Possessing the Secret of Joy came bundled with The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar, but I am treating this as a separate review. Again, Alice Walker tells a story that needs to be told: that of female genital mutilation. However, the way the story was told was not appealing to me, mainly because the author was all over the place. Each chapter was told by a different character, which was fine, but I could not figure out where they were or what was happening. The story didn't seem to follow a logical progression. In the end it finally made sense, but it was hard getting there! Ms Walker's pantheistic theology is again seen in this book: "Was woman herself not the tree of life? And was she not crucified? Not in some age no one even remembers, but right now, daily, in many lands on earth?" "Religion is an elaborate excuse for what man has done to women and to the earth." If you want to learn more about FGM, go ahead and read this. Otherwise, I don't really recommend it. (By the way, FGM is practised among some groups in Niger, but not among the Songhai.)