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Original poster

Anyone fancy joining a Mumsnet feminist book club?

60 replies

Tartle · 30/04/2017 18:12

I know there is a book club section but i thought I'd post here for traffic and then maybe start a new thread over there for anyone interested.

Basically I feel like I've become increasingly radicalised since joining Mumsnet. Having moved away from lib fem communities over the past few years without really being able to articulate why I started reading some of the second wave arguments on here and it blew my mind. I've gone away and done a lot of thinking and completely changed my stance on a number of issues.

I've also realised that despite engaging somewhat with feminist theory at uni I am woefully under read and I want to go back to basics and engage with some of the key texts. I've just picked up a copy of The Female Eunuch that has been on my book case for at least 5 years so I am going to start there. I know there is an amazing community here and it would be great to be able to discuss things as they come up.

So what do you think? We could do a book a month and just chat and comment as we go along?

If you are up for joining in then sign up below by nominating a feminist book that either you have been meaning/wanting to read or that you felt had a big impact on your thinking.

Could be a novel/article/poem or a theoretical text then we can try and alternate different genres to keep things interesting!

OP posts:
qumquat · 01/05/2017 17:13

I really want to read the two books on feminism by Chimamanda N Adichie (forgotten her middle name and titles of books and can't look them up while on here on rubbish phone). Purple Hibiscus also by CNA a great feminist read.

lemonpoppyseed · 01/05/2017 16:51

Great idea - count me in! I've just borrowed Jessa Crispin's Why I am not a Feminist from the library and am looking forward to reading it.

qumquat · 01/05/2017 16:34

I'm in! Not a feminist book as such but if anyone wants a stonking good read centred on women I highly recommend Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (or indeed any other Sarah Waters book)

rivierliedje · 01/05/2017 15:05

I'd like to join in. I've got I know how the caged bird sings on the shelf waiting to be read. And I've borrowed the second sex (in French) from the library twice, but need a bit of motivation to read it, as reading in French reminds me of school too much.
I can't get any other theory texts in the library, but there are a few radical feminist sites with pdfs of Adrea Dworkin and Sheila Jeffreys, so would quite like to read some of them too.

SenecaFalls · 01/05/2017 14:43

The Color Purple by Alice Walker
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

sticklebrix · 01/05/2017 14:26

I'd love to join. Thank you for organising this.

Am just finishing The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Apologies if this is a basic suggestion. It's a classic so perhaps everyone else knows it already. I wasn't familiar with the book at all and it was horrifying and amazing in equal measures.

Original poster
Tartle · 01/05/2017 01:55
  1. The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer
  2. Nasty Women, 404 Ink
3 Gender Hurts, Sheila Jeffreys
  1. Delusions of gender, Cordelia Fine
  2. The Women's Room, Marilyn French
  3. Vagina: A new biography, Naomi Wolf
  4. The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
  5. Beloved, Toni Morrison
  6. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
10. Woman hating, Andrea Dworkin 11. Backlash, Susan Faludi 12. Woman on the edge of time, Marge Piercy

I think there is value in fiction and non fiction. I definitely find it easier to read fiction and need to challenge my self more to read theory so I think it is nice to balance things out.

OP posts:
Bardolino · 01/05/2017 01:06

Oh, I'd love to join please! Would love to get reading feminist texts, but don't really know where to start with 'proper' feminist works.

I have read Peggy Orenstein's 'Cinderella are my Daughter' and I've just finished Joanna Russ's 'The Female Man'. Are there benefits to reading both fiction and non-fiction or is it better to focus on one or the other?

NC1nightstand · 01/05/2017 00:47

I feel so embarrassed that I have read very few of the books mentioned on this thread apart from the obvious and popular titles such as The Beauty Myth. I really want to join, so any recommendations would be very welcome.Smile

StealthPolarBear · 30/04/2017 22:29

Thank you for reminding me. I'm half way through that, got side tracked and forgot all about it.

venusinscorpio · 30/04/2017 22:20

I'd be up for this. Can we also add Susan Faludi's Backlash to the list please as I think it's a really important book to understand why we seemed to take 1 step forward and 2 back in feminism in the late 20th century and I think it's still hugely pertinent

YY.

WhereYouLeftIt · 30/04/2017 20:45

I have nothing to nominate, but would be very interested in being guided to appropriate texts.

MerricatsHouse · 30/04/2017 20:12

Can't decide what to nominate. I have The Golden Notebook on the shelf along with quite a few non fiction texts (The Second Sex, The Feminine Mystique, The Beauty Myth, A Room of Ones Own). I read Mrs Dalloway last year and I think its meaning passed me by a bit because I rushed it. I'm looking at The Women's Room now as well and that sounds excellent. I also have Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, has anyone read that? Apparently a feminist and sci fi classic, but I haven't picked it up yet as I don't usually read sci fi.

JigglyTuff · 30/04/2017 20:09

I'd be up for this. Can we also add Susan Faludi's Backlash to the list please as I think it's a really important book to understand why we seemed to take 1 step forward and 2 back in feminism in the late 20th century and I think it's still hugely pertinent

MerricatsHouse · 30/04/2017 20:01

I'm in, this sounds great! Started doing my own informal 'Year of Reading Feminism' this year to try and back up some of my knowledge / arguments with the source material. Have a good few books ready to go and already discovering new ones from the posts.

Same as you OP, I've learned so much from the Mumsnet Feminism pages and have had my eyes opened and changed my views on so many subjects. I always considered myself to be a radical feminist and second wave leaning, but realised how the lib fem stuff of the moment had really clouded this and found the threads brought so much into sharp relief. It fired me up to do some reading and expand on all of this.

GuardianLions · 30/04/2017 19:24

Ooh that sounds great :) Anything by Andrea Dworkin or Sheila Jeffries - I have a copy of the Whole Woman by Germaine Greer I haven't picked up yet....
Also Gail Dines... wrt feminist fiction - you can't beat a bit of Margaret Atwood - hasn't Fay Weldon got a new transsexual version of The Life and Loves of a She Devil coming out?

woman12345 · 30/04/2017 19:23

Germaine's on tour too!
www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/germaine-greer

Original poster
Tartle · 30/04/2017 19:21

Hooray! I was really worried no one would be interested. I'm going to start a reading list that we can copy paste and add to.

  1. The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer
  2. Nasty Women, 404 Ink
3 Gender Hurts, Sheila Jeffreys
  1. Delusions of gender, Cordelia Fine
  2. The Women's Room, Marilyn French
  3. Vagina: A new biography, Naomi Wolf
  4. The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
  5. Beloved, Toni Morrison
  6. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing

I've tried to avoid repeating authors for the minute as there is just so much to read!

OP posts:
dudsville · 30/04/2017 19:15

I clicked on this thread wondering about feminist-oriented fiction. I'd love a good holiday read - I stopped reading at the time of my doctorate and haven't been able to pick the habit back up.

woman12345 · 30/04/2017 19:12

Yeah, there is a radio 4 version of the Golden Notebook.
It's just such an important picture of socialist feminism in 1950s, but a wee bit too long, you're right QuentinSummers. Zadie Smith talked about it influencing her for North West, which was on TV too, so I had another look at it, but yes a wee bit long.

QuentinSummers · 30/04/2017 19:04

I've read the golden notebook, very hard going!

woman12345 · 30/04/2017 19:01

Yes please! The Golden Notebook, Mrs Dalloway, Beloved are some of my ones. But any would be great. The Women's Room and or The Female Eunuch would be great. And any biographies of notable/ forgotten women?

tiredwitless · 30/04/2017 18:48

Interested in reading more around feminism but not well read. Have read The Women's Room long long time ago, and Memoirs of a dutiful daughter - loved both - keen to start reading more in General.. so I'm in.

StealthPolarBear · 30/04/2017 18:46

Countess I remember when the feminist topic was created I said I'd join, if dh would let me.
Anyway, I'mtentatively in too. Don't have a lot f time fr additional reading but would love a list of basics plus anything really light that I cam read in that half an hour before I fall asleep.

phoolani · 30/04/2017 18:41

I'm in. Currently reading Cordelia fine's Testosterone Rex and have too many feminist books collecting dust on my shelves.

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