Some summer days, you just get the urge to soak up the sun while reading a good book. Other times, monsoon season hits and you’d rather curl up with a cup of tea, sit next to the window and read. Whatever your reasons may be, we all enjoy succumbing to an alternate reality every once in a while and books are a great option. I’ve compiled a short list of books that have either been written by a fierce female or have female leads because who doesn’t love a sensitive, sarcastic, cunning and honest woman who’s front and center? I know I do!
- The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
TW: Rape!
The Luckiest Girl Alive is about a woman in her late twenties who works for a magazine based in New York. The story is told from Tifani FaNelli’s point of view, a woman with both an amusing attitude and a haunting trauma. The book flashes between her life now and her life as a teenage girl in a new school. The flashbacks include a rather heartbreaking rehash of the gang rape the character had experienced at fifteen by three boys at a party. The author of the story recently came clean with the fact that Ani’s experience wasn’t entirely fictional. In an honest, empowering, but also heart-wrenching blog post What I Know, Jessica acknowledges her own rape and how it had been dismissed when she was younger. She shares with her readers that she was bullied in the same way her fictional character had been. Personally, I just started it and I haven’t been able to put it down. I find myself rushing back home to continue reading it. It’s definitely my number one summer recommendation because it has a way of breaking your heart while also making you laugh at the same time. It’s one that will definitely stick with you. Additionally, actress Reese Witherspoon is going to produce the film adaption set to release in sometime in the future.
“All my life, I’ve found it difficult to advocate for myself, to ask for what I want. I fear burdening people so much.”
2. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
Milk and Honey is a poetry book split into four parts: the hurting, the breaking, the loving, the healing. The poems each focus on heartbreak, loss, love, confusion, and female empowerment. I recently saw images like the one above circulating on basically every form of social media and decided on a whim to pick it up. I ended up reading it in one sitting. I have never devoured a book faster than this one. Reading Milk and Honey is like learning to become your own best friend again, like treating your soul to an overdue dose of ice cream. Each poem made me reflect on myself; it forced me to think about past lovers, past heartbreaks, how much I really valued self-worth and prompted me to choose better words while complimenting my fellow sisters. The author is a self-published Indian immigrant who resides in Canada. Her success is self-made. She literally started from the bottom (a basement in Malton) and worked her way up, constantly performing spoken word and jotting down poems where ever she went, eventually becoming a number one bestseller.
“I didn’t leave because
I stopped loving you,
I left because the longer
I stayed the less I loved myself.”
3. All The Rage by Courtney Summers
TW: Rape/Sexual Assault!
All The Rage came out on April fourteenth and it’s a novel I’ve been long awaiting. I even checked at the Barnes and Noble (a three hour drive from where I live) store a couple times, searching the shelves for it’s debut. Now, I will admit that I know the bare minimum about this book. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but it looks promising! All The Rage is about a girl named Romy Grey, she has been sexually assaulted and no one believes her story. She’s outcast by her peers and none of her old friends want anything to do with her. So she tries to put the incident out of her head, creating a new identity for herself in the next town over. But when word gets around that this boy has assaulted yet another girl, and then another girl goes missing, Romy must wrestle with her demons. She has to choose between the weight of her silence or fighting back against the system and demanding justice. The author, Courtney Summers, is the one who jump started the #ToTheGirls2016 hashtag on Twitter. That was how I found out about her as an author and All The Rage! The tag gives tidbits of advice to girls on the app, encouraging them to not be afraid of the power of their own voice. Both the woman described on the pages and the woman who wrote them are leading ladies who aren’t afraid to speak out on behalf of their fellow women!
“It’s kind of like stumbling upon the scene of an accident. Once you’ve looked, you’re part of it. Especially if you walk away.”
4. Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav
Love & Misadventure is another book full of poems, these ones focusing on the intricacies of love and finding your own self-worth after failed relationships. The stanzas pull you in and pull on your heartstrings, sending you on the all too familiar roller-coaster that is falling in and out of love. This is one of my favorites because you can easily identify with any of the poems at any stage of a relationship while also being able to find the ones that make you fall in love with yourself all over again. Lang Leav calls herself The Girl Who Cries Wolf and is very self aware. She is very in touch with her sadness, actually set to release a new book called Sad Girls later this year. Lang doesn’t shy away from her feminine emotions but instead wholeheartedly embraces each and every one of them. That’s what makes her work so exquisite and a must-have on every shelf for every woman of any age!
There are obviously many choices when opting for kick-butt female leads. There have been no shortages of women at the center of fiction these past few years and my guess is that the number is only going to grow. With the success of female fronted franchises such as The Hunger Games and The Divergent series, there has been a high demand for more. In fact, The Hunger Games is cited for making over Hollywood, heightening interest in Young Adult fiction, and proving that movies can have a feminist message while still making millions! I’m presenting you with the next wave of feminist fiction and this set of books specifically proves that not only is it OK for women to openly talk about sex in their work, but that it is also acceptable for them to talk about their sexual assault in their work. All while still being on the best-seller lists! You can’t go wrong plucking up one of these while you’re sunbathing this summer!
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