I’m a huge fan of books on tape and almost always have one going in the car. I’m listening to them even more now walking my dog, Daisy. Daisy ate one of my tapes recently, so I guess she likes them, too.

Right now I’m listening to Lauren Kessler’s Dancing with Rose, a memoir about a journalist who takes a minimum wage patient care job at an Alzheimer’s facility to learn about the disease. It was written by a woman and the book is narrated by a woman, who has excellent vocal variety. I’m pretty sure this is the only the second book on tape I’ve heard narrated by a woman in my +5 years listening to them. The other was Doris Kearn’s Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Kearns spent considerable time with LBJ and features prominently in the narrative, as does Kessler in Dancing with Rose.

I’ve listened to other books written by women. Off the top of my head I recall Morgan : American Financier by Jean Strouse, mainly because they had a tape where they interviewed her at the end, but I’m sure there are others. But they always have men narrate them.

I’m not some feminist by any stretch, but when I realized it’s always men reading these non-fiction works unless they’re forced to use a woman it made me chuckle. I guess if I were a feminist that wouldn’t make me chuckle though, would it?

Part of it is force of habit I guess, since I’ve listened to so many men readers that a woman would be a little odd at this point. It’s too bad, though. There are a lot of so-so men narrators, but the two women narrators were really fantastic. I guess if there’s not as much demand for them, the producers can be pickier in who they chose and not get stuck with a so-so guy.