Top 5 Wednesday: Books Written by Women
Sometimes, I forget how relatively newfangled an idea it is that women can just . . . do things. Things like write books. In a world where entire sections of bookstores and libraries are devoted to Suzanne Collins, Stephenie Meyer, Janet Evanovich, Sarah J. Maas, Gillian Flynn, and many more, it’s hard to imagine a time where women writing and publishing books—especially fiction—was scandalous and improper, if it was done at all. The fact that Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and many others managed to take their place in the Western canon is nothing short of miraculous. And that doesn’t even begin to address the many, many women and non-binary people from other nations, cultures, etc. who have been passed over when it comes to who is considered a classic author.
This week, I’m happy to share with you 5 books written by women. To help narrow it down somewhat, I’m going to choose primarily from genres that aren’t typically dominated by women (i.e., romance, YA, etc.).
This is probably one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read that wasn’t classified as horror. I hardly ever read thrillers, just not my style, but after I listened to the author’s interview on NPR’s Fresh Air last year, I had to give it a try. Listen to that interview here.
You just boarded a flight to New York.
There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.
What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight, your pilot’s family was kidnapped.
For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.
The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.
Enjoy the flight…
“After all, a flight is just a random sample of the general population, a classic bell curve. A few assholes and a few exemplars, but primarily, a whole bunch of sheep.”
They call it The Violence: a strange epidemic that causes the infected to experience sudden bursts of animalistic rage, with no provocation and no memory of their crimes. While it tears the nation apart, one woman sees something unlikely in the chaos—an opportunity.
Chelsea Martin has been a prisoner in her own home for too long. Her controlling husband has manipulated her for years, cutting her off from all support. Her narcissistic mother is no help, and her teen daughter is realizing she might be falling into the same trap when her once adoring boyfriend shows a dark side.
But when The Violence erupts, Chelsea creates a plan to liberate herself and her daughters once and for all.
What follows is a shocking and thrilling journey as three generations of women navigate a world in which they are finally empowered to fight back. Somewhere along the journey from her magazine-ready Tampa home to the professional wrestling ring, Chelsea becomes her own liberator, an avatar of revenge and hope, and a new heroine for a new world.
“You aren’t small. You don’t have to make yourself small. You are allowed to have feelings. You are allowed to experience rage. You are allowed to take up space. You are allowed to be irrational and loud and ugly. You don’t have to make yourself less. Not ever again. You don’t have to play by those rules anymore.”
Reading this book during one of the roughest parts of the COVID pandemic for me (the Omicron variant spike in late 2021 and early 2022) was intense. It felt both horrifying and cathartic, unthinkable but also an attractive brand of retribution. This was my first book by Dawson to read, but it certainly won’t be my last.
This book was fascinating and gave me a lot to think about when it comes to cohabitating with animals and other elements of nature on this pale blue dot of ours. Roach manages to be hilarious while also insightful and informative. I can’t wait to read the other great pop science titles she’s written.
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and “danger tree” faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to ‘‘problem” wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.
“Whatever you do in this life, stay away from an inebriated bull elephant in [rutting season].”
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
“China was many things—traffic and mountains and the brush of ink over paper, emperors and innovation and the heavy hand of an authoritarian government—but she would never call it foreign.”
This book feels like watching a heist movie (it reminds me of Fast Five and that dramatic scene where they drag race a vault out of a Brazilian bank, I completely forget how and why) but it’s even better, because there’s a lot of weighty substance beneath the fun veneer of assembling a heist team and planning a takedown. This team isn’t in it for fame, status, or money (although there definitely is money). They’re sticking it to colonialism and reaching towards a more defined idea of Chinese American identity. I really enjoyed this read, and I hope Li releases a new title soon.
This is one of the most terrifying stories I’ve read. As someone with claustrophobia among other things, imagining myself trapped in this invasive suit at the mercy of someone I didn’t know if I could trust was almost more than I could bear. A great read for those who loved Interstellar and need something to get their blood pumping.
When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.
Instead, she got Em.
Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre's falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too…
As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.
But how come she can’t shake the feeling she’s being followed?
“She’d heard somewhere that pride came before the fall. But she wasn’t going to fall. She was going to climb.”
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