The Duchess: Barren Bitches Book Brigade_

Hi all! It is that great time again for the virtual book club to meet up and chat, please let me first say that I am sorry for my delay in posting this it was all I could do to scrape myself off the bathroom floor. This might be short on my part but I will try and make it sweet.

This month we are all reading Embryo Culture by Beth Kohl, a very interesting and informative look at the use of assisted reproduction technology. I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of research and personal story that was included in the book.

1. The author describes her journey through infertility both in terms of a faith journey and a process of scientific discovery. How has infertility impacted your faith journey and your views of science/technology?

I would say that infertility has not so much impacted my faith as it has my self esteem. I suppose you could say that along this journey I realized there was a lesson I needed to learn and I would say that that is true. I had to learn to let go and know that I could not control everything. On the other hand I have always been fascinated by biology and the human body (I grew up in a family dominated with medical professionals) so from that standpoint I have almost begun to treat my body as its own experiment, you know tweak this here, adjust that there, all to get the right mix and hopefully the desired outcome.

2. The author also talks about how many embryos should be transferred at any given cycle. Should there be a limit?

I do believe there should be a limit to the number of embryos transferred. I think multiple births (3+) are starting to become more and more frequent and that for me personally the risks out way the benefits. I also believe that if there has been a previous multiple pregnancy that it should be taken into account when deciding on the number of embryos to transfer (ala Jon and Kate make 8).

3. At one point, Beth fixates on a typo on a RE clinic's website and decides, "one picayune omission but enough to confirm I'll have to seek my progeny elsewhere. When dealing with things microscopic - egg nuclei and isolated sperm - there can be no margin for error." Has there ever been something "picayune" that has swayed your decision or direction on your path to parenthood? What was it that made that something seem significant?

Yes! Yes! Yes! I am pretty sure I kept shouting this over and over when I was reading the book. At my last clinic I accidentally lost my prescription and so they called in a new one for me. I was supposed to be doing Clomid 100mg days 3-7 and on the bottle it said days 5-9. This still bothers me today, I know it was a small error but at the same time all it takes is mixing up one vial of sperm for another. I have since parted ways with that particular clinic.

I apologize again for my tardiness; this was an absolutely wonderful read for anyone thinking about embarking on the rollercoaster of infertility.

Hop along to another stop on this blog tour by visiting the main list at http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/. You can also sign up for the next book on this online book club: The Mistress's Daughter by A.M. Homes (with author participation!)

Hi all!

I had decided to try out something new this cycle to distract myself and what I came upon was The Barren Bitches Book Brigade. It is a super cool book club from the comfort of my own home. Our first book is the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, a chilling look into the Republic of Gilead. A society where women have no real value and are not allowed to read, write or speak freely. I will be honest this book scared the shit out of me at first, I would like to know how I made it through four years of honors English (I know grammatically, I don't often demonstrate this fact) and later years of college literature without touching on this tale. The following are my responses to a few of the reading group questions (please bear with me it's almost midnight and I just got home from work...major cop-out I know.). Please feel free to add your two cents on this and be sure to scroll all the way down for the link to the other participating blogs!

The structure of the civilization in the book seemed really eerie to me (and quite difficult to figure out). Even though the copyright in my book was 1985 and set in the 21st century, it seems to reflect some of the fears we have today. I found myself wondering if our country could really be in for a drastic "take-over" as represented in the book. What are your feelings about the society described in the book and do you think it is possible to have something like that happen in our country?

How funny that you should mention the copyright, as I was reading the part in the book tells of how the government is destroyed I actually flipped to the front to check it out thinking that perhaps this was written much later than I thought. While I have to believe (hope and pray) that a "take-over" could never be as severe as Gilead it seems as though some religions are already heading that way. There are two small towns where I live with a few smaller communities scattered near by. In one of these communities is a fundamentalist church where when a woman marries she follows three feet behind her father down the aisle, where she then signs away her reproductive rights and then follows three feet behind her husband back up the aisle. While this is just a small part of this country it makes me wonder how easily it would be to "take-over" with just a little bit of panic, in the book it was the slaying of all the government officials, but who is to say that if leadership continues to fail us that we won't be ripe for the picking.

Even though the rampant infertility is acknowledged to be largely due to environmental pollution, Gilead refuses to acknowledge the possibility of male infertility; if a Handmaid is unable to conceive with three Commanders, it is assumed that she is at fault and she is reassigned to the Colonies. How did this double standard resonate with you, if at all?

How funny that this didn't pull a larger response from me. I thought it to myself once at the beginning of the book (and felt outraged) and then for some reason I pushed it aside, Perhaps because in my home infertility is my problem. Duke is more than willing to sit with me through it but when it really comes down to it I am the one who makes the monthly march to the clinic, drugstore, feminine hygiene aisle. He handles the insurance claims, it is a lovely ignorance for him, of this I am sure. He appreciates that I "speak" a medical language and that my Doctor's treat me and my opinions with respect. If our situation was reversed and the problem of conceiving fell on him then I can surely guarantee that we would not be taking steps towards eradicating it. I think Gilead's male population is such a chest beating society, not much different from some (I am making some generalizations and for that I am sorry) men today. Truth be told I don't think the men of Gilead could handle the pressure.

Handmaid's Tale is a first-person account in which only some aspects of life are illuminated completely or even at all. Is there an aspect of the story, something that perhaps requires factual elucidation, that you wish you could know more about? If yes, what is it and how do you feel that knowledge would add to your understanding of a character, a group of characters, or life in Gilead in general?

Uhh hello where is the rest of the world??? Is everyone living like this? Where the hell was Amnesty International? United Nations? I could not understand if this was just in pockets across the US and fast spreading of if the whole country had already succumbed to this way of life. Was there still plane travel? Could all other countries travel to Gilead or was it only men and then only if it was trade based. There were a great many parts of the book that I wished had deeper detail but I have to admit at the same time, not having those details pulled me in deeper to the novel and made me want to seek out the clues that Offred had to offer. It reminded me a bit of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speech in which he is speaking about waiting and he keeps going on and on. One run-on after another making his reader wait for an end. This book had the same effect on me as that long ago poem. I wanted to know more, I wanted to find the loophole, I wanted to make sense of it all.

Hop along to another stop on this blog tour by visiting the main list at http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/. You can also sign up for the next book on this online book club: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler (with author participation!)

Thanks for stopping by!