A Bookshelf Of Our Own: Works That Changed Women's Lives

by Deborah G. Felder, Joyce Johnson

- A Century of Women was a NEBA bestseller

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Essays, Feminism

302 pages, Hardcover

First published January 4, 2005

About the author

Deborah G. Felder is a graduate of Bard College, where she studied drama and literature. She worked as an editor at Scholastic, Inc., and has been a freelance writer and editor for over 30 years.
She is also the author of four children's novels and two almanacs for children. In addition, Felder wrote the adaptations of popular children's books, The Three Musketeers and Anne of Green Gables. Felder has also written a number of books chronicling influential women and noteworthy events in women's history.

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, and some very good books and authors profiled. It got me to start reading Dorothy Sayers, so that was fantastic. I would have liked a bit more of a fiction writer focus, but that is my personal bias and all the books profiled did seem like they fit the theme quite well.

[~stacy~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who loves to read this is a great reference type book on women's history and writings. It provides "thoughtful analysis of each literary treasure".

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bookshelf of our own : works that changed women's lives. The contents are as follows-The tale of Genji / by Murasaki Shikibu -- The book of the city of ladies / by Christine de Pisan -- The Princess of Clèves / by Madame de La Fayette -- A vindication of the rights of woman / by Mary Wollstonecraft -- Emma / by Jane Austen -- Jane Eyre / by Charlotte Brontë -- The scarlet letter / by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Madame Bovary / by Gustave Flaubert -- Little women / by Louisa May Alcott -- Middlemarch / by George Eliot -- Anna Karenina / by Leo Tolstoy -- A doll's house / by Henrik Ibsen -- Tess of the D'Urbervilles / by Thomas Hardy -- The yellow wallpaper / by Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- The awakening / by Kate Chopin -- The house of mirth / by Edith Wharton -- My Antonia / by Willa Cather -- Chéri / by Colette -- A room on one's own / by Virginia Woolf -- Gone with the wind / by Margaret Mitchell -- Gaudy night / by Dorothy L. Sayers -- Their eyes were watching God / by Zora Neale Huston -- The diary of a young girl / by Anne Frank -- The second sex / by Simone de Beauvoir -- Century of struggle : the women's rights movement in the United States / by Eleanor Flexner -- The little disturbances of man / by Grace Paley -- The golden notebook / by Doris Lessing -- The feminine mystique / by Betty Friedan -- The bell jar / by Sylvia Plath -- Wide sargasso sea / by Jean Rhys -- Sexual politics / by Kate Millett -- Sisterhood is powerful : an anthology of writings from the women's liberation movement / compiled and edited by Robin Morgan -- The female eunuch / by Germaine Greer -- Black women in white America : a documentary history / compiled and edited by Gerda Lerner -- From reverence to rape : the treatment of women in the movies / by Molly Haskell -- Fear of flying / by Erica Jong -- Against our will / by Susan Brownmiller -- Looking for Mr. Goodbar / by Judith Rossner -- The woman warrior / by Maxine Hong Kingston -- Of woman born / by Adrienne Rich -- The women's room / by Marilyn French -- Silences / by Tillie Olsen -- Women, race & class / by Angela Davis -- The house of the spirits / by Isabel Allende -- Beloved / by Toni Morrison -- The shawl / by Cynthia Ozick -- Backlash / by Susan Faludi -- The beauty myth / by Naomi Wolf -- Bridget Jones's diary / by Helen Fielding -- The bitch in the house / compiled and edited by Cathi Hanauer

As you can see there are books here written by men. What’s the point of a women’s book of books if they are written by men too?

[Suzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't admit I read it all but I bought it so I could read in spurts when I need to find something to read. That makes sense when you see that this book is full of books women "can relate to" and enjoy or be challenged by. I recommend this highly because it will lead you to great literary finds. And you'll see how pretty Virginia Wolff was.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pretty "meh" about this one.

I didn't have to many bones to pick about the included books (except Gone with the Wind because it's one of my least favorite books ever) and was pleased to read about books I wasn't aware of (like The Shawl for instance).

I wasn't very wild about some of the biographical sketches. I couldn't find reference to Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize (awarded in 1993, after the publication of Beloved). Willa Cather's biosketch had some odd line about although she had many opportunities to marry she didn't; I'm pretty sure Cather didn't marry because she wasn't interested in men so the above line makes no sense with regard to other biographies of Cather's life. I'm not sure what the deal was, since the sexual orientations of other female authors (i.e. Adrienne Rich) were mentioned; I think this does a disservice in a book purported to be supporting great literature for women.

[Chris Lyons McKinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

as the title states "must reads for women"

[Asha Mohan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taking a page (excuse) the pun from Virginia Woolf's A Room of Her own, lists books that in her opinion women should read.