Which book?

[Gagagardener]

I suggested to my reading group that we should read Sharron Davies' book, Unfair Play. Backlash: too expensive; not yet available in p'back. Which book would you recommend as the easiest entry point and in paperback?

Many thanks

easiest entry point to what? feminism?

Hannah Barnes Time to think.

Did you want a book about women's sport? How about Linda Blade's UNSPORTING How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport

Invisible Women

If this is your first attempt at getting them to read something on women’s rights I would suggest Difficult Women by Helen Lewis.

She’s got a very readable style and each chapter is self contained so if they are short on time they can just read the chapters on topics they are most interested in. The chapters on divorce, women’s football, and university education are particularly eye-opening.

Good suggestion

Invisible Women is great, but I think a bit wordy for a book club. I would suggest it as further reading from whatever you have chosen.

Are they mostly middle aged? How about 'Hags'?

I rate Joan Smith's Misogynies, even though some bits are dated. Lots to discuss, short and available cheaply second hand. The Long Shadow has just been on TV, (about the Peter Sutcliffe case) which some of the group maybe watched. There's an essay about that case in the book as Smith was a journalist reporting on it.
Her Home Grown is more recent and fantastic but perhaps a bit too specific.

Agree Difficult Women is a good call as a starter.

Thank you all. Our ages range from (guessing) mid-40s to mid-80s. All women, mostly retired, in an area where people cannot afford a 'nice' house if they have always lived there; so mostly incomers. Members usually select fiction.

I liked the idea of Sharron Davies' book because most of us recall her in the Olympics, and felt the unfairness; it combines her story and sport with science and current attitudes towards sex and gender. Helen Lewis's book may be a good choice; Hags may be. (I'm not sure as a group they'd enjoy Trans or Material Girls.)

If anyone has additional suggestions, I'd be grateful. Cost is a definite consideration for several members.

And, I've realised, the notion of 'transgenderism' is what I'd most like to hear the reading group talk about.

https://amzn.eu/d/bHv5OKp

From a money perspective

Holly Lawford-Smith Gender-Critical Feminism is currently on offer at £5.68 on Amazon for the hardback.

Can't say if its any good or not as haven't read it yet as it's only just arrived.

(It would also be remiss of me if I didn't suggest two wonderful books of entertaining political poetry written by the fine women of Mumsnet entitled Under the Duvet of Darkness and Under the Duvet of Darkness Volume Two Lurking Merkins with all profit going to For Women Scotland also available on Amazon whilst you are there buying Holly's book)

Helen Joyce "Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality" I found this by far the clearest one I've read so far. She's really got a gift for laser sharp thinking. But Invisible Women if you want to be more subtle about it.

Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn, does not investigate the notion of 'transgenderism' but does center women in health care and how it is all about the menz. This could help to wake up some women to the inequalities, which could also set them down the path of awareness of other transgressions of womanhood.

A review: A searing, brilliant investigation, an intricate and urgent book on how women's health has constantly been misunderstood and miscast throughout history, how men invented theories that plunged women into misery, pain and even death - from Anne Greene hanged for a miscarriage to the 1940s housewives lobotomised or subject to other operations to treat their depression, from drugs intended to 'control' women's health that were rushed to market to women experimented upon in the name of science, the cruel differential treatment of women of colour. Cleghorn unmasks with devastating clarity how so much of 'women's health' has been tied into efforts to control women, inculcate what was proper feminine behaviour and slot them into patriarchal culture as happy reproductive units. ― Kate Williams, author of Rival Queens

A gateway drug book, possibly

Second this. Bloody brilliant.

gagagardener if you’re going to choose Hags, I would suggest reading it first to see what you think. My book group were disappointed with it. It’s long nd it sort of loses its way. Also it’s still hardback I think.

Can't your local library supply the book for your group?

many multiple copies of the same book all available at same time? doubt it

Our library has a book group service - they have a long list of sets of 10 copies which they keep especially for reading groups to borrow, and they take suggestions for books groups would like. It used to be free but now it's £50 per group per year - one set a month.

Thank you all very much for your suggestions and ideas. I've decided to come back to Unfair Play next year, when it will be available in paperback; for now, I am proposing a recently published novel by a local woman some of us know. It's a different kind of female solidarity.