If it were possible, I would gather my race into my arms and fly away with them.

This Woman's Work: Essays on Music, by Sinead Gleeson and Kim Gordon, 2022 (essays) and Rock-and-Roll Woman: The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers, by Meredich Ochs, 2018 (book with photos)

It wasn't all that long ago when lists of the best rock 'n' rollers in history contained maybe just one woman or two.

Rolling Stone's current top 100 list features just one woman in the top 10: Aretha Franklin. OK, yes, she is at number one. Tina Turner is the only other woman who made the top 20.

And women make up about 50 percent of the world's population.

This blog isn't going to pretend to know the answer as to why this disparity exists.

Do that many fewer women start rock 'n' roll bands?

When rock 'n' roll first started out in the 1950s, were women too glued to the home to want to pick up a guitar? I mean, why wouldn't more women start rock 'n' roll bands and go on to be praised as goddesses of rock? What possibly could have been holding them back?

Are the people who make theses lists nostalgic for the past, and maybe ignoring newer artists?

Let's not forget that between 2013 and 2021, female artists, songwriters, and producers averaged just 13.4% of Grammy nominations vs. 86.6% for male.

The answer comes down to sexism and sex. I know I said I don't have the answer, but maybe I do.

Award-winning radio personality, writer, and musician Meredith Ochs is helping make up for this imbalance with her book "Rock-and-Roll Woman: The 50 Fiercest Female Rockers."

From Big Mama Thornton and Janis Joplin to Siouxsie Sioux and Gwen Stefani, Ochs brings together some of the biggest names in rock left off too many other lists.

With stories and pictures of each of the 50 artists, perhaps no book was ever so necessary for completing your rock education.

This Woman's Work

The above quote, about gathering up all the members of her race and flying away, is from Ida B. Wells.

I wonder how I've never heard it before. At 21 years old, Wells had bought a first-class ticket on a train. When she was pulled (literally) from first-class by three railroad employees, dress torn, she sued. She won the case, but the railroad company took it to a higher court, which ruled against her.

She wrote the quote in her journal shortly after.

Wells went on to work as a journalist and later spoke out against lynching. She was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Talk about something that should be in our high school textbooks.

I digress a little.

But not really. Because this is a perfect example of what "This Woman's Work" is. It's filled with little gems that you will wish you would have found sooner.

Written by celebrated female writers about female musicians -- and edited by a founding member of Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon, and award-winning Irish writer Sinead Gleeson -- the book is part slam poetry, part country, part rap, part jazz, and a little rock 'n' roll.

It brings together all the ingredients that make music, and writing, so great: history, courage, trends, patriotism, freedom, society, sex, invention, mixtapes, our shared humanity.

Here are just a few of the music legends featured in the book:

• Laurie Anderson

• Wendy Carlos

• Lucinda Williams

• Ella Fitzgerald

• Megan Jasper

• Linda Sharrock

And if you think you have a pretty firm grasp on what music is, read Kim Gordon's interview with Yoshimi. No 'shrooms necessary.

An absolute must for music and writing lovers.