A reading list for March and beyond
Women’s History Month may be coming to an end, but we’re still highlighting poignant and remarkable stories of survival, family ties and body empowerment penned by incredible women. From a dystopian work of fiction exploring the cult of motherhood to a bold memoir on the liberating power of literature, ahead, we’ve got a reading list for March and beyond.
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
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The Telegraph calls it “The Handmaid’s Tale for the Squid Game generation.” The dystopian novel is Jessamine Chan’s chilling, remarkable debut, which surveys the cult of motherhood. The School for Good Mothers is set in a society hell-bent on punishing mothers for their parenting mistakes. (worth adding to your reading list) An examination of love, race, privilege and the pressures of perfectionism, for many, the haunting tale of identity is destined to be a feminist classic.
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
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In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” An ex-undocumented civil rights lawyer and writer, Qian Julie Wang, pens a heartwrenching, poignant memoir about the unthinkable struggles of an immigrant. Beautiful Country recounts her years growing up in America, the “land of milk and honey,” with her parents, then esteemed professors in China, who took menial jobs to simply survive.
In her extraordinary debut, Wang wrestles with hope and dignity while pursuing the American dream, amid poverty and an undocumented status. In the end, she finds that her unbreakable spirit and her parents’ unwavering love can carry her through it all.
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
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In January 2015, Chanel Miller was sexually assaulted by a man named Brock Turner in a frat party at the Stanford University campus. Her 12-page victim impact statement went viral on Buzzfeed News, but she was simply reduced to “Emily Doe.” It would take years for her to be given justice; reputation, money and influence would play a heavy role in it. For years, she chose anonymity. In her memoir, Know My Name, she reclaims her identity and declares her presence.
RELATED: Know My Name, Chanel Miller’s Memoir, Pays Homage to the Survivor
My Body by Emily Ratajkowski
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A best book recommendation of 2021 and New York Times Bestseller, Emily Ratajkowski’s collection of essays, My Body, is an intimate exploration of feminism and sexuality. Here, she continues to reclaim her narrative, after publishing the groundbreaking essay for The Cut entitled Buying Myself Back.
Emily’s debut nonfiction piece is a deeply honest, poignant and searing investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity, with years as a multi-hyphenate celebrity and global social media phenomenon. In My Body, she chronicles pivotal moments of her life and examines the gray area between consent and abuse.
Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
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Iranian American author and literature professor, Azar Nafisi, narrates life in the Islamic Republic of Iran back in the early days of the revolution in Reading Lolita in Tehran. At the time, she started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. Every Thursday morning for two years, she secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics.
In Nafisi's living room, they risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
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In a cutthroat industry dominated by white, male individuals, female writers of color like Cathy Park Hong are carving out their space. “Minor feelings,” as described by the author, is “when American optimism is enforced upon you, which contradicts your own racialized reality, thereby creating a static of cognitive dissonance.” As females—and Asians—we are often gaslighted into believing a reality that is not our own because confronting this gap would be inconvenient for others. In her blazing memoir, Hong examines the lies she’s been told about her racial identity in a foreign place she calls home.
A24 is creating a series adaptation of the bestselling publication with The Morning Show’s Greta Lee to star in, write and produce it.
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Need more book recommendations on your reading list? Here are titles that shaped the year that was.
Art Macky Arquilla
