I belong to a feminist book group and I'd like to suggest a work of fiction for one of the meetings: They've read "Posession" which I liked but they all hated, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman(Whatsherface from The Yellow Wallpaper) I love fiction, but I'm not sure what to suggest. We mostly read...manifestos, I suppose. I want something a little challenging, but not as involved as "Possession", but not so Oprah-ish that there's only one possible reaction you could have(group leader likes debate) Thoughts?

You know, erika, I think you could do any of Laura Lippman's last three stand alones and find a lot to talk about (especially Every Secret Thing which has a whole passel of complicated women characters). They are very well written and move along nicely. Plus it would be fun for you!

If your book club hated Possession, I think you need a new book club.

Signed, possibly irrational with the love.

Rationally, I suggest "Little Women."

I'm guessing they're impatient, flea. It took some investment, but I liked it a lot when I took the time for it. Lisah, good idea. Might as well work with my crime-junkie proclivities, but I'll be keeping track of the other suggestions as well because we're a smallish group.

I'd suggest Margaret Atwood'd Cat's Eye [link] which is a fucking great book. Or Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, [link] which is slighter, but a good read.

The Wide Sargasso Sea? Although I don't know if that's feminist so much as postmodern...

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a classic feminist work, although certainly not cheery. For something different, there's Louisa May Alcott's Work, which is a semi-biographical adult novel that talks about the difficulties women had trying to make a living. Another possibility is Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night, which focuses on the choices women have to make.

Another possibility is Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night, which focuses on the choices women have to make.

One thing to keep in mind with Gaudy Night is that it is very much a product of its time. I have a hard time reading it because of some of the assumptions that are made.

I think those assumptions are things you can talk about in terms of feminism. The basic questions haven't changed: Do we choose the life of the mind or of the heart? Do marriage and children limit what women can accomplish? Do men have to make the same choices?

I have to second Cat's Eye. It is dead spot-on about girls and how they treat each other, and has some fabulous observation about women and how they are perceived by each other and by society.

It's really all about women and how they treat other women. Oh, and some stuff about art and how men see women. It's a novel I consistently re-read.