Mad Men Book Club for the Modern Woman

Mad Men began the final half of its final season this Sunday, and to commemorate the countdown to the end, I thought it would be fun to start a Mad Men book club. So, I did a little digging and found this site: http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/02/27/mad-men-reading-list.

It turns out that there are a lot of books on Mad Men from which to choose. With only 6 weeks left of the show, I had to narrow down the list quite a bit. So I decided to limit myself to books either read by women on the show, or books written by or about women. Some of these books depict life for women in the late 50s/early 60s; some are books that both men and women enjoy on the show; and some are featured reading material for the show's ladies. Here are the books I decided on and the dates I'll be reviewing them on the blog, if you'd like to read along and join in the discussion.

4/16: The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
4/23: Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara
4/30: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter
5/7: The Group by Mary McCarthy
5/14: The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry

Despite these being bestsellers from the 50s and 60s, and one of my reading areas for my doctorate being 1960s culture and literature, I've never read any of these books. That said, if there's anything objectionable in any of them (and there usually is when the material is from the sixties), I apologize in advance.

Now who wants to join me on this journey through some of the literature of Mad Men? Even if you're not a fan of the show, I think you'll enjoy expanding your literary palette with these classics.