For what audience would you recommend Women of a Promiscusious Nature? Are there other novels or authors you’ve read that are similar in style or content?
I think this could be for SOME book club discussions, but it really depends on the book club. I am going to suggest it for one of my book clubs, as they like to talk about real issues and history, but for my other book club they would never read this…too much.
I am struggling on comparisons, maybe The Handmaids Tale? I also see a comparison to the laundries of Ireland, that were used as a punishment for women.
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It was a tough book to read but I would hope high school and college women read this book and understand how they need to protest and stand up to unfair power.
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Those who like plot driven historical fiction. It is not character driven nor does it meet the literary fiction genre threshold.
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I would recommend it for someone who is in the mood for serious historical fiction with the issue of women’s rights at its center. I will offer it to my four women friends whom I share books with, with that caution. We have all said that there are times we want something light and other times we want something more serious. One of these ladies just lent me a book called “The Secret Book Society” by Madeline Martin. This story is based in London, in 1895, and centered on women of a wealthier background. The similar part is that these women are very much being controlled, and often abused, by husbands or fathers. They have severe limitations imposed on them, including having their books taken away or limited. And being placed in an insane asylum is very much a threat. I have become really engaged in this story also and would recommend it.
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Those interested in reading historical fiction related to females and women’s rights. I have a few friends I know would be interested in the read. I belong to a few book reading groups; the graphic intensity of the narrative would not likely work well with one of them, and would not work with the other. It is a captivating but difficult read from an emotional perspective.
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I agree. I really liked The Radium Girls (plot driven) and some people thought it was boring.
Interestingly I just listened to a Podcast (Bookends) with Mattea Roach in which she interviewed the author of Liberty Street. Per the podcast:
Toronto’s most infamous women’s prison was meant to rehabilitate women … but its real history tells a much darker story. Heather Marshall dives headfirst into the Mercer Reformatory in her latest novel, Liberty Street. The book follows Emily Radcliffe, a 1960s journalist who goes undercover to expose the prison’s harsh conditions and abuse of inmates. Over 30 years later, after the prison’s closing, a detective revisits one of the its sinister mysteries … and these intertwining narratives tell a story of female resilience and strength. This week, Heather tells Mattea Roach about the history of the prison, the real journalists that inspired the story and what it means to be an “incorrigible” woman.
Sounds like a very similar theme
I would recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction but you need to be in the mood for a sad but true story. Not for the faint of heart
AND high school and college men. It’s all our business.
I would definitely recommend this book to fans of historical fiction or women’s fiction. I think that it would be a wonderful book for a Book Club discussion, but it might not appeal to all readers.
Other read alike authors that came to my mind were Leah Weiss, Ellen Marie Wiseman, and Kim Michele Richardson.
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