I am definitely joining the Women Unbound Reading Challenge, although I am still working on my reading list. Yesterday, I went to both Borders and Barnes and Noble and checked out their Women’s Studies sections (and for the record, the SLO B&N has it all over Borders in selection. As usual.). I came home with The Beauty Myth, Full Frontal Feminism, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present and A Bookshelf of Our Own. And also a fiction book, The Concubine’s Daughter, that I think will fit in well.
I thought it would be interesting for you all to see the list of books discussed in A Bookshelf of Our Own. The goal of the book is to offer an overview of women’s history via literature. As the author states: “I have chosen the authors and works featured in this volume because I think they offer valuable insights into the cultural and historical experience of women as they have been, as the epigraph to this book suggests, ‘obliged to struggle with the world’.” Unfortunately, I’m not prepared to offer you links to the books…you’ll have to do that yourself. 
The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu
The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine de Pisan
The Princess of Cleves, Madame de la Fayette
A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft
Emma, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
Tess of the D’Urberwilles, Thomas Hardy
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Cheri, Colette
A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Thurston
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Century of Struggle: The Women’s Rights Movement in the United States, Eleanor Flexner
The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
The Golden Notebook, Grace Paley
The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
Sexual Politics, Kate Millett
Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement, compiled and edited by Robin Morgan
The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer
Black Women in White America: A Documentary History, compiled and edited by Gerda Lerner
From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies, Molly Haskell
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Against Our Will, Susan Brownmiller
Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Judith Rossner
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Of Women Born, Adrienne Rich
The Women’s Room, Marilyn French
Silences, Tillie Olsen
Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Shawl, Cynthia Ozick
Backlash, Susan Faludi
The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
The Bitch in the House, compiled and edited by Cathi Harnauer
I’m sure a few of these will work their way onto my reading list. How about you? See anything interesting?
um, that’s a LOT of books. I am most definitely committing to The Bell Jar for this. The Treatment of Women in Movies sounds interesting. Although this compilation book sounds like a good way to try ALL of these! (and I don’t mind at all about the nolinking – that’s what cut and paste is for.
Care´s last blog ..Thinking of You Chartroose!
A lot of these books already were in my mind for the challenge and Jane Eyre and Anna Karenina will definitely be on my list. I am so excited about the challenge BTW, I think it’s fantastic.
lilly´s last blog ..A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi
I love the title of your blog! I’ve posted my sign-up post for the challenge and potential reads today; a couple of the fiction titles that I haven’t read from your suggestions or included in my pool.
Claire (Paperback_Reader)´s last blog ..The Haunting of Hill House
Wow…lots of great choices there! Although I haven’t officially joined (yet), my list is already in progress.
JoAnn´s last blog ..TSS: It was a dark and stormy night ….really!
Love that story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman was way before her time! Great selections! I’ve read about ten of them . . .
M Denise C´s last blog ..A Trip to Legacy Books and Barnes and Noble
I joined this challenge but my list is very slight so far, especially when it comes to nonfiction.
Stephanie´s last blog ..Challenges, challenges and more challenges!
Oh, you’ve posted such a great list! I have a special fondness for Little Women, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina, let alone Anne Frank, all of which I’ve read several times over in my life. I must say, I remain unimpressed with The Awakening; to me it seemed Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina tied together with none of the intrigue. I’ll be interested to see what you think and review.
Bellezza´s last blog ..The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
So many books and not one I have read! *stressed*
There are definitely a few that in the list that I intend to read. I’ll keep the list for book ideas for the challenge. Thanks!
mee´s last blog ..R.I.P. IV Challenge Wrap-up
A BOOKSHELF OF OUR OWN sounds like a great resource – thanks for listing the books discussed.
I’ve seen some really positive reviews of WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED, that would be another book I’d like to read …
We won’t lack for material for the Women Unbound Challenge! (I haven’t made my book list yet, either!)
Dawn – She is Too Fond of Books´s last blog ..Book Giveaway: *The Financial Lives of the Poets* by Jess Walter
When Everything Changed is one I haven’t read yet. I really have to get a list of books going.
Beth F´s last blog ..Today’s Read: Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle
Lots of these look good: I haven’t made a list but will most likely be joining this great Challenge. I enjoyed The Yellow Wallpaper in college, and I actually like The Awakening quite a lot. I read Lessing’s The Golden Notebook last year and it was well worth the effort; I also have a link to a group reading of it that I think is still up. And now I really, really want to take a look at A Bookshelf of our Own! Thanks for the info.
Melanie´s last blog ..Corduroy Mansions
Silences, Woman Warrior, and Jane Eyre are all on my list. I have a different book by Paley on my list already and I think I might add Beloved also. Thanks for sharing.
Vasilly´s last blog ..Women Unbound Challenge
That’s an amazing list of books, Jill. I’ve read seven on the list, all of them good. Several other titles are book I’d like to eventually read. I wish I wasn’t on a challenge ban as the Women Unbound Reading Challenge is very tempting.
There are so many great books to choose from for this challenge.
Chris@bookarama´s last blog ..Challenge Roundup for October 2009
I just lost the comment i wrote here! I am so angry
rewriting now. I have heard of many classics that u mention but i have nt read anything. i m not going to join this one… i m right now feeling bad for not completing any one of my challenges
… as usual 
I haven’t read the other comments yet, but let me say I’m amazed at the number of books on that list I’ve read — almost all of them. I may pick the ones I’ve missed. There were quite a handful that made me smile, remembering when everyone I knew was reading and discussing those books.
Beth F´s last blog ..Today’s Read: Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle
This is a great list. I’ve read 12 of these and agree that they would be great for the challenge.
Over the years I keep seeing The Women’s Room so I need to look into that one.
Thanks for the list!
3m.michelle´s last blog ..The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist