“I watch them all hug each other, covered in rabbit guts. Their pink bodies framed by my own rabbit eyes. It’s sweet, I think. They’re nice people.”

What did you think of Bunny!?What do you think was ‘real’?

What did you make of the writing?Did it feel like you were in Samantha’s head?

“I’m a first edition of The Bell Jar”

“Like she knows I think I’m better than everyone else”

“Like she knows that I have nicknamed them all and, well, how sad, really”

“why do you lie so much? And about he weirdest little things? My mother always asked me. I don’t know, I always said. But I did know. It was very simple. Because it was a better story.”

“never known how to be in this world without most of my soul dreaming up and living in another. Until I came here.”

“Not something I conjured out of loneliness and a bird circling a pond”

“A hug to take away all of our owies”

What was your take away about stereotypes of female friendships and cliques, if anything?

“They want me. Their bloody faces regarding me so kindly, so openly, that I know this is a friendship moment”

“feared they might be naked,reclined on whimsical furniture out of Alice in Wonderland. Or else in pastel lingerie, using Anaïs Nin erotica as fans. Massaging each other to the music of Stereolab. Obscure yet erudite porn projected on some massive screen. Reading sex manifestos from the seventies using pastel dildos as mics”

What did you think of the power dynamics throughout the book? Eg. Professors, bunnies, friends, classmates

“staring at the swan with such love. Like she is cherry blossoms falling”

If you have been to university or on a writing programme, can you see the reflections in the book?

“This place is so beautiful you find it hard to believe that it’s overrun with the insane and the desperate and the lonely”

The word Scottish isused 3 times in the book, Scotsman twice and Scotch twice. Doyou think this is just a coincidence, or perhaps indicating samantha’s subconcious thinking of the lion or perhaps of Scottish associations of folklore and fantasty?

Listed are some quotes and passages from MaskOff, feel free to use them to start discussion but also chat about your favourite or stand out sections too.

What did you like and what did you not like (if either!) about Mask Off?

Are there any chapters you were glad to see written about?

Why do you think it is important to talk about masculinity as feminists?

What do you think of male feminists and JJ stating that ‘Feminism cares more about men than any other male movement that may exist out there…” (p70) ?

Who do you think this book would be good for? Who in your life would you pass a copy on to or suggestreads it?

JJ suggests 10 courses of action: Let go of anger, every man should own a diary (or journal), the responsibility of men, male support groups, language, consent, talk zones,parent/carers, reading, love. What do you think of these?

Looking at masculinity a little wider, and taking some quotes from bell hooks, would you like to discuss the language and assumptions made by the UK/western media with regards to Gaza and the Palestinians and the men, women and children there?

 “to write about men and love, I must speak of war. Time and time again we have been told that civilization cannot survive men’s loving, for if men love, they will not be able to kill on command.”

“even though war is failing as a strategy for sustaining life and creating safety, our nation’s leaders force us into battle, giving new life to the dying patriarchy”

“Good Men perceive the value of a feminist practice for themselves…because they understand that male privilege prevents them not only from becoming whole, authentic human beings but also from knowing the truth about the world…they offer proof that men can change. Men like this are our true comrades in struggle. Their presence in mylife sustains my hope.” (bell hooks, The Will to Change)

Some quotes from Mask Off:

“people often become defensive when they are not ready to acknowledge the hurt they have caused in someone else’s life” (p12)

“shame is a central, dominant and often debilitating emotion in the male identity” (p25)

“but from a straight male perspective it felt like men were being socialised out of love, while women were socialised into love” (p40)

“Media headlines use dehumanising language when it comes to the women they are discussing, and we wonder why people are uneducated when it comes to misogyny and rape culture”(p46)

“if the majority of world leaders were women, but they were operating under western imperialism,capitalism and patriarchy, then why assume that anything would change?” (p57)

“Black men, in the West in particular, are criminalized and hypersexualized, by simple virtue of being Black” (p77)

“In a society where men areoverwhelmingly violent towards other men, a man loving another man is a radical, progressive act. How does is make any sense that we, as a society,are more accepting of male violence than we are of male love?” (p79)

Listed are some quotes and passages from LiftingThe Veil, feel free to use them to start discussion but also chat about yourfavourite or stand out sections too.

This book was a popularchoice that the group voted to read and chat about together. Did you pick itand why?

Would you like to chat about any story or chapter with the group? Why would you like to chat about it?

Chughtai was very expressive with some of her writing, did any sentences or passages stand out to you?

‘The Quilt’ or ‘Lihaaf’ was what Chughtai was brought to court on charges of obscenity for its suggestion of homosexuality. Did you think the story was going to be what it is before you read it?

What do you think makes a good translated book to you? Would you have edited Chughtai’s stories and writing any differently?

Did some of the stories written from 1940s on feel historical or could easily be written today too?

“There was the sound of someone smacking her lips , as though savouring a tasty pickle”                                                                                                                      

“She was pressing me as though I were a clay doll”

“After he died, for some reason I began to feel an attachment to everything that was his”

“He would portray a woman’s naked emotions, but the woman would always be fully clothed”

“I was not prepared to accept that Lihaaf was my masterpiece”

“I’ve learnt the most important secrets of my life from the women of the mohalla” 

“the invisible bloodstains that smear my conscience can be seen only by my heart”

“they were filled with such obscenities that had they been uttered before a corpse, it would have got upand run for cover”

“many people pretend to be courageous but they are scared of dead mice”

“I was a spilt brat and usedto get bashed up often for telling the truth”

“and I realised at that moment that flowers can be made to bloom in rocks”

“I am sometimes absolutely overwhelmed with how cute and beautiful my body is”

What are your over all thoughts about Happy Fat which is described as part memoir, part social commentary in the blurb?

“Fat is not an inherently negative word. Fat is, if anything, neutral” p4

“I remember looking up seeing my PE teacher laugh” p26

Sofie discusses visibility of fat women and fat people throughout the book, would you like to discuss this further?

“The biggest misunderstanding in the body positivity movement that we see on social media is that you have to be ‘confident’ and ‘brave’.” p45

“We walk into the house of mirrors and when we look into the mirror, there is no reflection. It is like we do not exist” p53

“my therapist once told me that the most dangerous thing you can do to a person is ignore them! p57

Sofie also shares her learning and unlearning of things like coping mechanisms and shame, would you like to discuss the visibility of acknowledging this? 

“And I laughed when he eventually cheated on me with a thin woman, because the joy of being proven right was more powerful than the pain of being cheated on” p33

“These thoughts led me to see myself in a very different light. It was life changing in a way. All from having read one sentence in one book” p85 (“he feels with wild joy, the weight of her on top of him)

Several studies were mentioned and used throughout the book; would you like to discuss anything further?

“Studies show that fat women are less likely to seek medial help than non-fat women. They are worries about the ‘diagnosis’ will just be ‘fat’ and the cure to just ‘just lose weight’,regardless of why you are there” p197

“The fatter a patient is, the more likely a surgeon is to leave sponges or even surgical instruments behind”p194

What did you think about the interviews throughout the book with Stephanie, Dina, Kivan and Matilda?

“and I make the argument that whatever health risks there are because of fatness, they cannot be more of a health risk than the suicide risk that’s associated with dysphoric transpeople” p155

What did you think about Sofie Hagen’s writing style and descriptions in this book? Did anything stand out to you you’d like to share?

“Fat people fuck” p147

The friendship Feyi has with Joy, Nasir and Alim are all different, what did you think about the different relationships in the book? Did you pick up on Feyi’s thought about love and did they change?

“…there are so many different types of love, so many ways someone can stay committed to you, stay in your life even if y’all aren’t together, you know? And none of these ways are more important than the other”

“I told myself she was self-destructive and not ready for a real relationship.” Feyi shrugged. “It was easier to believe than the truth”

“Feyi found that it didn’t quite catch in her chest the way she thought it would”

“Feyi liked the proofs of want, like Milan making reckless choices in that bathroom, like this man making a fool of himself right now.”

This is very much a romance novel; how do you feel reading about experiences of joy entangled with lossand grief?

     “… I think we’re just figuring out how to survive a world on fire … that it’s okay to be    alive

“People had turned her into webbed glass after Jonah died; it made her feel like a relic, not a person.”

What are your thoughts about seeing grief written and shared in a book?

“Everyone said it’s what he would’ve wanted, but she was fairly sure he would have wanted to live.”

“So he knew death, too.”

What did you think about Feyi’s art?

“What did he know? Could he even hear the screaming in the gold?”

“She wanted to take a picture of it, but she already knew half the beauty would die inside a camera lens and she’d never quite catch the edges of how it felt”

Did Feyi see herself mirrored in her friendships? Did she interpret similar behaviours and actions win her friends in different ways?

“I love you,” she said, and it sounded truer the second time because it was mirrored, they were together on it.”

“This is the most bisexual conversation I have had in a long time”

Why do you think having the people Feyi is meeting being prestigious and famous is important? Did this highlight her inner thoughts and self-belief more to you?

The book is rich with coloursand flavours, when Feyi was younger she was told she would not to wearanything like this. Did you enjoy reading about being subversive with her clothing and hair?

What did you think about Akwaeke’s writing style and descriptions in this book? Did anything stand outto you you’d like to share?

“The world-making endeavor of imagining a city of female friends is a little devious, even a little defiant.”

Listed are some quotes and passages from Feminist City. Feel free to use them to start discussion but also chat about your favourite or stand out sections too.

What did you think about the chapter themes Leslie Kern uses in the book? Were you surprised by any?

“The city is the place where women had choices open up for them that were unheard of in small towns and rural communities. Opportunities for work. Breaking free of parochial gender norms. Avoiding heterosexual marriage and motherhood. Pursuing non-traditional careers and public office. Expressing unique identities. Taking up social and political causes. Developing new kinship networks and foregrounding friendship. Participating in arts, culture, and media. All of these options are so much more available to women in cities”

“Since women’s experiences are shaped by a patriarchal society, smoothing the rough edges of that experience via urban design doesn’t inherently challenge patriarchy itself. And second, assuming unity among women fails to account for other salient markers of social difference.”

How do you want to be able to contribute to how Glasgow looks now and how it will look in the future?

“Katherine McKittrick and Indigenous feminist geographer Sarah Hunt continues to challenge lingering anti-Black and colonial attitudes that reappear in feminist and critical urban geographies through our discourses, methods, and choice of research spaces”.

Are there themes about being a mother, parent, or family in a city you want to chat about? What’s some Glasgow specific barriers, as well as good city planning experiences, you’d like to chat about?

“If my presence is going to lead to the further marginalization of already-struggling groups, then I need to strongly consider whether my presence there is necessary.”

“want to go back in time and tell myself: stay home. Lie down. Do less.”

“Cities are full of blended families, complex kinship relations entailed by divorce and remarriage, lone parents, queer relationships, polyamorous families, foster families, migration of family members, non-family households, multi-generation households, empty nesters, and more. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the way our cities and their suburbs are designed to function”

“Gentrification pushes out single parents, low-income people, and affordable services, scattering kin across the city.”

“Feminist activism around domestic labour has typically centred the white, heterosexual married woman and ignored the particular needs and concerns of women of colour”

“A feminist city must look to the creative tools that women have always used to support one another and find ways to build that support into the very fabric of the urban world”

What did you think about the chapter about female friendships?

What do you think about building friendships in Glasgow after a long period of lockdown?

“there’s something radical, and therefore frightening, about women in particular finding ways to opt out of institutions such as marriage and even heterosexual monogamy itself. The world-making endeavour of imagining a city of female friends is a little devious, even a little defiant.”

“The power of female friendship is typically either underestimated, undermined, or ignored all together in cultural narratives”

“what ways of being in the city are lost or ignored when we view female friendships as frivolous and disposable?”

“being a subway ride away made it feel like we could always find a way to get together, that maybe not so much had changed after all”

“So the bigger question is how could we create or repurpose spaces, especially urban spaces, in ways that open up a wide range of possibilities for sustaining and practicing the kinds of relationships that we think will support us across the life course?”

If women, Indigenous people, people of colour, queer, and trans folks insist on valuing and re-centring relations that have been systematically undermined, the status quo inevitably tilts in ways that are frightening and fantastic. This is a huge step toward the feminist city, the city that values women’s relationships, decentres the nuclear family, and lets women and girls take up space and make relations on their own terms.

These examples are reminders that as much as the freedom for some women to be alone in public has improved, the policing of others and the removal of safe spaces has simultaneously increased.

It’s glaringly obvious that people of colour are routinely viewed as trespassers in the city. Just as patriarchy is enshrined in the urban environment, white supremacy is also the ground upon which we walk

you’ll encounter more contradictions than resolutions in your work, especially when your privileges become salient.

Moreover, women find it incredibly difficult to acknowledge their own bravery and clear judgment.

“the appearance of safety comes to stand in for the end goal”.

“At a minimum, an intersectional approach that starts from the needs and perspectives of the most vulnerable will be required. Listening to and believing women will be standard practice. An understanding of the interconnections between private and public violence will increase. Rape myths and rape culture will be dismantled. Fear will not be a tactic of social control. In a safe, feminist city, women won’t have to be courageous just to step outside the door. Our energies won’t be wasted on a million and one safety precautions. In this city, the full extent of what women have to offer the world can be realized”

“There are little feminist cities sprouting up in neighbourhoods all over the place, if we can only learn to recognize and nurture them. The feminist city is an aspirational project, one without a “master” plan that in fact resists the lure of mastery.”

What changes would you like to see to city planning in Glasgow to make it a Feminist City?

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Listed are some quotes and passages from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Feel free to use them to start discussion but also chat about your favourite or stand out sections too.

Quoted on my copy of the book, from 1965, it states “Muriel Spark’s brilliantly comic novel has been memorably adapted for the stage and as a film starring Maggie Smith, confirming Jean Brodie’s place as one of the best loved characters in twentieth-century fiction”

“She was an Edinburgh Festival all of her own” (27)

“She was the square on the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle and they were only the squares on the other two sides” (p87)

“Just as an excessive sense of guilt can drive people to excessive action, so was Miss 85Brodie driven to it by an excessive lack of guilt” (p85)

Do you agree with the first statement?

Did you think the character in the book was the same as the film? (if you have read/seen both)

“Here is tram car. I dare say I’ll not get a seat. This is nineteen-thirty-six. The age of chivalry is past.” (p10)

What characters stood out the most to you, the girls? Teachers?

“Then suddenly Sandy wanted to be kind to Mary Macgregor, and thought of the possibilities of feeling nice from being nice to Mary instead of blaming her…She was even more frightened then, by her temptation to be nice to Mary Macgregor, since by this action she would separate herself, and be lonely, and blamable in a more dreadful way than Mary…” (p30)

“Brodie’s disapproval of the Girl Guides had a jealousy in it” (p32)

“they preached the inventions of Marie Stopes (p43)

“ But those of Miss Brodie’s kind were great talkers and feminists and, like most feminists, talked to men as man-to-man” (43)

What are your thoughts about the fascism within the book, and Jean Brodie’s ‘side interest’ in it? Are there examples of behaviour from Jean or others in the book that you see in our current life?

“Eunice Gardiner discovered the Industrial Revolution, its rights and wrongs, to such an extent that the history teacher, a vegetarian communist, had high hopes of her that were dashed within a few months when Eunice reverted to reading novels based on the life of Mary Queen of Scots” (83)

“Allow me, in conclusion, to congratulate you warmly upon your sexual intercourse, as well as your signing. With fondest joy, Jean Brodie) (p74)

did you think about Muriel Spark’s humour?What

by Jacqueline Harpman

“So I reckon that humanity – which I wonder whether I belong to – really had a very vivid imagination”

Listed are some quotes, passages and questions from and about the book. Feel free to use them to start discussion but also chat about your favourite or stand out sections too.

“Perhaps when someone has experienced a day-to-day life that makes sense, they can never become accustomed to strangeness. That is something that I, who have only experienced absurdity, can only suppose”

· What are your general feelings about this book?

“I must be lacking in certain experiences that make a person fully human” p114

“‘you can teach me, ‘I said. ‘I could do it. I’m not like the rest of you’ p117

“I received that caress several times – the only one I was able to tolerate – the silent gratitude of a woman receiving death at my hands.” p121

· ‘child’ often says she is different and not like the others, what do you think about this?

· How did you feel about her killing the women?

“I have read them all, every single word. I didn’t understand a thing”

“True I have killed, but I did so to relive my companions’ suffering, and I have always had the impression that they were grateful to me” p174

· The two passages above are from the same page, do you agree that she doesn’t understand a thing from the books she read?

· What did you think about the introduction of the books to her life? What do you think about the significance of each mentioned (Hamlet, astronautics, gardening, Dostoevsky, Don Quixote)

“The first one I tried to spell was ‘cabin: It has ‘ca’ from ‘can’ and ‘bin’ from ‘compost bin’ – I just had to put the two together to make ‘cabin’. Then I spelled ‘cage’. The magic ‘e’ made the ‘a’ say its own name, unlike the short ‘a’ in ‘cabin’. I felt very pleased with myself for working this out and it looked as though I remembered everything I’d been taught. p165

· A lot of the info and memories the women remembered and even passed to ‘child’ was formed from their own childhoods, like the phrase helping to pronounce letters. How did the book make you feel about attitudes towards ‘child’ and did it make you think further about how children are treated in our own societies?

“I felt an immense sadness on thinking that there had been men and their closeness could trigger that delicious tremor, but I was reduced, poor me! To encountering it by chance in a dream” p163

“…she explained to me what women can do together, I found that strange, for I hated anyone touching me, which she put down to the memory of the whip. ‘ In that case, what were men for?’ I asked” p103

· What did you think about the language used by ‘child’ to describe the feelings she had about men and what do think about the words she uses to describe the feelings that are supposed to give her pleasure on her own?

· What did you think about her thoughts and feelings about the women in couples?

“I am all alone. Even though I sometimes dream of a visitor.” P186

Against The Loveless World

by Susan Abulhawa

“...I want to thank you, dear reader. I am not a writer without you and a novel cannot fully become, or find its place in the world, without your thoughts and interpretations of it.”

· What did you think of Against The Loveless World?

· What did you think about Susan Abulhawa’s writing?

· Would you recommend this book to other people? Why?

· How did you find the Nahr’s connections to Palestine and being Palestinian changed throughout the book?

· What would you like to discuss about the book with others?

"...I want to thank you, dear reader. I am not a writer without you and a novel cannot fully become, or find its place in the world, without your thoughts and interpretations of it."

For longstanding book club members the overwhelming opinion was that this might be the best book we have read together so far. Most people mentioned how easy and quick the book was to read, despite the powerful and at times harrowing subject matter. This was mostly down to the strong and likable main character of Nahr, who for many of us brought to life the complex reality of the political situation in Palestine in a relatable and accessible manner.

The glossary of terms at the beginning of the book further enriched our understanding of Palestinian culture and history, and in particular left many of us longing for and almost tasting the food of Palestine.

Food and the senses are very important in Nahr's telling of her life and descriptions of the deprivation of her confinement.

A big question for many of us, was how reading Against the Loveless World during lockdown would of felt. The book so wonderfully brings to life feelings of isolation and the importance of seeking solace in our own memories. How a sound, smell or taste can instantly transport us to another time or place.

"...but I recall emotions in name only. My life returns to me in images, smells and sounds, but never feelings. I feel nothing"

Although the book is at times harrowing and despairing, for many of us there was always an underlying sense of hope and possibility for change. That through it all love was present in different forms in Nahr's life and country.

"I knew that, despite everything, I was loved. I was loved hard. At once and forever against the loveless world."

The discussion around “All About Love” by bell hooks has been one of the best attended in the history of the Feminist Book Club in Glasgow. Perhaps this was due to the power of the book, the recent loss of a beloved author or the fact that it was the first discussion in person after many Zoom meetings. We received dozens of requests, but come the day of the meeting, climate change had its say in a form of a heatwave, and many people didn’t feel it was the right day to participate. Still, more than twenty people were hosted by the CCA in the kind environment of the Saramago bar on the ground floor.

bell hooks wrote All About Love in 1999, addressing some of the most pertinent themes of all time: love, the presence or lack of it, fear, solitude, the need of spirituality, the relationships we build, or we miss in our everyday life. More than 20 years later, the book is still very relevant.
Love is the engine that makes every community work. Without love every conflict, every problem can’t be solved, it just gets worse. This can help us understand that love is more political than society would like us to think. Learning how to love starts in early childhood, and hooks demonstrates how giving and receiving love often fails us.

In an age where hate is fuelled and used as a political weapon, reflecting on how to transform our love into a tool for our communities is a necessity. That’s probably the main reason why many people feel touched by this book and needed to participate.

During the discussion about the book, Stefanie distributed some discussion guidelines and some participants underlined the quotes that touched them most. Some examples:
“Loving practice is not aimed at simply giving an individual greater life satisfaction, it is extolled as the primary way to end domination and oppression. This important politicisation of love is often absent from today’s writing”

Someone else underlined that the book challenged their view of love and gave them a feeling of hope. Someone else reported another quote: “Commitment to truth telling lays the groundwork for the openness and honesty that is the heartbeat of love”. Or “living simply makes loving simple”.

Another reflection introduced during the day was the accessibility of bell hooks as a writer. A quality that makes theory enjoyable to discuss.

To close this brief but emotional report of the last meeting, another quote from bell hooks:

“There is no better place to learn the art of loving than in community”.