Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes

While this shows up on the New York Times Notable Books of 2023 list, it was published in 1952 and only recently translated. As such, it feels very dated, a kind of reminder that while the status of women is vastly inferior to that of men, not that long ago it was even worse. The author opens this book by stating that owning a notebook is in itself forbidden. She was born in 1911 and her family was involved in anti-fascism politics, but this is not about that, but rather it examines a form of suppression that women recognize as global: the suppression of their thoughts. The book is written as a diary, that paradoxical form that offers both privacy and exposure. Privacy produces candor, and the diarist may say things on paper she would never say aloud, but transcription itself is communication, creating text that can be read by anyone. The writer is Valeria, 43, happily married to Michele. Their children, Riccardo and Mirella, are university students living at home. Postwar Italy is poor, but Michele has a good job in a bank, and Valeria, unusually for her generation, also has a good office job. And yet, as time goes on, the constraints in her life weigh more and more heavily on her. Check this one out.