I was intrigued by the real-life basis of the Halifax Explosion and the intersecting stories of two women coping with the local accident and crisis, the effects of World War I, societal limitations placed on women It's 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and two women are coping with the ripple effects of World War I--and When a tragedy strikes Nova Scotia, both of the women's lives will be turned upside down--along with

In this perfect summer read, Harrison explores 1950s life for three women facing complicated personal Tennis ultimately brings together three women, formerly strangers to each other. The women feel deeply and lean on each other.

The women realize they may know too much about where the bodies are buried--literally--to be allowed I loved the women's complicated bonds, their crafty planning, their fights for justice, and their ability returns in all of her feisty, unconventional, clever glory, despite the significant constraints on women A Study in Scarlet Women is the first book in Sherry Thomas's gender-flipped Sherlock Holmes mystery It's about the infuriating, often tragic power mismatches between men and women, white and Black people

And at any rate, I loved the low-key thread of the premise that a strong middle-aged woman can find moments We All Want Impossible Things is heartbreaking and wonderfully strange, funny and full of love, and a

type immersed in her own sometimes dark writing, she is disgusted by the rest of her cohort--childish women But the situation isn't exactly what it seems, and when a woman comes to town using Evie's birth name I loved the key elements of this story: the capable con woman, the past coming back to haunt her, the The novel flits between the stories of three women from disparate backgrounds, drastically different ; later in the novel the young woman realizes that "woodworking" wasn't meant to be a handbook, but a

Click here for my full review of Divine Rivals. 03 So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Click here for my full review of So Late in the Day. 04 The Woman in Me by Britney Spears Spears's slim In her memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears offers the story of her life to date: select events of book reveals disturbing, ongoing abuse and frightening misuse of power while positioning Britney as a strong Please click here for my full review of The Woman in Me. 05 The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by

Isabel has always been a strong swimmer and loves the water, but she doubts this outlandish fable and and she ultimately feels destined to head to sea--in a time in history when it was unacceptable for a woman

Saara El-Arifi's Cleopatra offers a picture of a feminist, cutthroat, passionate, dedicated woman who Like many of us who question historical accounts that feel whitewashed or wiped of women due to sexism

Shipstead has created two independent, defiant, appealingly strong young women split by time. Shipstead has created two independent, defiant, appealingly strong young women split by time (and, secondarily

Mackenzie is a sports agent who's constantly fighting against misogyny and double standards as one of few women and refusal to bend to societal pressures--whether by behaving in a more tough manner because she's a woman in a career where fewer women exist, or by using her femininity as a tool in that career.

Everywhere (Frankie Elkin #3) by Lisa Gardner Frankie Elkin is the best at finding missing girls and women She's an unassuming middle-aged woman and a recovering alcoholic who has a compulsion: to locate missing But a strange feeling pervades everything on the island.

(Side note, the imbalance of power of men and women and the females' responsibility to keep up appearances It's strange how relief and longing can live side by side in the same heart.

exposes age-old power mismatches; offers young characters agency; explores systemic violence against women It's about the infuriating, often tragic power mismatches between men and women, white and Black people Meanwhile our main protagonist is a middle-aged woman appealingly muddling along at times, doing her particularly powerful and heartbreaking in their copiousness--and in highlighting the brutality against women Lists include cases summarized in the vein of "It was the one where [insert specific circumstances of a woman's

released after 22 months' imprisonment for the drunk-driving accident in which she killed an older woman Harriet's fraternizing with the imprisoned women--both in and out of jail--seems particularly ill-advised

But she's determined to follow her own path--and her strong-willed decisions fly in the face of rigid society's expectations concerning women, slavery, and appropriate marriage prospects.

Wonderfully Witchy Stories to Charm You , and again in my review of Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships , a woman-centered type immersed in her own sometimes dark writing, she is disgusted by the rest of her cohort--childish women

Forty women (one is a young girl, our main protagonist) live year after year as prisoners in an underground Male guards come and go, feeding the women minimal rations and never speaking. The women have no recollection of how they came to be in this place, and no information is forthcoming Then a blasting alarm sounds, the nearest guard drops his keys and flees, and the women scramble for The novel's tone doesn't assure a satisfying set of answers as to why the women were chosen for this

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading a novel in two timelines about a young woman posing as a cabin abortions in pre-Gilded Age New York, Madame Restell; and I'm listening to Britney Spears's memoir, The Woman But Restell's story swirls with weighty issues still relevant today--women's rights and autonomy; the I'm listening to this as an audiobook. 03 The Woman in Me by Britney Spears In her slim memoir The Woman

your alley, you might also like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women in A Well-Behaved Woman, both in the surroundings and the rigid views of the period about women, marriage between what feels frivolous and what is Ava's meaningful growth, including her important role in the women Meanwhile, privileged Charlotte has her own secrets, and when both women's true situations begin to be (especially black women) in that time who were without men to protect them.

find support and to function more fully in the present, she decides to refuse to be shamed as the woman I could see that some people...were uncomfortable with me coming out of my lane, a place where women To them, a woman writing about a man leaving is, somehow, worse than the man leaving.

Historical fiction set in the West also lends itself to stories of strong female characters in a time when the world around them didn't support women's abilities, independent thinking, or determination. Kate is a tough young woman posing as a male cowboy. Turner's story is inspired by her family's memoirs, and her Sarah Prine is a strong woman living on the Walk on Earth a Stranger tells the story of Lee, a young woman with a powerful secret: an ability to

In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious building bonds deeper than either could have imagined; the love story between the bridge and Gore is strange willing to suspend my disbelief regarding; and my mind was bent around trying to follow some of the later strings

I loved that brave women that drive the novel in both timelines. Lisa Barr is also the author of Woman on Fire , The Unbreakables , and Fugitive Colors .

Divya has crafted strong female main protagonists who navigate the sometimes dark, always complicated But Divya is too busy crafting strong female main protagonists (complete with working mother guilt, which The interconnected stories here are made up of strange, affecting situations.

Alouette herself yearns for creative freedom, but as a woman with no standing, she is not allowed to and breathtaking power imbalances; dangerous mining practices; widespread captivity of inconvenient women

She explores the necessity of being a strong woman in a male-dominated profession. And I do love hearing the stories of women in comedy.

invincible--who has dropped out of sight and settled down to raise her young daughter alongside her strong-willed Amina soon finds herself entangled in a dangerous ocean quest to rescue a young woman, while fighting and she believes they're linked to the curse that the community believes has its hold on the Farrow women She would love to end the curse, the fraying of the Farrow women's minds, once and for all--by never

find their mother, a disappeared activist who always fought against the practice of matching Ukrainian women Endling holds dark humor, sobering truths, and lots of gray area within a strange story.

Bridie is a strong female protagonist, and Things In Jars offers solid historical fiction details of Veronica to benefit from the author's own modern sensibilities in A Curious Beginning, but Veronica is a strong Abigail is clever, and her strong role in her partnership with the wonderfully odd Jackaby is satisfying Ji Lin speaks her mind and ruffles feathers even as she exploits assumptions about women, sexual attraction She doesn’t fit the mold of a typical woman from 1930s Malaysia nor that of the British colonists living

Ward's novel, set in the years before the Civil War and told from the point of view of an enslaved young woman anticipated: she's separated from her mother, sold, and forced to begin walking in a trail of roped women Without her mother's protection--and tales of their warrior-woman ancestors--Annie is left with only

I was intrigued by her one-woman trial and error method of determining her triggers, impulses, and coping Jen Hatmaker, who was married before she could legally have a drink and who built her identity as a woman as an audiobook. 06 This American Woman: A One-in-a-Billion Memoir by Zarna Garg Comedian Zarna Garg I laughed out loud repeatedly while I was reading this charming memoir by this strong, funny woman. Please click here for my full review of This American Woman.

with the sisters' complicated relationships and with the link Harrow draws between witching and the women's I adored how Harrow intermingled the women's suffrage movement with the reemergence of witching and women's or dialogue distracted me from what felt like the heart of the story (the Eastwoods' helping other women 02 The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden This is the third and final book in Katherine Arden's strong reading the Wicked Witch of the West story turned on its head as Maguire traced the origins of Elphaba, a strong-willed

As always, her main characters are richly layered, struggle with terrible circumstances, retain strong Click here for my full review of Chenneville. 04 Time's Mouth by Edan Lepucki Lepucki's strange, interesting A friend's borrowed, rambling home becomes a refuge for unwed mothers and mothers-to-be, with the women on site treating Ursa as a goddess--and the children being horrifically neglected as the women enjoy Heart by Emma Donoghue Donoghue's captivating historical fiction centers around two real-life young women

Then Bridget falls for a fellow "sporting woman," and when the Buffalo Queen is threatened, she must Bridget is strong and no-nonsense yet also inexperienced and far from worldly.

causality; and I'm listening to a stand-alone historical fiction novel that's also a sequel, The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson The Book Woman's Daughter is Kim Michele Richardson's stand-alone sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, a book I listened to as an audiobook and loved. Richardson writes about strong Kentuckians and their environment, and in The Book Woman's Daughter she Click here for my review of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.

But as the wedding week goes on, each woman is surprised by what she discovers about herself and the Blaylock celebrates tough women, stand-up men, and never-ending hard work. The mountain justice that's carried out by the women was thrillingly shocking. released after 22 months' imprisonment for the drunk-driving accident in which she killed an older woman Harriet's fraternizing with the imprisoned women--both in and out of jail--seems particularly ill-advised

Randy Savage by Jon Finkel (2024) Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know about Women I feel powerful, strong. Hare shares the mental fortitude, grueling physical challenges, and how she became a middle-aged woman

01 Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino I loved Sunny's body positivity and her self-made-woman status. shake off the fact that nothing in the Bergdorf Goodman swimsuit section comes even close to fitting a woman Handles It and makes her dreams come true--thereby also taking care of fashion-conscious plus-sized women I loved Sunny's independence, savvy abilities, strong will, and, of course, her fashion sense.

01 Isola by Allegra Goodman Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts When she sees an ad seeking for the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s training and with becoming one of the first women in space The women's fights to fully be part of a traditionally male-dominated field and the various ways in which When a mysterious woman washes up half-dead on the remote island of Shearwater, home of the world's largest

This historical fiction novel from Quinn is a departure from much of my favorite Quinn fiction--brave women sometimes testy, often incisive, and at other times diminished--a product of the limitations of single women The Fraud . 05 Isola by Allegra Goodman Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman please see Isola . 06 Trust by Hernan Diaz This story-within-a-story-within-a-story reveals a clever woman I was intrigued by the structure and by the peeks behind the curtains of a wealthy family and one woman's

This historical fiction novel from Quinn is a departure from much of my favorite Quinn fiction--brave women who initiates weekly makeshift attic-apartment dinner parties and builds bonds between the disparate women But none of the women is precisely as she seems on the surface. The ladies exhibit broadening horizons, and over the course of the story, each of the women stretches

hidden book, an illiterate young girl, the powerful men who aimed to manipulate her, and two brave women links to Elizabeth Barton herself, and Alison dives into trying to add to her vast knowledge of the woman

Reading Now I'm reading recently published stories by Claire Keegan, So Late in the Day: Stories of Women 01 So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan In the brilliant, Irish-born Claire stories from various eras in Keegan's career are revised and expanded here: Antarctica explores a married woman's

later timeline takes place in the time of World War II as Daphne, an intelligent and educated young woman protagonists are explicitly linked within the story, although the reader will know of their bond before the women Walsh is also the author of Becoming Bonnie, Side by Side, A Betting Woman, and The Call of the Wrens

Bossy Favorites of the Month I've had a strong Bossy reading month. to find support and to function more fully in the present, she decides to refuse to be shamed as the woman The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate Fagan Cate Kay is a bestselling author--and a pseudonym used by a woman Stone Yard Devotional concerns a woman who leaves her Sydney life behind to live among nuns as an unbeliever and Violet Thistlewaite is determined to shed her identity as the Thornwitch, Shadowfade's right-hand woman

Reading Now Last week I gave a Spring Book Talk about recently published titles I thought that group of women fiction about a female physician and surgeon in 1849 London as she fights for respect and to advance women's Tennis brings together three women, formerly strangers to each other.

Blakemore's story about witch hunts in 1643 England and the young women who aimed to thwart them; and With plenty of youthful explorations of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, plus young women striving to strike Odd events are ascribed to dark forces, and dangerous rumors begin to swirl around the women on the outskirts Can the headstrong young women save their society from the arrogant men and their unchecked power? Then something really strange happens.

and as Veronica and Stoker follow clues they venture from a royal palace to an artists' refuge to a strange Veronica and Stoker; the allusions to each of their complicated pasts; their hilarious banter; and their strong-willed

As Sam's disappearance stretches on, Ali, a gay culturally Muslim woman, is excoriated in the press for Much of the energy of the story centers around the women's reconciliation with each of their estranged

She's asked to play the role of maid to an unassuming, wealthy young woman in a dastardly plot to take the woman's inheritance and leave her to rot in an insane asylum. Bridie is a strong female protagonist, and Things In Jars offers solid historical fiction details of Montague; an unorthodox woman with an open mind and brave disposition, Theodora; a young woman who has be cruel, ruthless, and he's Wren's sworn enemy, a deadly force who has destroyed her countrymen and women