Agatha Christie.

This book was an addition to my Women Unbound Book Challenge because I found it for $1 at Value Village and my curiosity about the author has been peeked, having never read any of her books, ever since I watched the Doctor Who episode where she is featured. Yes, that’s my second Doctor Who reference in as many posts. Sorry, big fan here!

Murder on the Orient Express is a departure for me in another way. Mysteries haven’t been a favourite genre of mine since I finished every single Nancy Drew my hometown library had in stock. Perhaps there was some burnout involved. Hard to say.

Nevertheless, Christie surprised me with a quick deft read that kept the adrenaline coursing in my veins and the eyes open over night shifts. Not an easy task.

Indeed it was a fun little book. Old style mystery writing too. Find the clues. Piece it together. No CSI computers, lasers or digital recreations here. Just a knack for observation and experience with human psychology.

Hercule Poirot is the featured detective. I hadn’t previously realized that she had her own Sherlock Holmes consistent throughout her books. He had my brain running in loops. Every time I thought I’d figured something out, I had not. Oh well, the end was sufficiently stunning that I didn’t mind being less astute than he.

However enjoyable this little jaunt, I feel no further urge to read more of Christie’s work. I get just enough murder and mayhem in my diet when we try to solve one of the stories in this book over the dinner table.

As an aside, I know I’m really really late but…

I am so proud that in 2009

I read 22 books total, not counting short stories or graphic novels
was a member of Goodreads for my first full year
met some amazing women among the Chicks on Lit group there
found more books than I can read in five years for my to-read shelf
and finally – finally! – found a book podcast i can call favourite, Books on the Nightstand.

The best of the best book selections from the year would have to be Eat Pray Love in nonfiction and Ender’s Game in fiction, though there are very close runner-ups in both categories.

Here’s to the journey of 2010!

My first book for the Women Unbound Book Challenge is done!

Confession: I finished it before Christmas, but my life is bonkers from then until now and I’m finally ready to write again. You don’t mind, right?

Especially because my reaction and appreciation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale hasn’t dimmed one bit. My reaction was very British… Brilliant.

(Anyone else notice how much the islanders say that word? Or is it just those interviewed for their work in the tv series Doctor Who?)

I feel like Atwood’s self categorized piece of “speculative fiction” was a perfect choice for the first book in the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. It deals with a future society in which women have been stripped of their rights and society as a whole organized into a caste system for the good of all mankind. Those who have — eek, perhaps this is time for a SPOILER ALERT!!! — proven fertile and able to bear children are put into service as surrogate mothers for the upper class wives who are unable to bear children. This is the theme I found most enthralling. For society had not simply removed women’s right to external entities like having money or holding a job or marrying whom she pleases. No, they went so far as to physically disassociate their sexuality from her occupation as a child-bearer or as a wife. No one was having fun in bed. No woman felt like a woman. Which is just enough of a step further in the line of discrimination against women than we are accustomed and what made this book so thought provoking.

In the story, women among the privileged elite participated in their husband’s adultery with a handmaiden, lying still and silent underneath the girl, watching the amputation – and subsequent death of herself – claim another. The handmaiden herself faired little better as an object, an womb surrounded by an invisible person hood. It was all rather appalling to picture and Atwood’s story is a slow unfolding of the details of how this society works as a whole with small tidbits and references to a political uprising that brought them to this place. The story is told from the point of view of one particular handmaiden and her struggle to understand her new place in the world, whether she likes it, whether she can live with herself and participate and believe the brainwashing or choose her own path.

I found it reprehensible that anyone might suggest that any society, particularly thinking of our own that has fought over so many years to secure legal rights and break social mores surrounding what women are and are not allowed to do, could degenerate into what is alive and well in Atwood’s world. And yet I felt like I must consider the possibilities. For to not be on watch, to not put forth my own genuine femininity and guard and treasure it, would be to open the door for repression masquerading as revolution.

The Handmaiden has to make hard choices and constantly be on watch. She has to decide whether to be a rebel and if so, what kind of rebel? She taught me to duly watch and, more importantly, be thankful, both for my own self and for, in an odd way, the men around me who have been unafraid to let my femininity become what it will.

I am really looking forward to reading more of Margaret’s work in the future. For now, I have my pile of further Women Unbound reading but I am tickled to know that Atwood is worthy of the immense persona she carries as a Canadian literary giant who just happens to be a woman.

Reading challenges are encouraged and undertaken everywhere on the blogs and podcasts that I love, but up until now, I’ve  shrugged them off as overwhelming. Who has the time to read books in addition to what is already on your nightstand? was my usual objection. Funny how you always eat your words.

Days later I started drafting a post that included the one thought…

“I’m unfailingly drawn to women’s voices: in music, literature and television.”

This is usual blogging practice for me. Catch one phrase out of the soup, digest, ruminate, flesh it out later. This particular thought was odd however because though I felt very strongly about it and noticed the pattern in my life – for example my “girls” playlist in iTunes – I had no idea what else needed to be said… yet.

Enter Lily, one of my Chicks on Lit friends and book blogger, who posted on Sunday about a brand new challenge called Women Unbound, a real blog community effort, that is set to run from November of this year to November of next. My imagination was instantly captivated and recognized that I had been given the means to delve further into undiscovered thoughts. Awesome.

Women Unbound now has it’s own blog where you will find all the rules of participating and pretty buttons to decorate your blog if you’d like to participate. The general theme is fairly obvious, but…

Participants are encouraged to read nonfiction and fiction books related to the rather broad idea of ‘women’s studies.’  The definition according to Merriam-Webster is the multidisciplinary study of the social status and societal contributions of women and the relationship between power and gender.

And there are different levels of commitment, which I like!

• Philogynist: read at least two books, including at least one nonfiction one.
• Bluestocking: read at least five books, including at least two nonfiction ones.
• Suffragette: read at least eight books, including at least three nonfiction ones.

Ever since discovering the challenge, I’ve been pouring over my to-read shelf over at Goodreads, my own physical bookshelves as well as all of the other participants reading lists to find just what suited me best. I’ve even saved the hashtag search for #unbound on Twitter as it’s a good resource and place to chat. Best of all, here is the complete list of participants. Watch it, there will be some amazing reviews.

At the end of it all, I’ve made my own challenge reading shelf at Goodreads that you can check out, but I’ve copied and pasted my choices here as well. The results are a combination of classics I’ve always wanted to read, fantasy I wasn’t ready for once upon a time but am now, science fiction, lots of southern (read: home) influence, one Canadian and one from my profession.

I’m thrilled and am diving into The Handmaid’s Tale first, as I picked up a hardcover copy last time I was at the Goodwill 1/2 off sale and it is one of the November reads for the Chicks. And yes, I’m going for my Suffragette badge of honor. I have the sudden urge to put Mary Poppins on! lol

I always said that my mom raised me to be a good feminist. Here goes!

Nonfiction:

The Maternal Is Political, Shari MacDonald Strong (Editor)

The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler

The Curse of the Good Girl, Rachel Simmons

Notes on Nursing, Florence Nightingale

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf

Fiction:

The Color Purple, Alice Walker

Kindred, Octavia Butler

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Children’s Book, A.S. Byatt

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

The Awakening, Kate Chopin