a good book game

[witchwithallthetrimmings]

I suggest a book e.g "The women's room", the next poster needs to have read it and then can give a one line review before suggesting another
so I'll start with "The well of loneliness"

well I want to play your game but I haven't read The Well of Loneliness so:

'Famous novel about lesbians which I still haven't read but isn't one of them called Stephen?'

next:

The Female Eunuch

"book i have pretended to have read since i was 16"

"the women's room"

"book I got out of the library once but never actually read"

Lace by Shirley Conran

Haven't read it but it sounds rubbish :o

I have read "the female eunuch" though so can I do that one?

"very odd but revolutionary book that challenges the idea of women as naturally passive (both sexually and generally), and indicates that girls are raised to deny their own wants, desires and feelings in order to dehumanise themselves. Hence the 'eunuch' part. Slightly dated now in some parts, where she talks about women denying their sexual urges, since raunch culture has become so prevalent. Basically 'choice feminists' ate this book for breakfast and never bothered to turn around and realise that lapdancing is not the same as liberation, or that not all sex is positive enjoyable M&S sex.

Very interesting first chapter on the subject of how similar men and women are, physically and mentally. We are not a different f-ing species. Read it."

Right, next: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

"the only Margaret Atwood I have read is the Handmaid's Tale"

"The Handmaid's Tale"

I really enjoyed this book. (handmaids tail). My feeling about it was that she had not only failed herself but, tragically, also failed her daughter by her lack of action when she had the chance.

Sorry! How about Living Dolls?

"Read about half of it and really enjoyed the case studies - well enjoy is the wrong word. Was practically spitting at fellow train travellers is more accurate. Really good about what it talks about - a bit much about her if you ask me (I'm not really interested in the author's personal journey, call me heartless) - but well worth reading. Which reminds me, I must fish it out from under the bed and finish it. Somehow preferred the Equality Illusion though"

Wifework anyone?

am putting off reading this so that i don't completely dissolve into rage

are women human?

"not sure if that's a book or a question. If a book - never heard of it. If a question - I think 'human' denotes a trouser shaped manly outline so to me no, women are the original. I do like the word humankind though"

The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer

Roffle.

I thought I was the only feminist who can't get through most of the books.

uneven but brilliant reflection on women are the start of the third millenium, memorably illustrated with a fertility amulet stuck into a piece of steak on the front cover, which Greer insisted on when her publishers wanted her to have a naked woman.

The Feminine Mystique

"The Feminine Mystique" written by Betty Friedan in 1963, inspired numerous second wave feminists of the 1960s. It examines the cognitive dissonance (unease) felt by many women (mostly American white middle-class suburban SAHMs) whom society expected to live through the lives of their husband and children, rather than in their own right. Friedan argued that women loose their own identity by doing so.

The Equality Illusion.

one of the key books in the new wave of feminism, relating feminism to the issues of the 21st century and making it relevant to a new generation. Kat Banyard's book has been criticised for its lack of theoretical originality, but in my view that is a silly and poncy thing to say and just goes to show how irrelevant much third wave feminism had become: feminism is not about dazzling theoretical brilliance, it needs only the basic concepts of the second wave as a basis for fighting inequality and this is what Banyard sets her readers up to do very effectively.

The Second Sex