Book club help please - feminist /female perspective books

[funnypeculiar]

Hi all
I (foolishly) suggested at our last book club that we should do a 'feminist' book next (we've been doing too many boys' books, imho!) .... and now I have to suggest one .... It needs to be fairly readable/not too long!!

My starters for 10 were
The Female Eunach (but think lots of people have read it)
Angela Carter - possibly Nights at the Circus
The Women's Room (but very long, and dull in the second half)
Handmaid's Tale - but we've done quite a lot of sci-fi recently

Any other ideas??

My Brilliant Career-Miles Franklin?

wild swans? (i'm still halfway through)

Tony Morrison, Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries, Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing (old hat for new fems), Sarah Walters, Maya Angelou, Colette? I can think of masses. Or take something different and read in from a feminist perspective? That could be fun - Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, Philip Larkin, Patricia Highsmith.
Any help?

ooh. Best book ever is Bad Blood by Lorna Sage. So that.

I mean, do that.

The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath
Lots of others but can't think at moment.

I have just finished 'the birth of venus' a lovely read and not overtly feminisit but raised lots of things in me about woman and society - would be a great spark to lots of discussion re women, art, history and politics

The Color Purple- Alice Walker

Lots of the below.

Also, Lionel Shriver "We need to talk about Kevin" is interesting to look at from a feminist perspective.

Our reading group is reading Ursula Le Guin's The left hand of Darkness this month. It is about a world where there is neither male or female. Well worth a read.

What about the Bookseller of Kabul - much of this is about the position of women in Afghanistan?

waves at fennel.
I second Patricia Highsmith. Edith's diary springs to mind.
Or a short story by Kathrine Mansfield?

"Woman on the Edge of Time" ....aghhhhh Can't remember the author's name. Very good. One of my favourites.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox-Maggie O'Farrell.

Oh yes OrmIrian-I remember that book from my yoof-it's by Marge Piercy.

sorry v unliterary question here. I belong to a very lazy book club an won't read long books. how many pages is left hand of darkness by u le guin?

Thanks

Thankyou articroll . It was driving me mad.....

Ohhh, lovely - thank you for all of those.

A few we've done (Kevin, Sarah Walters, Carol Shields)Hummm, perhaps we aren't as boy-focused as I think ... although thinking about it, all of those were my suggestions

Loads of really top doh-why-didn't-I-think-of-that suggestions (Silvia Path, Doris Lessing ) ... and lots I don't know.... more info needed on those...:

My Brilliant Career
Bad Blood
Women on the edge of time (rings bells....
Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Care to give me any more info/synopsis?!

Also love the idea of the Ursula le Guin - I've read a couple of hers and she is really interesting - but don't know that one.

Oh, I'm going to look soooooo clever & well-read next week ...

I often spout stuff I have read on mumsnet and bask in the glow of looking oh so clever - and no I never credit ANY of you!

The Well of Lonliness by Radclyffe Hall...is a beautifully written book that wil give you a poignant insight into the lives of gay women not so many years ago...

Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood, Amy Tan ...

Here is the ultimate feminist book I read over 20 years ago by Margaret Atwood called The Edible Woman, "a 1969 novel is the story of a young woman whose sane, structured, consumer-oriented world suddenly slips strangely out of focus. Following her engagement, Marian feels her body and her self are becoming separated, and eventually finds herself unable to eat: first meat, then eggs and finally vegetables.

In this novel, Atwood examines the positions of men and women in a society through metaphorical human cannibalism. Gender stereotypes are explored through characters who strictly adhere to them."

I remember it was a really strange book but should provoke lots of discussion.

Have a look at Sheri Tepper, fantasy but with such a feminist insight. I really love her books and am aware I always recommend her!!.
Gibbons Decline and Fall

Not feminist exactly, but wonderful: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

How about a Sarah Waters? Affinity is very good as is Fingersmith.