Several of us have decided to read The Group by Mary McCarthy for the Rory reading group. If anyone wants to join us, please jump in! You don't need to have watched Gilmore Girls to participate. We just use the list of books mentioned or seen on the show to guide us towards some (hopefully) great reads.
Synopsis from Wikipedia (minus a spoiler):
In 1933, eight young female friends graduate from Vassar College. The book describes these women’s lives post-graduation, beginning with the marriage of one of the friends... Each character struggles with different issues, including sexism in the work place, child-raising, financial difficulties, family crises, and sexual relationships. Nearly all the women's issues involve the men in their lives: fathers, employers, lovers, or husbands. As highly educated women from affluent backgrounds, they must strive for autonomy and independence in a time when a woman’s role is still largely restricted to marriage and childbirth. The plot is influenced by the political and economic atmosphere of the time. Over the course of the book, the reader learns about the women’s views on contraception, love, sex, socialism, and psychoanalysis.

I found an excellent article on the Guardian's website that talks about various reactions to The Group when it was published and how Mary McCarthy felt about it. I hadn't realised it caused so much controversy; it was even banned in Australia.
Mary McCarthy led an interesting life by all accounts. There's a biography cited in the above article that I think I'll add to my wish list.

'The Group' sounds a great read. I would love to join in, thanks Kylie

I read 'The Group' about 15-20 years ago. My ex Mother-Out-Law gave me a batch of books that included this one. It's an interesting read, and I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all make of it!

I'm still waiting for this to arrive! am getting very impatient now! I want to read this!

its arrived am just going to finish my current read today and will probably start it tonight or tomorrow morning

Well, I've just finished it. I've put my comments in my reading blog for now, as I want to wait until some of the other readers have finished it so I don't spoil anything here for the moment.

Weave, on 19 May 2011 - 07:00 AM, said:
I ordered my copy today

Good news, Weave!
My reading of The Group is going sooo slowly. I haven't been motivated to read at all recently, and when I do, I'm struggling to want to read The Group. It's going OK and is reasonably interesting, but it's not exactly gripping reading.
I just read a brief bit in the novel about a waiters' strike at a hotel that mentioned the real-life Dorothy Parker. I was interested to see if there really was such a strike that Dorothy attended so I did a little research and found that it's true. There's an account of the event in this article.
Interestingly, there was a real magazine called Common Sense, and two men from the magazine really did start up a speech encouraging the diners to walk out. It doesn't give their names, but I assume that's where the fictional element comes in and that they were not named Harald and Put.

Kylie, on 24 May 2011 - 01:50 AM, said:
Good news, Weave!
My reading of The Group is going sooo slowly. I haven't been motivated to read at all recently, and when I do, I'm struggling to want to read The Group. It's going OK and is reasonably interesting, but it's not exactly gripping reading.
I just read a brief bit in the novel about a waiters' strike at a hotel that mentioned the real-life Dorothy Parker. I was interested to see if there really was such a strike that Dorothy attended so I did a little research and found that it's true. There's an account of the event in this article.
Interestingly, there was a real magazine called Common Sense, and two men from the magazine really did start up a speech encouraging the diners to walk out. It doesn't give their names, but I assume that's where the fictional element comes in and that they were not named Harald and Put.