The F-word discussion

Hi, everyone. I'm opening this thread up a bit early this year so people have time to think about their nominations. The poll itself, based on the suggestions made here, will go up around the last week of November or early December. (Let's be real, we're all busy these days. We do the best we can.)

This thread is now open for nominations. Which books have you been wanting to read? Which books have you already read that you think would lead to an interesting group discussion here?

A good guideline to keep in mind while thinking of your nominations is in the group description:

1-Written by a feminist and/or a woman
2-Plot looks at how gender, race, class, sexuality, ability/disability, ethnicity, nationality, etc. shape us and our views of the world
3-Spark conversation about social justice and gender equality
4-Have strong female characters

As a side note, if anyone has any additions/modifications/changes they would like to see to that description, feel free to let me know and I can amend it. That was original to the group, before Anita and I came along. (And I think even before Alexa.)

So, feel free to give one or more nomination for fiction and/or non-fiction. Please include the GR link for the book title as it makes it easier for me when I'm looking through the list - I would hate to miss anything.

Let's not include any self-promotion in this thread. I think it's wonderful that you or someone you know has written a book that may or may not apply here, but we have a separate thread for self-promotion. Self-promotional nominations will be deleted from this thread.

Lastly, don't forget to check out the bookshelves to see what has already been read. If I find a duplicate of something the group has already read, I will try to point it out and ask for another suggestion.

I also know many of us are new, so if a lot of us missed out on an original read of something from years ago, we may consider reading it again as a group now.

If you would like to take the lead on any group read, feel free to mention it here or let me know in a DM.

Thanks for keeping this group active, everyone! We've had some great reads and discussions - I hope we can keep the momentum going in 2019.

Placeholder post for updating with nominations for easy viewing. My own nominations are included.

FICTION:
*Vox, Christina Dalcher (El)
*The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Other Plays, Carolyn Gage (El)
*Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (El)
*Why God Is a Woman, Nin Andrews (Ani)
*Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (Ani)
*The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (Ani)
*Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden (Ani)
*Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys (Jo)
*She Would Be King, Wayetu Moore (Jo)
*The Witchfinder's Sister, Beth Underdown (Tim)
*The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas (Tim & Lina)
*Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss (Tim)
*Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar (Samanta)
*Three Parts Dead, Max Gladstone (Margarida)
*Dreadnought, April Daniels (Margarida)
*Dietland, Sarai Walker (Lina)
*Girls Burn Brighter, Shobha Rao (Lina)
*The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (Elizabeth)



NONFICTION:
*Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, Alice Bolin (El)
*Women & Power: A Manifesto, Mary Beard (El)
*The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander (El)
*Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls, Elizabeth Renzetti (Lara)
*Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia, Jean Sasson (Ani)
*The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, Helen Rappaport (Ani)
*The Wheel of Things: A Biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mollie Gillen (Ani)
*The Power of Tolerance: A Debate, Wendy Brown (Jo)
*Bossypants, Tina Fey (Kim)
*The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, Tilar J. Mazzeo (Kim)
*The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship, Jeffrey Zaslow (Kim)
*Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, Yang Erche Namu & Christine Mathieu (Kim)
*Becoming a Visible Man, Jamison Green (Clara)
*Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, Gail Dines (Tim)
*Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin (Tim)
*Fruit Of Knowledge: The Vulva vs. the Patriarchy, Liv Strömquist (Tim)
*The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, Jonathan Eig (Honore)
*A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf (Samanta)
*On Intersectionality: The Essential Writings of Kimberlé Crenshaw, Kimberlé Crenshaw (Margarida)
*Women at War in the Classical World, Paul Chrystal (Margarida)
*Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman, Lindy West (Lina)
*The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, Kate Moore (Lina)
*Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less, Tiffany Dufu (Lina)
*Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, Michelle Dean (Lina)
*Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, and Raise Hell with Your Coven, Jaya Saxena (Lina)
*What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up, Lauren Bravo (Kate)
*Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick, Maya Dusenbery (anathema grace)

I second the nomination for Vox.

Nonfiction nomination: Shrewed by Elizabeth Renzetti

Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls

Second the nomination for memoirs of a geisha!

fiction:
Wide Sargasso Sea
She Would Be King

non-fiction:
The Power of Tolerance: A Debate

Thanks for everyone's nominations so far! Keep 'em coming!

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but no need for seconding nominations. All nominations (as long as they fit the bill) will go on the poll. :)

Other books that I propose we consider:
Bossypants by Tina Fey

The Widow Clicquot: the story of a champagne empire and the woman who ruled it by Tilar J Mazzeo

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow

Leaving Mother Lake: a girlhood at the edge of the world by Yang Erche Namu and Christine Mathieu

Hi, Kim - I've added Bossypants, The Widow Clicquot, The Girls from Ames, and Leaving Mother Lake to the list.

We just read the Angelou in the summer of 2017, so that would be too recent of a read for us to do again. If you have any other nominations, however, feel free to include them!

I nominate Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green. It really is a great reflection on gender. Masculine/feminine roles. How our society sees things and the expectations even we have. Plus it’s an amazing personal journey.

Ones I've read recently that I think might work:

Fiction:
The Witchfinder's Sister, Beth Underdown
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss

Non-fiction:
Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, Gail Dines

Plus two non-fiction ones from my to-read list:
Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin
Fruit Of Knowledge: The Vulva vs. the Patriarchy, Liv Strömquist

I nominate The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
by Jonathan Eig

I nominate Hopscotch and A Writer's Diary: Being Extracts from the Diary of Virginia Woolf.

Fiction:
Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
Dreadnought by April Daniels

Nonfiction:
On Intersectionality: The Essential Writings of Kimberlé Crenshaw by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Women at War in the Classical World by Paul Chrystal

I’m new so if I’m repeating anything that has been recently read please disregard them.

Books I’ve read:
Dietland / Sarai Walker
Shrill / Lindy West
Radium Girls / Kate Moore
Drop the ball / Tiffany Dufo
Sharp / Michelle Dean
Girls burn brighter/ Shobha Rao

Books I want to read
Basic witches / Jaya Saxena
The hate U give / Angie Thomas

cait wrote: "may i add Nawal El-Saadawis Woman at point zero to the list?? its a masterpiece"

Good book! But we did read it just last year at this time, so that's too soon for us to delve into it again. I do recommend it for anyone who hasn't already read it, or wasn't able to join us last November.

Do you have something else you'd like to nominate, cait?

I'm new to the group so my apologies if this doesn't fit the bill but I just listened to a podcast on a book I'm super interested in & I thought might be a good addition.

What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up

Wind up bird chronicle

Thanks, everyone. I'll leave this open for other nominations until this weekend. We've had way more nominations already than I expected, and since we'll only ultimately be reading three fiction and three nonfiction books in the first half of the book, I think we have plenty here already to put up for a vote! Thank you all for your eagerness. So many great-looking titles here.

So, again, I'll take any last nominations for another day or two, but I hope to post the poll this weekend.

Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick

Closed for nominations! Poll will be up soon! (Yup, that's right, missed my own self-imposed weekend deadline...)

Thanks for everyone's input for this round of nominations and voting. A special Thanks to Anita for getting the poll up so people could vote.

Alright, here's the moment we've all been waiting for. This will be the line-up for the first half of 2019! Since we finish 2018 with a nonfiction book, we will begin 2019 with fiction:

January: The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas (FICTION)

February: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander (NONFICTION)

March: Vox, Christine Dalcher (FICTION)

April: Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, Alice Bolin (NONFICTION)

May: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (FICTION)

June: Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick, Maya Dusenbery (NONFICTION)

We'll open a thread as we get close to June so we can take nominations for titles for the second half of the year.