So I’ve been casually counting the X- and Y-chromosomes on our weekly books pages, just to see how women writers are faring.

And when I say casually, I mean totally unscientific. Because my boyfriend went on a recycling rampage and tossed the lifestyle section a couple of weekends ago before I could pick it apart. He is a fearsome sight when he decides to clean off the dining room table of newspapers, junk mail and old magazines.

Anyway, here’s the tally from last Sunday, July 15:

Number of book reviews/stories: 17

• Female authors: 9
• Male authors: 7
• Male/female co-authors: 1 (Stan and Jan Berenstein)
• Poems: 1 (by a guy)

So yep, I was happily shocked to see the ladies win the weekend. It’s a first since I started paying attention to this.

Seventeen books is a lot to feature on a two-page spread, and more than you’ll usually find in our paper. But our books editor ran two roundup stories of great books for children young adults, so more books were included than usual.

And one of the roundups was by yours truly. I wrote short reviews of four picture books for children. Because, you know, picture books take up a LOT of my reading time in the evenings. I thought it would be fun to give a shout-out to the amazing writers and illustrators who keep my children entertained.

How was my own X- and Y-chromosome tally?

I was 50-50, right down the middle.

Although to be fair, now that I look at the list again, I had two female and two male authors. But all of the illustrators were men. Hmm.

I’m working on another piece this weekend about some more books for little people that should run in the next several weeks.

And I’m also working on a review of a lovely, heartwrenching novel (for adults) by a debut author. Male or female? You’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

– Jen