I was a bit of a book worm as a child. I would close my bedroom door, away from the noise of my four siblings, and get lost in a story. My favourite was the Little House on the Prairie series. I imagined myself as Laura, living in a dug out in the wild west, fighting grasshopper swarms and looking after my blind sister. I begged my mother to buy me a bonnet and make to hush puppies for dinner.
In the summer of 1976 my ten-year-old self, my parents and two of my brothers, jumped into our light brown station wagon (estate) and drove 3,000 miles across the United States. It was the Bicentennial, 200 years after the US had signed the Declaration of Independence, and my parents were teachers so we all had all summer to discover America.
I was so excited to hear that Kathryn Stockett's The Help is being made into a film, as we speak! Apparently it is the most excitement Mississippi has seen in a long time.
Last Spring I suggested that my book club read The Help, and everyone really liked it. The group is usually split, but the general consensus was that it was a good read and it sparked a whole evening of interesting conversation (sometimes we only spend a half hour on the book and then go on to more meaty subjects such as school gossip).
The Help takes place in Mississippi in the 60's and is about the relationship between women and the almost exclusively black maids that cleaned their homes and helped to raise their children.
As I was drifting off to sleep last night, still warm from the bath and smelling of Body Shop dewberry, I turned to my night stand and looked at my collection of books. I always have a high stack of half read novels, magazines and bits from the papers. I wanted something light. Not too heavy. Hmmm, this will do nicely. I picked up "What Every Woman Ought to Know". The author, Constance Mortimer, sent it to me a while back to check out.
After checking out the table of contents, I opened it up to about the middle of the book and landed in a minefield. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Well, actually, I could.
You read it, and let me know what you think.
I'm warning you now, put on your fighting gloves.
. . . . .
"Women Not Equal to Men — Scientist Says That Civilisation Makes the Gap Wider" by Dr. Charles Heydemann, PhD. Daily Mirror, 4 October 1909.
Women is not man's equal, never has been and never will. She is the complement of man, but the lesser one, as expressed in the term "minus". No one denies her great qualities, but if she is entitled to the sympathy of humanity, as such, she is not and never will be capable of understanding the duties of a citizen. (WTF?)
It's book club tonight! We just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and this evening we get to sip on a glass of chardonnay, munch on nibbles and rattle on. Hopefully about the book! (FYI: loved GLAPPPS, a bit predictable at times, but a very comforting read. I felt really happy after and wanted to move to Guernsey and join their society!)
Part of the fun of book club is coming up with suggestions for the next read. Being the social media whizz that I am (ahem), I put out a note on twitter (sorry, I can't bring myself to use the term "tweet") and within a FEW MINUTES I got some really good suggestions. Have a look, it's a varied list with some fab reads.
1. A Million Little Pieces is a semi-fictional memoir by James Frey. It is story of a young alcoholic and drug user and how he deals with it in a 12-step programme. (thanks Double Trouble).
