More picks for Women's History Month
Phoebe McIntosh (Author)
'A must-read... compulsively timely novel' Stylist
When Layla and Andy first meet, they can't believe they have the same surname. It feels like fate…
Sera, Layla’s best friend, has her doubts about Andy. As the couple fall deeper in love, Sera becomes more and more vocal about Layla settling down with a white boy. And then, only a few weeks before their wedding, Layla makes a devastating discovery – could their families be linked in the worst possible way?
What seemed like a fairy-tale romance is rapidly derailed as Layla begins to uncover parts of her history and identity that she had never imagined – or, perhaps, had simply learnt to ignore.
And now, she faces an impossible choice.
**A STYLIST UNMISSABLE BOOK FOR 2024**
‘A warm, sweet love story, and a thought-provoking examination of the British slave trade and its legacy’ MARIAN KEYES
'I loved this book' JACQUELINE CROOKS, author of Fire Rush
'So kind and smart and clear-eyed' HOLLY GRAMAZIO, author of The Husbands
READERS LOVE DOMINOES:
‘Tender, thought-provoking and hard-hitting’
‘Kept me second guessing how things would turn out until the very end’
‘Incredibly thought-provoking’
‘Such an important novel’
‘I laughed, I cried, I learned A LOT’
‘So much more than a love story’
Pip Williams (Author)
As World War One brings women unexpected new freedoms, bookbinder Peggy has the chance at a new future.
'Vivid and moving ... I absolutely loved it!' Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things
'Charming, original and beautifully researched' Rachel Hore, author of A Beautiful Spy
'When the men leave for the Western Front, Peggy and her friends must shoulder the burden at home.
As she moves between her narrowboat full of memories and the demands of the bookbindery where she works, Peggy’s dreams of escaping for a new life feel ever more remote.
But the war brings people together in unexpected ways. New friends and lovers offer new opportunities but also present difficult choices – and Peggy must write her own story.
'A fresh, exciting new voice in historical fiction' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
'A compelling homage to the transformational power of books' Daisy Wood, author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris
Dictionary of Lost Words, Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, May 2022
Catherine Coldstream (Author)
‘Evocative’ Sarah Perry
‘Immersive’ Katherine May
‘Profoundly moving’ Mark Haddon
Discover Catherine Coldstream’s compelling account of life as a nun in the 1990s, and the dramatic events which led to her flight from the monastery.
After the shock of her father’s death, and with the rest of her family scattered, Catherine was left grieving and alone at twenty-four. A search for meaning led her to the nuns of Akenside Priory.
Here she found a tight-knit community of dedicated women and peace in an ancient way of life. But as she surrenders to her final vows, all is not as it seems behind the Priory’s closed doors.
Catherine comes to realise that divine authority is mediated through flawed and all-too-human channels. She is faced with a dilemma: should she protect the serenity she has found, or speak out?
‘Gripping… A rich memoir’ Daily Telegraph
‘Absorbing and beautifully written’ Financial Times
Ela Lee (Author)
For fans of The List, Prima Facie, Queenie and I May Destroy You, discover the debut novel that readers describe as a timely, must-read novel.
‘Jade isn't even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name.'
Jade has become everything she ever wanted to be.
Successful lawyer. Dutiful daughter. Beloved girlfriend. Loyal friend.
Until one night, something terrible happens after a work event, and she starts to wonder if she really wants to be the person she’s become.
She’s learned to laugh when she’s felt like crying, opted to be invisible when she wanted to speak up and changed her identity to please people. But now Jade has to make a decision for herself. The question is, which is the right one?
This searing novel explores the strength we find in female friendship, the hope that lights up the dark moments and recovery that’s far from linear, and will leave you asking yourself: what would you have done in Jade’s situation?
Caroline Criado Perez (Author)
*THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER*
*OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD*
Discover the shocking gender bias that affects our everyday lives in this groundbreaking gift of a book.
'Nothing delights me more than a well-written and well-researched book that teaches you and never bores you' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
'HELL YES. This is one of those books that has the potential to change things - a monumental piece of research' Caitlin Moran
Imagine a world where...
· Your phone is too big for your hand
· Your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body
· In a car accident you are 47% more likely to be injured.
If any of that sounds familiar, chances are you're a woman.
From government policy and medical research, to technology, workplaces, and the media. Invisible Women reveals how in a world built for and by men we are systematically ignoring half of the population, often with disastrous consequences. Caroline Criado Perez brings together for the first time an impressive range of case studies, stories and new research from across the world that illustrate the hidden ways in which women are forgotten, and the profound impact this has on us all.
Find out more in Caroline's podcast, Visible Women.
'A book that changes the way you see the world' Sunday Times
'Revelatory, frightening, hopeful' Jeanette Winterson
Jacqueline Harpman (Author)
,
Ros Schwartz (Translator)
SISTERHOOD. SECRETS. SURVIVAL.
Discover the haunting, heart-breaking post-apocalyptic TikTok sensation, now available in a beautiful hardback gift edition.
Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?
Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone an outcast in the corner.
Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.
WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY SOPHIE MACKINTOSH, BOOKER PRIZE-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE WATER CURE
Discover the reader obsession.
**Orlanda, the next sensation from Jacquline Harpman, is available now**
Sophie Elmhirst (Author)
**THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER**
**WINNER OF THE NERO AWARDS GOLD PRIZE BOOK OF THE YEAR**
**A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR**
An extraordinary true story of shipwreck, survival and love
'An enthralling, engrossing story of survival' Bill Bryson
‘An absolute jewel of a book’ India Knight
‘A gripping tale of adventure’ Elizabeth Day
‘An extraordinary survival story’ Sunday Times
Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maurice and Maralyn plan their escape: sell the house, build a boat, set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway around the world, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Alone on a tiny raft, their love is put to the test. This is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive – not just at sea, but in life.
‘This skilful storytelling drew me in…very touching indeed’ James Rebanks
‘With the adrenaline kick of Jaws . . . A remarkable portrait of a marriage kept afloat against the odds’ Financial Times
‘This dramatic, profound human story is so beautifully told. I really could not put it down’ Nina Stibbe
A Guardian, Observer & Waterstones Non-fiction Book of the Year
**READERS ADORE MAURICE & MARALYN**
‘A riveting tale of survival . . . and of the power of love when all appears lost’
‘A mind-blowing story of resilience and love in the face of adversity’
‘The very best kind of true story, and beautifully written’
‘I couldn’t put this book down’
‘I was absolutely hooked from the outset’
Published as A Marriage at Sea in the USA
Sarah Watling (Author)
In our age of political divisions, this portrait of the women outsiders who took part in the Spanish Civil War asks questions of solidarity and resistance.
'Glorious... so beautifully rendered, so powerful'
ANNA FUNDER, author of Wifedom
In the 1930s, women and men from across the world made their way to Spain to be part of what they saw as a historic fight for freedom from fascism. Tomorrow Perhaps the Future follows extraordinary outsiders who were determined to live out their lives with courage and conviction.
Sarah Watling weaves together the experiences of a host of writers and activists, including Nancy Cunard, Martha Gellhorn, Jessica Mitford and Virginia Woolf, and searches out the stories of the photographer Gerda Taro and the Harlem nurse Salaria Kea. Throughout, she explores solidarity, art and resistance, finding answers that are as vital today as they were almost a century ago.
‘A fascinating study’
OBSERVER
‘Engrossing and impressive’
NEW STATESMAN
* A NEW YORKER BOOK OF THE YEAR *
Margaret Atwood (Author)
,
Naomi Alderman (Introducer)
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER **
Discover the dystopian novel that started a phenomenon.
Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford – her assigned name, Offred, means ‘of Fred’. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.
'A fantastic, chilling story. And so powerfully feminist' Bernadine Evaristo
‘As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it’ Guardian
Kerry Hudson (Author)
‘I've just literally devoured Newborn and absolutely loved it’ Giovanna Fletcher, Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast
The new memoir from Kerry Hudson about her struggle to build a safe, loving home for her baby – the very opposite of the home she grew up in...
‘Absorbing’ Irish Times
‘Filled with colour’ Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun
‘A rallying cry’ Herald
How do you build a family without a blueprint to work from?
Kerry Hudson grew up in poverty. Always on the move, shuttled between the care system and her chaotic mother, she left school at 15 without qualifications. Now a prize-winning writer, she looks back and asks: how do you create a different life for yourself and your family?
In Newborn we see how Kerry found love, what it took to decide to start a family of her own and how fragile every step of the journey towards parenthood was. All along the way, she faces obstacles that would test the strongest foundations, from struggles with fertility to being locked down in a Prague maternity hospital to a marriage in crisis. But over and over again, her love, hope, fight – and determination to break patterns and give her son a different life – win through and light her path.
PRAISE FOR KERRY HUDSON:
‘It’s not just Kerry Hudson’s writing that is vibrant, authentic and true, it’s the person herself, it’s where the writing comes from; a wise and generous heart’ KIT DE WAAL
'Hudson’s resilience, grace and humility are staggering. She’s an absolute inspiration’ DOUGLAS STUART
‘Kerry Hudson blew me away, opened my eyes’ PHILIPPA PERRY
Hannah Ritchie (Author)
This book will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems – and show how together we can solve them.
** THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER **
'Truly essential' MARGARET ATWOOD
‘Inspiring' DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
‘Shines with positivity’ RUTGER BREGMAN
‘Unmissable' TIM SPECTOR
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We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children.
But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we've made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.
Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn't and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.
These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.
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‘A book for anyone who finds it difficult to believe in a better future’ THE TIMES
‘I hope people around the world read this book, understand our planet isn’t a lost cause, and get inspired to help fix it’ Bill Gates
A STYLIST BEST NON-FICTION 2024 * A GUARDIAN BIGGEST FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR 2024 * A FINANCIAL TIMES, SCOTSMAN, PROSPECT AND NEW SCIENTIST BOOK OF THE YEAR* A WATERSTONES ‘BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2024’
Anne Carson (Author)
Wrong Norma is Anne Carson's first book of original material in eight years
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER FOR POETRY
'Effortlessly readable and – a word critics don’t often use about her – fun' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'I'm a big fan... She pinpoints the collision of oracle and anachronism' TEJU COLE
As with her most recent publications, Wrong Norma is a facsimile edition of the original hand-designed book, drawn and annotated by the author. Several of the twenty-five startling poetic prose pieces have appeared in magazines and journals like the New Yorker and the Paris Review.
Anne Carson is probably our most celebrated living poet, winner of countless awards and routinely tipped for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Famously reticent, asking that her books be published without cover copy, she has agreed to say this:
Wrong Norma is a collection of writings about different things, like Joseph Conrad, Guantanamo, Flaubert, snow, poverty, Roget's Thesaurus, my Dad, Saturday night, Sokrates, writing sonnets, forensics, encounters with lovers, the word "idea", the feet of Jesus, and Russian thugs. The pieces are not linked. That's why I've called them "wrong".
Afua Hirsch (Author)
How do we determine what is beautiful? Whose standards are we trying to meet when we spend our hard-earned money on our haircare, skincare and makeup; where do they come from, and how can we learn to undo them?
Upon getting her first tattoo at 40 years old, award-winning journalist Afua Hirsch embarked on a journey to reclaim her body from the colonial ideas of purity, adornment and ageing she - and many of us - absorbed while growing up. Informed by research from around the world, Afua will look at how individual and collective notions of what is beautiful are constructed or stripped away from us. Through personal anecdotes, interviews from beauty experts, practitioners and service users, she explores the global history of skin, hair and body modification rituals. These insights and discoveries will empower readers to reconnect with their cultures of origin, better understand the link between beauty and politics, and liberate themselves from mainstream beauty standards that aren't serving them.
Zahra Hankir (Author)
'Fascinating' Nigella Lawson
'Awe-inspiring' Funmi Fetto
'A treat to read' Kassia St Clair
A Sunday Times Style Barometer and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Pick
For centuries, humans have been drawn to lining our eyes. The aesthetic trademark of icons from Nefertiti to Amy Winehouse, eyeliner is one of our most enduring cosmetic tools: ancient royals and Gen Z influencers alike have harnessed its power.
Through Zahra Hankir’s kohl-lined eyes, this ubiquitous product becomes proof of the stunning variety among cultures across time and space. Exploring intimate conversations – with Chadian nomads, Japanese geisha, Indian dancers, New York’s drag queens and more – Eyeliner embraces the profound significance of its namesake, especially among communities of colour.
What emerges is a delightful and unexpectedly moving journey through streets and stages around the world, and a stirring reclamation of a key piece of our collective history.
Featuring stunning portrait illustrations by Mercedes deBellard
