So for our inaugural book club meeting, Naz and Ally picked a book that we thought would represent the spirit of our girl's-only book club: Kate Walbert's A Short History of Women.We selected the book based on its New York Times review:
"Nearly everything about Kate Walbert’s new novel is wickedly smart, starting with the title: “A Short History of Women.” Does it connote modesty or grandeur? “Short” sounds modest. “History” sounds grand — grandiose, in fact, when affixed to a work of fiction. But “Women” clinches it: modest, then. After all, what more trifling subject could one elect to research? Such, at any rate, is the prevailing view in the world inhabited by Walbert’s characters — all five generations of them. One of the book’s accomplishments is that it persuades us that this sentiment holds no less currency in 21st-century America than it did in late Victorian England. But Walbert’s primary concerns — unlike those of some of her characters — aren’t political. Her writing wears both its intelligence and its ideology lightly. No manifesto, this is a gorgeously wrought and ultimately wrenching work of art." (Read more from reporter Leah Hager Cohen's review here.)
Sounds good, right?
Well, members of the club disagreed greatly with Ms. Cohen's opinion. General consensus: not worth your time. Chime in below on how you felt about the book!
