Anyone fancy joining a Mumsnet feminist book club?

[Tartle]

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!

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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.

I'd like to be in.

Me too sticklebrix I just finished reading The Handmaid's Tale.

I suggest Living Dolls by Natasha Walter.

I'd like to do this too (and have amazon vouchers to spend!)

Ooh yes I've meant to read Living Dolls for ages.

Do you think it's worth trying one fiction and one non fiction a month or is that too much? There is just so much to read!

Sounds good Tartle and thanks for starting the thread.

There are 5 books mentioned which I have read, I will not say which, but I disliked all of them. Actually I will mention two- The Golden Notebook - which I loathed. I can't remember that much about it other than it was utterly tedious and I couldn't stand Anna Wulf.

Re The Handmaid's Tale, I really, really have tried with Atwood but she leaves me unmoved.

I think I would struggle to do two a month just at the minute - although could give it a go! Or maybe we could alternate one month fiction and one month non fiction? Some of the theoretical non-fic can be quite heavy or dense if you want to digest it properly I think?

lass have you read The Robber Bride? That was my first Atwood and still my favourite.

Brilliant, thanks everyone. I think the best thing to do is to alternate fiction and non fiction and I'll set up the next montage thread in the last week of the previous month so we can overlap a bit and have something for faster and slower readers.

I will go through the list and try and mix things up a bit so we have a good spread.

For now lets kick off May with The Female Eunuch as our first theory text? I'll start a thread in the book section tomorrow and post the link here.

It did occur to me that this might get expensive, especially if people don't have library access. I am very happy to pass texts on/around once I've read them if it would be useful?

A final bit of inspiration for us

"There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few." bell hooks

Cool :)

Tartle brilliant, thanks.

I'd like to add a vote for Woman on the Edge of Time
Afraid i would de-nominate the second sex as it is so hard going
however worth reading a decent synopsis so you can explain what she really meant by
one is not born but rather becomes a woman

Oh can I join in too. I've needed this push to read some of these texts.

All are welcome