There are whole books devoted to this very subject, but here is where we LTers can nominate works for our own list. So nominate and then tell us why you think every woman should read it.

Well one I can definitly nominate is a handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood I think every woman should read something written by her. And in my opinion that one is her best.

I would also say to read I capture the castle by Dodie Smith I fell in love with the book a couple of years ago. The main character is young but also an intelligent and strong main character. Whom I think learns a lesson about love that many people fail to.

And I would also say Borrowed Light by Anna Fienberg I know there are some that would disagree with that. Given its controversal subject matter. It is about a girl who has an abortion. But in my opinion is not advocating abortions but rather trying to explain why a young girl might choose to get an abortion. I think its important to try to understand others rather than judge them.

Message edited by its author, Feb 5, 2007, 10:21am.

I would say Possession by A.S.Byatt.
It is one of my favourite books, and I recommend it.
The plot is very interesting, with its flashbacks into the past and the love story of Randolph Ash (fictional Victorian poet) and Crystabel LaMotte (writer). I was really enthralled by the depiction of LaMotte's character, and the courage she showed in challenging the 'propriety' of Victorian society to the ultimate sacrifice of giving her child up.

My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
all about love by bell hooks
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker
don't: a woman's word by Elly Danica
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton
The Diary of Anne Frank

"If a book doesn't make us better, what on earth is it for?" Alice Walker

Oh, God, spare me the didactics.

With respect to Alice Walker, whose books I like, literature, as a body, simply reflects what it is to be human.

It's gossip. We learn the range of human behavior by talking about the neighbors who live next door and writing books about the ones who don't exist.

Reader then makes of the gossip what reader will, according to reader's own experience, ability to empathize and general sensitivity to language.

Does this make reader better? I suppose that depends on what reader does with the experience. Little Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" loved reading the Bible, but not for the reason the Warden thought he did.

Women's literature has always had a preachy side (see thread on books about women childless by choice, the underlying impetus of which, I think, is to look for role models to inspire/justify that choice).

Be childless, by all means. Write a book about a childless woman, by all means. But write a story, not a manifesto.

Apologies for the rant. I had to read Marge Piercey's Small Changes 30 years ago, and I was truly horrified at how she tortured those characters. It was truly cruel.

Ummm... well, I don't know how to FOLLOW that, exactly ... I guess I could list all the wonderful women's books I know of that aren't preachy ...

Gosh. Dickens was preachy. AND he wrote good stories.

Well, I didn't write to respond to #5 anyway, but rather to nominate my book:

Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. There is a large section that deals with girl on girl cruelty and body image that I found to be very insightful, and certainly a good jumping off point for some introspection and social observations.

And not preachy at all. In fact you have to watch very carefully to pick up on this theme. But certainly a good story.

I've never come across anyone before who regards Blood and Guts in High School as preachy. I'm sure that the censorship committees who banned it will be thrilled to hear that someone thinks it has redemptive value.

My post was intended to widen the varieties of experience and identity that tend to be the subjects of books that are posted on this group. I'd add Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons and anything you can find by Chrystos.

As for the Alice Walker quote, it's interesting that poster 5 jumps to the presumption that either Walker or I are preaching. "Better" does not have to be taken in a moral sense -- indeed, Kathy Acker would be pretty appalled/amused to think her book had made a list of 'morally improving' books -- but ethically, it could mean enlarging the reader's idea of humanity and humanness, expanding the reader's self, or even just providing entertainment/amusement/erotic pleasure/healing/laughter.

Also, note that it's a question, and one that seemed relevant to this thread. You can choose to read it rhetorically or you can choose to explore answers to it. But you make incredible presumptions about how and why others read (and write) when you claim that any writer who's not passing off chick lit as Booker nomination stuff is "preachy" or tortuous.

20th century literature of all stripes, genders, nationalities etc. has made a great deal of mileage from the manifesto -- and that goes back to the German Romantics of the 18th century. Modernism is bound up with manifesto-writing, and many are the postmodern writers like Kathy Acker who question the artificial and heavily policed boundaries between types of writing. In her work you'll find an engaging and challenging confusion and proliferation of story/manifesto/confession/plagiarism/essay/poem/dreamwork/porn/drama/biography.

Maybe a book that makes us "better" is one that makes us a "better reader" by challenging some of our closely-held assumptions (prejudices) about "own experience, ability to empathize and general sensitivity to language" -- subjective categories which are, after all, honed by our reading.

THOUGHT 1: For a start, all women should/could read the best of the female writers just to know they exist and to know their work.
Examples: (and they all have strong female characters)
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein; She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir; Sula by Toni Morrison; Anne Tyler (anything).

I'll agree that when I read I want to be "enlarged" by the experience of others, real and imagined. If that's making me "better"--then I'll accept that. Though "better" strikes me as a modifier that begs for explanation.

I have not become a less bitchy, opinonated or stubborn person from having read any book (like you couldn't tell). And I don't care to read books by authors who stack the deck with "good" and "bad" characters. Especially female writers because, as females, can't we see through that crap anyway?

"Cat's Eye" is an interesting case. There are "good" and "bad" women, and they are respectively "victims" and "victimizers."

I enjoyed that book for the simple fact that the "victimizer" was like a female Iago, an evil enigma who enjoyed manipulating people.

But I have to say that the little person in my head who hates preachy novels and went on the rant in an earlier post did find the "victims" in "Cat's Eye" kind of soppy. She did, however, like the twins who made penwipers with their mother's shoulder pads.

Silences by Tillie Olsen. The book description says it all for me.

First published in 1978, Silences single-handedly revolutionized the literary canon. In this classic work, now back in print, Olsen broke open the study of literature and discovered a lost continent-the writing of women and working-class people. From the excavated testimony of authors' letters and diaries we learn the many ways the creative spirit, especially in those disadvantaged by gender, class and race, can be silenced. Olsen recounts the torments of Melville, the crushing weight of criticism on Thomas Hardy, the shame that brought Willa Cather to a dead halt, and struggles of Virginia Woolf, Olsen's heroine and greatest exemplar of a writer who confronted the forces that would silence her. This 25th-anniversary edition includes Olsen's now infamous reading lists of forgotten authors and a new introduction and author preface.

I found the poets affected me more than the novelists:
Emily Dickinson
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)
Anne Sexton
Diane Wakowski
Sylvia Plath
Adrienne Rich
Donna Masini
Edith Sitwell
The reason these poets are in this list is not because they were on the barricades for feminism, although some were, but because they showed the world the inner feelings, sensibility and wonder of the feminine psyche that no man had ever done as well (except maybe Shakespeare)

Message edited by its author, Apr 15, 2007, 12:03pm.

I've always been taken by Edith Wharton's books, especially House of Mirth. Her family was one of the original 400 in NYC, and she was brought up with certain (constrained) expectations by her family. But she broke free of those constraints, lived her own life, and wrote wonderful books about women & the society they lived in. As an insider, she knew whereof she wrote. House of Mirth was a sad inside view of what women's lives were worth in that time & in that place and, surprisingly, one can see that there are some aspects that haven't changed at all.

If I had to come up with a list off the top of my head that I'd want my daughter to read Alice Walker's Color Purple, Mists of Avalon for its convincing (if not fanciful) correction of Celtic mythology,Kessler and McKenna's book Gender: an Ethnomethodological Approach Women's Reality an older book, Faye Weldon's Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Fifth Life of the Catwoman perhaps, and Alison Goodman's Singing the Dogstar Blues for a gender-bending protaganist. I know there's more books out there, especially from the vast number of books I'd like to have read.

For explorations of the feminine psyche, I would add Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, My Antonia and the Anita Brookner novels (any or all). The Willa Cather is the only one in this list who portrays a really strong woman. She is probably the only feminist in the list. but in the time of Flaubert and Tolstoy, there weren't any women writers who wrote as well as they did about the inner workings of a woman's life and feelings. I still think no one has written better ones until virginia Woolf..

The book that tipped me into consciously identifying as a feminist was one I found in the school library at the tender age of 15. The book I was guided to by the librarian was 'A history of women's bodies' by Shorter (? I have had trouble finding it since). It was a revelation. The main argument was that women's biology dictated everything about their lives, throughout history and gave examples of the terrible things that could happen when gynaecology was unknown. What a wake up call. I went straight on the pill and started to read anything written by feminists. Mostly non-fiction.

Since that time I've read what I can in fiction but have not been 'wowed' as I was by that medical history book. I don't like Virginia Woolf, I loathe Marge Piercy and I never chose a book just because of its publisher (Virago or Women's Press or any other). The Women's Room by Marilyn French was the first fiction I enjoyed and found relevant. The color purple was also amazing and I do love Toni Morrison's work. I love Maya Angelou's writings. Apart from those writers mentioned, I can't abide Margaret Atwood - sorry, just not my style.

A good basic book on women's biology and sexuality is essential for every young woman, IMO. Fiction's not going to tell you how to give yourself a breast exam, not going to make you go for a cervical screen and it won't help you protect yourself against STDs. I'd definitely tell young women to avoid those ghastly self-help MBS books about men/mars, women/venus and various shades of how to make a man happy and negate yourself - bleeurrghh.

Despite what I said about Woolf, Orlando is an excellent novel for young women, as are her essays A room of one's own and 'Shakespeare's Sister' plus the diaries - her life was fascinating and she demonstrates how hard it is for women to write - sadly, this is still true! I'd also recommend essays by the 'greats' - Millet, Steinham and Greer.

I have to say Citizen Girl by Krauss and McLaughlin covers a lot of interesting territory about young women now. Ditto The Nanny Diaries, same authors.

GenNexters are up against different forces than I was 35 years ago. They are strong and smart and have a good moral compass, if the book is any indication, and there are lots of young female college students in my classes who seem to exhibit that same strength of character.

Maybe we old Boomer bags did something right when we raised these girls. (Though I've only got boys, so I can't take credit.)

Or did these girls do it in spite of us?

Bless them, either way.

#15 - A lot depends on your generation. I am a generation older than the baby boomers. For me, the issue was getting out of the kitchen, preparing for a career, and becoming self supporting so as not to be dependent on a man. I was in college at 17, and the women at my school were pretty open about sharing info. In my day it was the diaphragm and not the pill, but inadequate gynecological knowledge was not my major issue at all. Our biggest problem was illegal abortion if the birth control didn't work. For lmarried women, in the fifties, the women i knew in college and after mostly wanted to live a Leave it to Beavor life, and The Feminine Mystique was a revelation. The graduate schools then were refusing places to women by saying that they would just get married and waste their training.
I did get training, and a career, and a better marriage, and the feminist movement gave me the courage. I think it is still hard to combine marriage, career and childraising successfully. But I managed somehow.

Message edited by its author, May 1, 2007, 11:25am.

#17 > I think it is still hard to combine marriage, career and childraising successfully...and right you are, Miriam!

It is especially difficult when the other one in the couple is totally absent from the commitment...

#15> Hera, I suspect the book you're referring to, the one that first "tipped" you into feminist consciousness, is Edward Shorter's 'History of Women's Bodies'. First published by Basic Books and Penguin in 1982, it's been reprinted a few times under the title 'Women's bodies : a social history of women's encounter with health, ill-health, and medicine'. You should be able to find a copy for a reasonable price using Bookfinder or ABE.

Oddly enough, there's only one copy of this book showing up on Library Thing and it's in Italian! Storia del corpo femminile

Shorter is a fine historian and a prolific author. His other books are worth checking out as well, if you're interested in the social history of medicine and psychiatry.

Message edited by its author, May 1, 2007, 7:51pm.

"Having it all" is a crock, though I'm not saying that that's what anyone here is advocating, and I think Betty Friedan's second book (can't think of the title) said that.

When I went on maternity leave (all six weeks, big whoop!), my company reorganized and my job was completely changed.

So I spent most of my maternity leave looking for a new job. So much for any "down time."

I found one, but had to leave after three months because trying to be a first-time mother at 41, learn a whole new job and deal with what was probably post partum depression with a big layer of guilt for not being a good enough mom those first few months was too much.

So it's been a series of part-time jobs with freelancing to make up my share of the expenses, pay for health care, etc. etc.

My husband is a great father, but the stresses from the first six months of our son's life pretty much ruined our relationship except to agree to be cordial enough to care for and make a home for our kid.

Both of us look forward to the day we can ditch each other.

You can drown in "having it all."

OK, yeah, too much personal info.

Nohrt4me: I didn't mean that 'having it all was possible'. I only meant that it is important, even necessary, to be able to make a living in case your significant other ditches you, or can't support you, or makes your life a hell. I don't think you put in too much personal info. I hope you strengthen, and become happier and stronger. Once children are in school full time, it is easier to work. I stayed at home for 13 years, and had a lot of career ups and downs. (I got my MBA when I was 50). But I did get qualified to teach, and was able to divorce the husband that was mean, and marry one that was nice. Miriam

Well, here are a few specific favourites of mine, that I really would like to recommend to everyone!

# The L-shaped room by Lynne Reid Banks
# The magic toyshop by Angela Carter
# The prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
# Norrtullsligan (Stockholm Stories: Men and Other Misfortunes/Stormy Corner) - by Elin Wagner (Elin Wägner)

*:)

Message edited by its author, Nov 9, 2007, 4:58pm.

#22 I never heard of the first two, thanks I'll add them to my tbr list.

Sappho
Lady Ise
Al Khansa

To remind everyone how long there have been truly great women writers.

The last two don't seem to have listing - there is a Rexroth book, Women Poets of Japan, that includes Lady Ise and many other Japanese women poets. Al Khansa should be in any anthology of Arabic poets.

That Rexroth book is so great, A_musing! All of Rexroth's forays into "translation"*are superb.

*Rexroth usually had native speakers feeding him literal text and contextual advice-one can only wish Pound sometimes might have had as much...

I have to say I tried reading I capture The Castle three times and never got very far - it just didn't hold my interest - and I never ususally quit a book half way through. I would highly reccomend Twilight and its sequels; fantastic vampiric romance novels that are well written and addicting. Even my friend who doesn't read anything is hooked on them

Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye absolutely -- it's the most harrowing yet oddly tender look at adolescent girls.

Anything by Toni Morrison, but especially Beloved

Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty caught me completely by surprise a couple of summers ago -- it so captures a family in slow-moving world that has disappeared.

Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop is wonderful, but my favorite of hers is Nights at the Circus with the winged aerialist Fevvers traveling across Europe and Russia at the turn of the last century as womanhood is reinventing itself.

And to go back to the Middle Ages -- Marie de France's Lais explore the vagaries of male-female relationships with amazing insight.

Message edited by its author, Dec 5, 2007, 9:45pm.

I'm very late in joining this discussion as I just joined the group.

Surfacing by Margaret Atwood had a huge impact on me 20+ years ago, but I reread it not too long ago and wasn't as impressed. The original impact probably had something to do with the fact that I was back in college after a 13 year absence and was feeling a bit trapped by home and work life.

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. This was one of the earlier feminist books about Asian and Asian/American women that I had read. She does so much more intelligently what Amy Tan purports to do.

Yes, it's flawed and maybe sappy, but Jane Eyre absolutely capitivated me when I was younger. I still like the passion behind the supposedly dull Jane, but the ending bothers me a bit more today.

mess 28

Just a question: Why did the ending of Jane Eyre bother you?

I guess because Jane had seemed so unconventional all along, and although she ended up (conveniently) independently wealthy, she married a rather creepy guy who was now entirely dependent upon her. It seemed that the only way Bronte could achieve a marriage of equals between Jane and Rochester was to artificially elevate her status while completely breaking him. All of the qualities she originally admired in him were demolished as well.

mess 30

I always gave the ending, the marriage, some room for the time it was written in.
MAybe that is wrong not to critisize her because she was so ahead of her time. I always thought that the accomplishment was that a novel was published dipicting women thinking and having thoughts past planning dinner or the next tapestry. Women working and planning their own lives, not being the property of others. It also sent a message of the cruelty children faced when abuse was considered non-existent in "good" families. Not that I know anything about literature. Just my opinion.

Message edited by its author, Dec 30, 2007, 6:22pm.

As I said, the novel captivated me when I was younger, and I still think it's a wonderful story overall. I wouldn't have expected Jane to embark on some anachronistic careeer venture . . . I just wish the ending has been a little less contrived. But then, it IS a Gothic novel.

I always thought Jane elected love (and sexual passion) over that loveless missionary deal she almost suckered into.

We know Mr. Rochester isn't entirely "broken" because they have a baby at the end. And I think the baby implies that Mr. Rochester has moved out of his pity party and perhaps regained some of his own interests.

Mr. Rochester clearly sees that Jane's decency AND stubbornness are desirable. He knows she'll stick up for Adele against conventional society.

And when he seems to be baiting her cruelly with his Blanche flirtation, he's really trying to get Jane's veneer of "knowing your station" to crack, to get her to fight for him like she fights for Adele.

I think there's no doubt that Mr. Rochester will not only give Jane plenty of time to devote to her art, but will actively encourage it. He might even take care of the baby a lot! Remember, he's quite a bit older than she is, and he may be inclined to be quite indulgent.

Anybody see the re-run on Masterpiece Theater last night? It's a good version, Jane is great, but for me, Mr. Rochester will always be Orson Welles .

Thanks for the great explaination. And I missed the Masterpiece Theatre, hope I can find it again.

I do like the two different takes on Mr. Rochester being "broken." (mess 30 and 33)
I think Rochester's breaking point allowed him to open up and change as well. If he never "fell" then would he have ever truely noticed Jane? Been able to show her support?

mess 33: I like your hopeful happy ever after conclusion, really :) Happy New Year.

There are some interesting books in this thread ! I think Judy Blume is an author that girls should still be encouraged to read . She addressed basic issues in a manner that seems timeless .

33: Orson Welles, really? Really? He is far too scowly for me. The were moments when Mr. Rochester was happy even if they were for a very short duration. Timothy Dalton is much better IMO.

Message edited by its author, May 4, 2009, 9:30pm.