Whether you’ve run out of Netflix shows or are simply an avid reader looking for something new, we’ve compiled a list of five of the best books for women published so far in 2017.
Best Books: For your daughter/granddaughter/niece
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, $32.95
From Elizabeth I to Serena Williams, the Bronte sisters to Malala, this crowdfunded bedtime book catalogues the tales and achievements of 100 kick-ass women. These beautifully illustrated stories are designed to inspire your rebel daughter (or son!) to dream big and to remember that, while fairytales and princess stories might be nice sometimes, in real life girls can be heroes too.
Quote: “Once upon a time, a girl called Amelia saved enough money to buy a yellow aeroplane. She called it The Canary.”
Listen: Mia Freedman chats to literary phenomenon Jodi Picoult. (Post continues below.)
Best Books: Memoir
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy, $29.99
Ariel Levy is a profile writer for The New Yorker, but in this memoir, she turns the pen on herself and asks what happens when you can’t control how your own story unfolds. Raised to believe she could have it all – love, a child, a successful career – Levy chronicles how hard she worked to achieve it and how, so quickly, it was all lost.
Raised to believe she could have it all – love, a child, a successful career – Levy chronicles how hard she worked to achieve it and how, so quickly, it was all lost.From her miscarriage in a Mongolian
From her miscarriage in a Mongolian hotel to her spouse’s addiction, her tale is heartbreaking but beautifully written with honesty, hope and humour.
Quote: “People have been telling me since I was a little girl that I was too fervent, too forceful, too much. I thought I had harnessed the power of my own strength and greed and love in a life that could contain it. But it has exploded.”
Best Books: Novel
Refuge by Dina Nayeri, $32.99
When eight-year-old Niloo flees Iran for the United States, her father remained behind, anchored by his work and his addiction. Over the next 20 years father and daughter meet again just four times, but the more their lives continue to diverge, the more each comes to need the other’s wisdom and, ultimately, rescue.Based loosely around her own life, Nayeri’s novel explores a refugee’s search for identity, and what it’s like to live both with roots and wings.
Based loosely on her own life, Nayeri’s novel explores a refugee’s search for identity, and what it’s like to live both with roots and wings.
Quote: “Had he, with his fatherly hopes for [his daughter] and her brother, sent them off to a foreign land to struggle and to pray to deaf gods? Did she belong to a place, to a people?”
