Whenever I’m feeling beaten down by work or school, I like to read books that put my life as a woman into perspective and make me realize how fortunate I am to have been born in the time and place I am.
Seeing how women like me used to be treated (and still are in some places) makes me realize my privilege that I even get an education, get to decide who I marry, and other basic rights.
Some examples would be A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Red Tent, Pachinko, and a lot of other female-lead historical fictions. Fiction is preferred.
by orangepeel6
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Women Talking by Miriam Toews
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
Asylum by Nina Shope
Waiting by Ha Jin
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
A thousand splendid suns still haunts me many years after I read it
Gone with the Wind.
For god’s sake, the contortions women had to go through to have or do anything.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Little Women, I suppose, and the Little House books – both show pretty empowered women for their age and gloss over the worst of everything, but still demonstrate that women were very dependent on the will and whims of men and how it chafed.
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
There’s this crazy book called One Thousand White Women: the journal of Mary Dodd if you like history (based on a true story)
Basically the American government had a program where they traded white women as wives (mostly criminals or deemed “insane” by their families) for native Americans in exchange for horses. It went so poorly that I believe it only happened the one time, but it is a crazy piece of history. A bunch of TW’s in there, and heartbreaking, but a great read.
Non-fiction, but The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro about a (very recent!) murder of two young girls in an extremely poor, “lower caste” part of Delhi. Heartbreaking and very well reported.
Mornings in jenin
If you are fine with graphic novels I highly recommend Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Kindred by Octavia E Butler
Lonesome Dove. Its an epic adventure western where life sucks for most people but it sucked a bit more for the women there. Awesome book though
“I should have honor”
There’s an amazing new regency era book by Alison Goodman Calle The Benevolent Society of Ill Mannered Ladies that really highlights the horrors of living while female in the past. Two 40 year old spinsters find themselves using how invisible they are in high society in order to help women in pretty awful conditions. It all starts when a friend of theirs believes that her niece is being abused by her husband. It has some pretty dark moments, some truly wonderful relationships and friendships, and the historical research is impeccable
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Kim Ji-Young, born 1982 is a great eye-opening one. Even though technically South Korea is considered a first-world country, it’s a great look at how women in Korea are marginalised.
Anything by Svetlana Aleksievich, Guzel Yakhina or Souad. I could barely eat or sleep after reading *Burned Alive*.
I know I’ll get downvoted a lot for this but as someone from not a ‘first world country, I do understand the sentiment but it often comes across as ‘poor brown and black women and thank God at least, we’re better than them.’ If that’s not your intention then I appreciate it. It’s great if you want to know about the struggles of women here through fiction but more people need to realise that we’re not all just a monolith of oppressed creatures to feel sorry for.
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Daughter of the River by Hong Ying.
Raise the Red Lantern by Su Tong.
Bookseller of Kabul
The invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw
The Handmaid’s Tale
Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn