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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Feminist classics suggestions for book club

25 replies

mrsmike · 22/02/2009 22:18

Can anyone suggest any 70s (ish) classic feminist reads for my book group. This is my idea, going to suggest it this wednesday, but after having my brainwave am now a bit stumped and all I can think of is The Womens Room. Well I did think of Fear of Flying but could be a bit too erm blunt for them. Any ideas? Thanks

OP posts:

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nkf · 22/02/2009 22:21

The Golden Notebook. Is that 70s? If not, another Doris Lessing.

Is yours a highbrow group? If not, how about The Mists of Avalon? Readable tosh about the Arthurian myths told from the point of view of the women.

If you can look further back, I'd suggest The Odd Women by George Gissing.

TotalChaos · 22/02/2009 22:21

Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time.

funnypeculiar · 22/02/2009 22:24

Angela Carters New Eve (might be 80s actually) - went down a storm with our book club (tis very magic realist though)
Is early Germaine Greer 70s?
Or for real classics, The Bell?

nkf · 22/02/2009 22:25

Or what about Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber?

mrsmike · 22/02/2009 22:27

Oh thanks thanks, I used to love Marge Piercy, must have read that one but can't remember it.

nkf - no not highbrow, bit of a mixture, so they would go for readable tosh but I might not like it! So will keep quiet about that one.

But Doris Lessing appeals. Thanks.

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mrsmike · 22/02/2009 22:28

We did the Bell last year - my suggestion!
Has G Greer done any novels?
Also thinking fay Weldon.

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mrsmike · 22/02/2009 22:38

Any more ideas, please keep them coming. Have to switch off now but will check tomorrow, thanks!

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Babbity · 22/02/2009 22:49

Definitely The Women's Room, or the Golden Notebook.

mrsmike · 22/02/2009 23:00

Is Golden Notebook heavy going? I know I felt apprehensive about reading it years ago but can't remember why. Maybe it had a lot of pages!

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cherryblossoms · 23/02/2009 00:35

The Golden Notebook does indeed have a lot of pages. But it is the biggy.

Toni Morrison wrote her early books in the 70s, as did Margaret Atwood ("Surfacing") and Octavia Butler (SF).

There was a lot of feminist SF in the late 70s eg. Joanna Russ "The Female Man" and Charnas' "Walk to the End of the World". I, personally, think the Charnas book is incredibly grim.

The 70s was also about re-printing and re-finding "lost" classics - to bridge a gap - so many "feminist" books had yet to be written! So "Herland" and "The Novel on Yellow Wallpaper" were resurrected and read in a 70s/80s way.

It's an interesting thing, that; what is the "time" of a book? So much of the mindset of 70s feminism had to be constructed from earlier artefacts because the cultural products/incitements to feminist thinking had not yet been created.

shonaspurtle · 23/02/2009 00:41

I second Woman on the Edge of Time. It's a good read and lots to talk about for a book group.

dittany · 23/02/2009 01:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

pollywobbledoodle · 23/02/2009 05:22

the womens room marilyn french?
the edible woman, think its early margaret atwood....

cheapskatemum · 23/02/2009 21:36

The Golden Notebook is incredibly long, I remember that I didn't finish it (life was too short in the 70s/early 80s!). However, The Women's Room was so readable, I couldn't put it down. I can still vividly remember bits of it. And yet...I STILL ended up being the one with the kids at home & scrubbing the kitchen floor while DH globetrotted doing his job. How far have we come ???

Lio · 23/02/2009 21:40

I used to be in a not-particularly-dim book group and not one of us managed to finish The Golden Notebook

The Women's Room is very readable.

subtlemouse · 23/02/2009 21:44

Atwood's Handmaid's Tale

Susie Orbach's Fat is a Feminist Issue??

cmotdibbler · 23/02/2009 21:47

Def the Handmaids tale - very readable, but lots of depth

Chaotica · 23/02/2009 21:55

Another vote for for Woman on the Edge of Time

Also, The Color Purple (Alice Walker)

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (a bit early?)

Fay Weldon (although she's a bit dated in her non-feminism at times)

Chaotica · 23/02/2009 21:57

Vida
by Marge Piercy as well (based on a true story I believe)

mrsmike · 23/02/2009 21:59

Thanks all, think will suggest Womens Room and the Marge Piercy one. Anything too long/too heavy and we won't finish it. They are always keen to read new books but I like to delve back in time, so much good stuff already written, thanks all

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PillicockSatOnPillicockHill · 23/02/2009 22:01

margaret Drabble
lynn reid banks
marge piercy braided lives

PillicockSatOnPillicockHill · 23/02/2009 22:01

sorry mrs mike did no see you had decided

womens room is fab

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IorekByrnison · 23/02/2009 22:02

Fay Weldon - The Cloning of Joanna May

(I know some people turn their noses up at Fay Weldon but they are all wrong. IMVHO.)

PillicockSatOnPillicockHill · 23/02/2009 22:03

never appealed to me to be honest but if you recommend her i may try...

TotalChaos · 24/02/2009 09:41

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

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