This giveaway is, as always, open to all, but may be especially interesting to those working on the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. I say this because there are several themes of interest to feminists, including:
- promiscuity by a man (but not by a woman) is acceptable
- a woman’s virginity (but not a man’s) is considered ideal
- differences in the ways mental illness is perceived and treated between and by the sexes
Here’s the publisher’s synopsis of the book:
Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.
It has been ages since I’ve read The Bell Jar; my recollection is so sketchy that I need to re-read it before I offer a review. In the meantime you can check out reviews by these bloggers (results compiled via Fyrefly’s Book Blogs Search Engine):
The edition being offered by Harper Perennial is “an Olive Edition—a lower-priced small format edition with a hip and beautiful package design.” I have to agree; that cover is fantastic, isn’t it?!
To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below suggesting another title for me to add to my Women Unbound reading list. I have to get cracking on that list, so I’m soliciting your help 
. Giveaway is open to US/Canada mailing addresses only, and will accept entries until midnight EST on Saturday, November 14. I’ll draw a winner randomly and post the name here on November 15.
update 11/15/09: Random.org selected the one lucky winner, who is:
#12 – Lahni – Have you considered Twilight? Ha ha, just kidding.
A really good one is The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (it’s called something else in the US though – can’t remember what). The protagonist is a woman who when she was about 11 was taken from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. I loved the book and it’s about a strong woman. I think it would definitely fit the challenge. [note from Dawn: This is published as Someone Knows My Name in the US]
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I’d recommend The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
Ooh, ooh, I want to enter!
My fiction recommendation is Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood; my nonfiction recommendation is An Alphabetical Life: Living it up in the world of books by Wendy Ferris.
Great giveaway
fitz12383(at)hotmail(dot)com
P.S. Here’s my full list for the Women Unbound Challenge:
http://bookshelfmonstrosity.blogspot.com/2009/11/women-unbound-reading-challenge.html
Similar to the Bell Jar, I would recommend ‘Girl, Interrupted’ by Susanna Kaysen or ‘Go Ask Alice’, two books that I really loved when I read them.
Thanks for hosting such a great giveaway, that is a beautiful cover!
The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf (although I must confess I just started it)
I recommend The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.
Thanks for doing this giveaway! I love Olive Editions.
I just finished, The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart.
Thank you very much for giving the oppurtunity to win this book!
The Color Purple by Alice Walker. LOVE that book, had me crying for sure.
Expecting Adam by Martha Beck was also a very good read. It’s a memoir of her decision not to abort her Down Syndrome-baby, despite the enormous pressure to do so from her Harvard colleagues.
I love the Bell Jar and would LOVE to win this beautiful new edition. Thank you!
I suggest “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston.
Pick me!!
The Women’s Room by Marilyn French. I just read it–really, the ultimate feminist classic.
If you like Sylvia Plath, read Rough Magic by Paul Alexander about her.
I’d love a copy of The Bell Jar.
Kiki
rmwillisjr@msn.com
Very cool giveaway (but don’t enter me, I have at least two copies of this in the house). For those who haven’t read it: do!
I’ve had this on my list forever but still haven’t read it — even after watching the film Sylvia (which was very well done)–so please enter me! I highly recommend Kate Chopin’s THE AWAKENING, which also deals palpably with the themes you mentioned above. (I also love Chopin’s short stories, especially “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” — both are very short and incredibly powerful). Thanks for hosting this giveaway!
Have you considered Twilight? Ha ha, just kidding.
A really good one is The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (it’s called something else in the US though – can’t remember what). The protagonist is a woman who when she was about 11 was taken from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. I loved the book and it’s about a strong woman. I think it would definitely fit the challenge.
I’d recommend A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf!
My recommendation would be “And Ladies of the Club” by Helen Hooven Santmeyer. Would not be considered by many to be a “feminist” book, but it shows the varying and evolving roles of women in a small town through a time period that embraced a lot of changes for women. Besides, it’s just one of those books that immerses you so completely that you live in their world while you are reading.
I have been meaning to read The Bell Jar for some time! What a great recommendation for the Women Unbound Challenge! I just signed up to participate in it! My first read & recommendation, and something that may be a little out of the box for you but I enjoyed it so much, is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It’s about the challenges growing up in Iran thru the eyes of a young girl.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
Suzanne
quzyATmacDOTcom
There’s always “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf.
I ‘m not sure about all my reads for this challenge, but I second the recommendation for Alias Grace. It one of the ones I know I’ll be reading, and it would be cool to see what others think of it. I’d love to be entered in this giveaway. I haven’t yet read the book, but I have heard amazing things about it. Thanks for hosting the giveaway for such a beautiful edition!
zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net
I have a couple of suggestions, I hope that won’t take me out of the running:
A Return to Modesty: Discovering The Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit
Female Chauvenist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
Faces of Poverty: Portraits of Women and Children on Welfare by Jill Duerr Berrick
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women bu Susan Faludi
No need to enter me because I own this book. But I will pop it in my sidebar for you.
what about ‘girl interrupted’ by susanna kaysen.
I recommend The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I just read it recently and it blew me away.
I’d suggest Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a novella about an all-female society that male explorers happen upon.
Or Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” about a mad woman in an attic.
Thanks for the giveaway! I’d love this book.
How about ‘The Sexual Politics of Meat’? I’ve actually never read that one myself, but I’ve always kind of wanted to. I’ve been hearing about it for years and years but I’ve been so consumed with other reading that I haven’t yet had the chance.
http://www.amazon.com/Sexual-Politics-Meat-Feminist-Vegetarian-Critical/dp/0826411843
Update 11/15/09: Random.org selected the one lucky winner, who is:
#12 – Lahni – Have you considered Twilight? Ha ha, just kidding.
A really good one is The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (it’s called something else in the US though – can’t remember what). The protagonist is a woman who when she was about 11 was taken from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. I loved the book and it’s about a strong woman. I think it would definitely fit the challenge. [note from Dawn: This is published as Someone Knows My Name in the US]
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