Pictured: reading in Montmartre with an iconic black cat in the vicinity. I picked up this slim French novel a while ago. When I started reading, I realised it was…
Otages by Nina Bouraoui (Book review)
Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard (Review)
This was a lovely, slim read that had been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. Beard is a highly respected classicist, and in this essay, she explores how ancient…
Et la joie de vivre by Gisèle Pelicot (Book review)
Really pleased I read this in French: this is such an important memoir and one that I think will stand the test of time. This book is a great testament…
Naiset joita ajattelen öisin, kir. Mia Kankimäki
Ajattelin kirjoittaa muutaman ajatuksen tästä kirjasta myös suomeksi! Kuuntelin tämän vasta nyt äänikirjana Otavalta, mutta kirjan maine ja aihe olivat tuttuja jo ennestään. Kirjaa oli helppo seurata, ja se toimi…
Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials by Marion Gibson
This was a really fascinating non-fiction read. I started this in November and finished in early December, and it completely held my interest. Pictured: the book in Lancaster Castle, in…
maybe ill call gillian anderson by Rhian Elizabeth
I love reading poetry collections, but they feel harder to review than novels! This poetry collection was published on 31st May 2025 by Broken Sleep Books: a working class publisher all…
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
This was the quintessential autumnal #spinsterseptember read with a supernatural feminist twist: a woman escapes family obligations and relocates to a small village in the Chiltern Hills and becomes a witch! 🧙♀️…
Happening (L’Événement) by Annie Ernaux
Published in 2000, this novella feels like a powerful piece of psychological writing, a confession of sorts, as Ernaux takes us back to her student days in Rouen when she…
Books about Women’s Health: Medical Memoirs & History
I’ve got a bit of a thing for books on women’s health: whether that is an empowering memoir of dealing with pain and frustrating diagnoses, or hard-hitting reports on the…
Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai
Formally experimental at times, this book is a beautiful stream of consciousness narrative of a Tokyo housewife. Her “ladies who lunch” group and their rivalries, her neighbours and their dramas,…
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker
I’ve read Barker’s Trojan war series over the years and I’ve enjoyed its analysis of the Battle of Troy and the aftermath of the war from the women‘s perspective. This…
Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
This book and its author have been on my radar for a while. I was aware of Laura Bates’s work through her activism and the Everyday Sexism project. Since reading…
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
In the Time of the Butterflies is a really magical & warm novel: intelligent, moving, and powerful. Julia Alvarez brings to life the story of the Mirabal sisters (known as…
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
I picked this up at random from a secondhand bookshop, and I’m so glad I did. This is a fictionalised retelling of the real-life “Chappaquiddick incident” from 1969 involving Senator…
Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth by Xiaolu Guo
I wasn’t immediately aware that this was actually my second book by Xiaolu Guo until I began reading it, but from the moment I started, I was captivated by its…
Bitter by Francesca Jakobi
You know a book has left its mark when you rush to find more books by the same author… only to feel that pang of disappointment when you discover it’s…
August is a Wicked Month by Edna O’Brien
I really wanted to love this book more than I did. I knew this book had been controversial/banned when it first came out in 1965 so I was expecting a…
7 Non-Fiction Biographies About Fascinating Historic Women
There are so many great non-fiction books out there about history’s unsung heroines: these are just a few of my favourites. These seven books bring together women who need to…
Unquiet by Linn Ullmann (Review)
This book was such a joy to read—thoughtful, intelligent, and surprisingly funny. I hadn’t been aware of Linn Ullmann before, but after receiving messages from people praising her work, I…
Kudos by Rachel Cusk
I’ve read a lot of Rachel Cusk, and I was really surprised that I had never actually finished the Outline trilogy! It was fun to visit my “lockdown” author and…
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller
This is a powerful one-woman play. Having it read by Jodie Comer who also played Tessa (the protagonist – an ambitious young barrister) during its London run is a real…
Real Estate by Deborah Levy
The final instalment of the Living Autobiography series! These books have been super easy for me to read. Not necessarily always wholly relatable, they are beautiful, satisfying, and full of…
Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, And LA by Eve Babitz
I didn’t know I’d love this as much as I did! Eve Babitz is a bit of a legend, a Hollywood muse, and I thought it was really powerful to…
The Last Song of Penelope by Claire North
I’ve read the entire Penelope series by Claire North. Feminist, comic, engaging, and insightful, the retelling of Penelope focuses on her queenhood on Ithaca and female solidarity. This final book…
Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk
Now, I love Rachel Cusk and have hoovered up a lot of her work. This one is more of a memoir than some of the other Rachel Cusk stuff I’ve…
The Safe Keep by Yael van der Wounden
This was good, but it’s hard to say much about it as there’s some essential things that you find out during the story that change things! So I don’t want…
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
First of all, I need to see this in performance! I can really see how the text would come alive with dialogue and physical drama. This play is a very…
Woman Without Shame: Poems by Sandra Cisneros
Funny, powerful, tragic, visceral, intelligent, lively…. Just some of the words I’d use to describe these poems. Of House on Mango Street fame, Cisneros is a versatile poet and storyteller,…
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
This has become a book I recommend on a regular basis! An important piece of investigative journalism led to this book that intersects topics such as race, medical ethics, gynaecology,…
Hera by Jennifer Saint
Catching up with my holiday reading reviews! Jennifer Saint is another author I’ve followed for awhile, reading her Ariadne, Atalanta, and Elektra books in this same “series” of revisionist books…
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
I’m a fan of Broder’s writing and have hoovered up her novels as they come out, and this one was no different. It’s a simple premise sprinkled with some funky…
The List by Yomi Adegoke
This book was hyped, which I always have mixed feelings about. It can be hard to drop the “what’s the hype” lens. Here’s the premise: what if your fiancé ends…
Rizzio by Denise Mina
A short novel about David Rizzio’s murder? Yes please! Rizzio was a confidante of Mary Queen of Scots and he was assassinated by Darnley (her husband) and a group of…
Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy
The first book in her “living autobiography” series, this is a response to George Orwell’s “Why I Write” which I read so long ago that I don’t really know in…
Hex by Jenni Fagan
This is an interesting read. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in witches, witch-hunt history, and feminism! This is an intimate look at the Jacobean witch paranoia whipped up by…
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
I actually really enjoyed this one! I say “actually” as I wasn’t sure about the blurb (another 30-something London breakup story). But, infuriating as he can be, I actually loved…
Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid
This little book reimagines what happens to the Macbeths after the end of the play, how Lady (Queen) Macbeth is coping in hiding. (Obviously I’m in some sort of Shakespeare…
The Home by Penelope Mortimer
My second Penelope Mortimer novel in a short time, and I think I enjoyed this more than The Pumpkin Eater. There are similar themes here, but this book is less…
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
Started with #2 of a trilogy and have no regrets: this is part of her “living memoir” series. There are some lovely vignettes here that explore different aspects of divorce…
Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman
I’ve read a few of these medical memoir/survival story/gyno pain narratives. It’s a weird thing to say you enjoy, but I do. It’s a really interesting and informative topic to…
The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes
Think you know the story of Oedipus? Think again! Here we have Jocasta’s and her daughter’s point of view of the shocking and gruesome tale. And in fact, this book…
A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk
Reading this, I’m reminded how much I like Rachel Cusk’s writing. There is something very raw and relatable in all her books. This is a claustrophobic post-partum memoir where Cusk…
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel
Set mainly in Mexico City, this is a book about two friends and their different and changing views on motherhood. Will embarking on the journey of motherhood change everything? How…
The House of Odysseus by Claire North
I practically hoover up these Greek and Roman retellings from different (often women or Gods or mythical character) perspectives, and Claire North is no different. This is the second book…