The F-word discussion

Okay, let's do this! As a reminder, we will be trying something new for the first six months in 2018 - instead of reading both a non-fiction and fiction selection, we will be reading a fiction selection one month, a non-fiction selection the next month, etc. So from Jan-June 2018 we will read a total of three fiction and a total of three non-fiction books as a group.

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

I will leave this nomination thread open for probably about a week, putting the nominations to vote (hopefully) next Sunday or Monday. So get those nominations in!

Don't forget to look at our Read shelf so we can try to minimize duplicate reads. If there's something most of us missed out on from years ago, I have no problem revisiting it now if there's an interest to do so.

Lastly, if you're interested in leading a specific discussion surrounding a book, please mention that in your nomination. I'm more than happy to continue to open the threads and kick things off, and I always assumed the discussions could be lead by whomever wanted to, but it's come to my attention maybe not everyone felt that was a possibility. It is! The more participation, the better! Jump in, ask questions, pose ideas, encourage thoughts and civil conversation! :)

This is the post I will edit as we move forward with our nominations to make it easier for people to find all the nominations in one spot. This will hopefully avoid the possibility of duplicate nominations and make it easier for people to make suggestions. In parentheses I will include who nominated the book, which is easier probably only to myself. :)

FICTION:
*Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson (El)
*Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood (El)
*Meridian, Alice Walker (El)
*Under the Feet of Jesus, Helena María Viramontes (Lynn)
*Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich (Shomeret)
*The First Days, Rhiannon Frater (Ian)
*Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty (Ian)
*Bend, Nancy J. Hedin (Ian)
*Sleight of Hand, Mark Henwick (Ian)
*The Help, Kathryn Stockett (Ian)
*Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (Meenakshi)
*Umrao Jaan Ada, Mirza Haadi Ruswa (Meenakshi)
*The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas (Shaneka)
*The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (Shaneka)

NONFICTION:
*Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, bell hooks (El)
*The Female Experience: An American Documentary, Gerda Lerner (El)
*Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Judith Butler (El)
*The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth, Julie Bindel (Erin)
*The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction, Rachel P. Maines (Summer)
*Language and Gender, Penelope Eckert (Meenakshi)
*Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, Monique Morris (Shaneka)
*The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander (Shaneka)
*We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, Wendy Pearlman (Shaneka)
*Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work Is Done, Susan J. Douglas (Laurie)
*Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story, Angela Saini (Laurie)
*How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child, Sandra Uwiringiyimana (Laurie)
*To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, Rebecca Walker (Laurie)

Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

I think The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction might be fun to read as a group. It's been on my list for a while but I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet.

I have a few books that I think are interesting...they may not fit but I'll throw them in anyway. I always find myself wandering off in my own incomprehensible direction but it makes sense to me.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I enjoyed this book but I don't know if I should have. It's essentially an African American story and it's written by a white woman.

The First Days by Rhiannon Frater
OK this is a book about zombies. One of the things I find most interesting about this genre of fiction is it's one of the few places where you will see kick-butt female characters. But I always feel a little guilty reading these books because of the subtext of mindless hordes swarming up from the south.

Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty
Three women facing some very different life challenges form an unlikely friendship.

Bend Nancy J. Hedin
A young lesbian woman living in a deeply conservative small town. I loved it, but I've seen a few reviews that slammed it...and honestly I don't know why.

...hesitates...

Sleight of Hand by Mark Henwick
Mark Henwick is obviously male ... he's honestly one of a very few male authors I read. This series is UF and again it has a seriously kick-butt female main character.

I'm new to the group so I just looked over the list of books you've already read. Impressive list!! Looking forward to joining in on the reads in 2018. Nothing to suggest right now.

I'm surprised we haven't read Mrs Dalloway yet! So here are my nominations:
Fiction:
1. Mrs. Dalloway
2. Umrao Jaan Ada

Non Fiction:
Language and Gender
This is a textbook for Linguistics but it is an enjoyable read. But I must warn you, this is going to be heavy.

Excited for next year, would be nice to read (in no particular order)

Non Fiction
1) Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
2) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
3) We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria

Fiction
4) The Hate U Give
5) The Bluest Eye

Haven't read any of these but have been hoping to!

The New Jim Crow would be a great group read!

I think it would be too

I just wanted to say that Gender Trouble is a good choice El. I'm surprised it hasn't been read before in the group reads.

Great list of books going so far, everyone! It's 2:30 right now and I just got off my part-time job and have some errands to run, so I will be back later to post the poll for us to vote on.

If there are any last nominations, you have a few hours left to get them in before I get that poll up! :)

Okay, nominations are closed and the polls are up! As a reminder, we are reading three Fiction selections and three Non-Fiction selections between Jan and June 2018. So the top three in each category will be the books we will read. We have a lot of great selections in both categories here, so please feel free to nominate anything that doesn't win this round for our July-Dec nominations!

Fiction poll here.
Non-Fiction poll here.

These polls will stay open for a week from today, so by next Sunday (Dec 24) or Monday (Dec 25) - depending on how my availability goes in those couple of days - we will know our six winners!

Sorry for the delay. I wound up doing as little as possible over the past couple of days as I knew I would be busy again starting, well, today. So without further ado, here's the line-up for Jan-June 2018 - keeping in mind that we'll only do one book each month (instead of two) to see if that works better for people in being able to participate.

January
F: The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)

February
NF: Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (bell hooks)

March
F: Future Home of the Living God (Louise Erdrich)

April
NF: We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria (Wendy Pearlman)

May
F: Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood)

June
NF: Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story (Angela Saini)


I think this is a great list! I'll open a thread for discussion on Morrison's The Bluest Eye next weekend.

This is a great line-up and I think I have a couple of these books on my Kindle and/or on my TBR list. :-)