Mary Moss Greenebaum knew, to her regret, that “the world sees Kentucky as a hopeless state.” She had a galvanizing idea—to set up a nationally recognized Author Forum, bringing the world’s great authors and thinkers to Louisville and matching them with equally distinguished interviewers. “I knew right away that each session should be interviews between two great minds,” she tells us. But the “powers that be” said it couldn’t be done.

In this week’s Wednesday 5, we ponder whether criticism of Kate Middleton’s official portrait is inherently sexist; hope for a black female heroine we can relate to in “Django Unchained”; marvel at (and also try to understand) Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes speech, feel incredibly inspired by one woman’s idea to create father-daughter dances in prison; and applaud Justice Sonia Sotomayor for making history (again!).

“Nothing but the Truth” brings together a diverse array of female voices. Consider medical anthropologist Diane Tober, who shares her experiences while conducting fieldwork at a health clinic in Iran. Tober’s assumptions about Muslim women in Iran wearing the hejâb matched my own: that it was oppressive and just one more way for men to dominate women. But, according to Tober’s friend Nargess, that just isn’t so . . .

News you can use: The optimal time of the day for you to shoot a moose, interview for a job, get a colonoscopy, tweet a friend, shop for a gerbil, brush your dog’s teeth . . .

We have underlying beliefs about what it means to be organized (cold), or to skip dessert (deprivation), or to take action immediately (fear), Marilyn Paul, Ph.D., points out in her book “It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys.” There is an internal state we fight against—an unease—when we try to change our lives. Instead of sitting with the discomfort and trying to face it, we surrender (quit) and call ourselves failures. . . .

Tessa Hadley’s takes us behind the private and public lives of unforgettable characters; Whitney Otto re-imagines the lives of several phenomenal women photographers; and Penny Marshall reminds us that fame and fortune haven’t changed her as the girl next door (although they have tried).

“No one tells you how to be famous,” Marshall observes in My Mother Was Nuts, her new memoir. “And it confuses the shit out of you when it happens.”

This week we’ve chosen books whose subjects and styles vary widely, from entertaining (“The Revolution Was Televised”) to mischievous (“Because I Said So!”) to profound (Elie Wiesel’s “Open Heart”).

Amelia Earhart’s bold views on marriage; Helen Mirren on sexism in Hollywood; women science fiction writers still encouraged to use male pseudonyms; Phiona Mutesi uses chess a pathway out of poverty in Uganda; and the documentary on Mutesi’s journey from the slums in Kampala to the international stage of chess champions.

In this week’s New & Notable, Grace Coddington’s memoir is finally here, Lisa Cohen intertwines the lives of three complicated women, and Elena Ferrante reminds us of the beauty of friendship.

Data on how women and girls are stereotyped on screen; a new literary site focused on authors first published when they were 40 or older; a call for action to improve women’s reproductive health in Nigeria; Jill Peters’ s portraits of women living as men in the Balkans; and artist Candy Chang asks us to consider the one thing we would like to do before we die.

Alex Witchel, who overcomes any number of obstacles to grow up sane and stable, enjoys both a terrific career as a journalist and a great marriage (to author Frank Rich). But when her mother, Barbara, begins losing her mind, her daughter goes through the hell of watching her mother’s personality evaporate.

This week, the flaming butterflies in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel unsettled us; Ian MacEwan’s story of betrayal and intrigue tantalized us; and we were eager to discover even more depths in that remarkable founding father, Thomas Jefferson.

What does it mean to die well? Can the way we practice medicine be improved so that more of us are spared the worst parts of what Terence Foley went through?

This week we were startled by neurologist Oliver Sacks’s revelations about hallucinations; enticed by the Alice Munro’s newest collection of short stories; and delighted to learn about the adventurous life of French feminist Benoîte Goualt.