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Nov/Dec book! The Power by Naomi Alderman
Already read this one! Brilliant choice, Emma, Alderman is an absolute genius X
excellent choice my friend suggested it not that that influenced my option. very different choice and sci-fi too look forward to reading it Emma :)
Looking forward to reading this, sounds like such a great choice :)
Thanks Emma . That is actually brilliant book and slightly lighter then those before. Excellent choice.
Sounds like a great choice. Look forward to reading it. Thanks Emma and the OSS team.
Thank you for the suggestion Emma ! Is there a french version of it ?
Sounds interesting! Thanks a lot Emma! Still looking forward to hearing from you.....All the best!
Some fiction again... which I look forward to:)Well, I doubt this is where we should go, but it's definitely worth reading I think.
Okay, so off to the book shops:)
I look forward to reading the book, the topic sounds interesting.
I had actually been looking at this on at Barnes and Noble the other day, but opted not to get it quite yet. I'm really excited to have an excuse to get it now and read it! Thanks Emma!
The book sounds really amazing and I've just ordered it. Can't wait to read it :)
What an interesting choice! Looking forward to it!
Thank you Emma ! I'm looking forward to read it and it sounds so interesting, that my boyfriend is finally going to join OSS, too, after I've showed him all the books and the new ones description. :)
Yes, fictiooon! This is high on my tbr :D Really like your choice, Emma. Looking forward!
Hi Emma! In a world where one sex is the one that dominates the other, things can never go well.
It’s one my additional books for November from Book of the Month, so, yay!! Looking forward to reading it.
Ester wrote: "Hi Emma! In a world where one sex is the one that dominates the other, things can never go well."True that, but this doesn't mean we shouldn't read it.
Of course we should read it, who says otherwise?
I've seen people reading this book over the past few months but none of their descriptions of the book have interested me at all. They mostly focus on the power (funnily enough), and the idea of women with a physical power ruling the world sounds naff - no better than the real world. However your description is telling me it's a more self-aware story with more to it. I'm interested to see where I land on this. Thanks Emma & the Our Shared Shelf team.
Currently asking to myself if I will read it right now in english or as planned before this announcement wait for the french version out in January... A real dilemma for a must read !! ;-)
Sylvie wrote: "Currently asking to myself if I will read it right now in english or as planned before this announcement wait for the french version out in January... A real dilemma for a must read !! ;-)"Would be interesting to read both and see the translation differences.
This has been on my list for a while now, can't wait to finally pick it up!
Read the description and now I'm really excited to start reading!
Can't wait to read it. I will tell you Hunger was an amazing book by an amazing woman. Thank you for offering such great books to read
Can’t wait to read it! It sounds really cool
I´m a little behind, still reading The Beauty Myth but sounds a very interesting book! Gracias!
This is the first book choice that I’ve already purchased! Was actually going to read it soon anyway - so a fantastic reason to start it sooner!
This sounds great! I've been waiting for another fiction like the Handmaid's Tale! 🙂 Can't wait to start reading this book.
I am new to this group and I already love it!
Wooh! Sounds really interesting to me! I always ask the same, and breaking a cliché makes more interesting! CANT WAIT TO READ IT! THANK YOU, YOU ALWAYS CHOOSE THE BEST :)
Mod
I got this book recently and will be pushing it up my TBR now. It really sounds interesting and I was drawn to it because of the Margaret Atwood endorsement! :)
Sounds like an interesting read! Will be reading it as soon as I can find a copy!
Mod
Well, I doubt this is where we should go, but it's definitely worth reading I think.
Okay, so off to the book shops:)"
The last 2 books haven't been fiction, so it's nice to get some fiction again IMO :)
Jo wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: "Some fiction again... which I look forward to:)Well, I doubt this is where we should go, but it's definitely worth reading I think.
Okay, so off to the book shops:)"
The la..."
The reality is not so nice place and that is a fact. Sometimes you need escape to world of fiction for your own sanity. ;)
Agnes, I agree, sometimes we need to escape to the world of fiction for our own sanity.Jo, I agree, it's nice to read fiction again. What I wanted to say was that the world this fiction book describes is not a world we should strive for. A swap in gender roles doesn't bring gender equality at all.
On page 20 feel fully qualified to comment ;)This book so far shows two important points first men and women are equally capable of good and bad second structures for oppression hide behind other motives but they are just ways for "people" to have power over others and the caustic effect this arrangement has on both.
and thanks to all for fiction choice we needed it bet Roxanne Gay reading it now too :)
This book is already on my to-read list so I'm really happy that it has become one of the books to read for OSS. I will look forward to reading it when I finally get around to it :)
The way, you describe the book sounds fascinating. Once again are there chosen a good book to read. It is nice to have a cosy book, here in the dark times :-) Thanks Emma and the Our Shared Shelf team.
I got this book last month from Book of the Month Club. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I'm even more excited to read it now!
Thanks for the book choice Emma.Look forward to reading it.In lieu with the themes of this book,this commercial goes really well.Even though I posted it in one of the other threads,couldn't resist posting it on this book's account.
https://youtu.be/X0xHwGTUzq8
:)
sounds like a brilliant choice, can't wait to pick it up and read it!
I actually just finished this one within the past week or so. It was very good, disturbing, but very good. Gave me a lot to think about when it comes to Power and how we use ours, what some humans (regardless of gender) are capable of when they are put in positions of power.
In the book, teenage girls all over the world begin to develop the ability to do harm by transmitting electricity through their fingertips. News spreads quickly over social media and soon the girls are teaching older women how to harness their dormant powers. In a few short years, gender roles are reversed and the world is run by women. As governments are toppled, a new woman’s republic is born, and there’s a single new religion led by a cult leader called Mother Eve.
The book follows four main characters: Tunde, a male journalist who is following the emerging stories, and three women with new found powers, Roxy, Allie and Margot. Their paths cross as the world is heading into political and religious turmoil.
Alderman challenges the cliché that women are more noble than men, and that a world run by women would be more gentle, with benevolent leaders and no war. In fact, women become power hungry and begin to repress men. They commit war atrocities, perform male genital mutilation, rape and maim for sport and kill to occupy land.
With power dynamics reversed, the women don’t choose a righteous path - they act no better than men who have abused power throughout history. I think Alderman’s point is that people who abuse, do so because they can.
Alderman presents the main part of the book as an early manuscript of an historical novel, written thousands of years in a future where women still rule, by a male novelist ‘Neil Armon’. Through letter exchanges between Neil and his mentor, a female writer called ‘Naomi’, we see a world where men’s worth is only in their looks and ‘men’s literature’ isn’t taken as seriously as women’s. This is a really clever literary device which highlights how absurd rigid gender roles are.
Neil thinks he can prove that women weren’t always the ones in positions of power, but Naomi can’t see how the history books would lie. Neil’s reality is one where men’s contributions to history have been misattributed, or even stolen, by women.
This made me think about the fact that history was written by those who held the power. It also made me think about how the distribution of power and gender roles throughout history often seems arbitrary, and how they could have perhaps ended up very differently.
I’m excited to hear what you all make of the novel.
Love,
Emma and the Our Shared Shelf team