF MYSTERY includes dramatizations that capture
familiar characters and themes from the novels, engaging scenes with each author exploring her
heroine's home turf, and intimate interviews that reveal the complex relationship between
author and heroine.

To learn more about the highly popular WOMEN OF MYSTERY Screening-Reading-Discussion
program, read the November 2003 AMERICAN LIBRARIES article "Women of Mystery: A filmmaker
and a librarian team up to connect crime authors with social issues on the page, on film, and in
the library." Participants engage in lively discussions of contemporary literary and social issues.
Program materials, including discussion questions, bibliographies, author bios, graphics, and
interviews with the filmmakers, are available from California Center for the Book.

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Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Women Cartoonists

"I had noticed how few women cartoonists were in the comics pages. I wondered why? And I
wondered how the women who were published managed to get there? I decided to find out--from the
cartoonists themselves. I found four smart and witty role models (Cathy Guisewite, Nicole Hollander,
Lynda Barry and "Brenda Starr's" Dale Messick) who showed me new ways of looking at the comics,
and the world."    --   Pamela Beere Briggs

Perfect program for use across the curriculum, as America's best-loved women cartoonists discuss
and create comic strips about politics, gender stereotypes, self-esteem and aging.

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