interesting, but not quite what I was looking for

In my search for more books on women and Buddhism, I came across Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self by Anne Klein. Is that an awesome book title or what?

So, I got it out of the library. Much to my surprise, it turns out to be a fairly scholarly work on the construction of self, which compares the feminist schools of essentialism and constructionism (ie, are you born a woman, or is womanhood constructed by society?) with Buddhist schools of discovery and development (ie, do you have enlightenment within you, or is enlightenment something you work to achieve?). I'm still not sure what I'm looking for in this field, but this wasn't it. However, I do love the following quote:

"Theory is good, but it doesn't prevent things from existing." (p5)

I also liked the mandala of the Great Bliss Queen. I wanted her to have more space in this book, but she did not, but the mandala on page 177 tickled my brain in a way that I liked. I ordered a book on mandalas from the library in the hopes of finding a larger, more elaborate, and colored version, to see if it would tickle my brain even more.

For those who are interested in the construction of the self, I think you'd find this a unique approach. It didn't have what I was looking for, but it did make me want to find out more about mandalas and to seek out a book about legendary female Buddhists.