Timeless Reads by Female Authors You Must Read
By: Ashley Alagurajah
Late American author Carolyn See once said, “Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.”
Through our many words and stories, women around the world have been able to shape narratives and tell tales that have often gone unheard. Each woman with a unique story to tell, each different and multi-dimensional, ranging in prose and pace.
Barbara Laages in her New York apartment.
Here is a list of timeless stories by women that we highly reccommend.
Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez
A retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this time placed in the Caribbean during the height of British-colonial and native tensions. Through the various lenses of characters, Nunez depicts a clear image of societal injustice and the effects of race, power, and wealth through this mysterious and classic star crossed love story. If you’re someone who loves mystery, drama, and romance, this is something you’ll want to pick up.
Educated by Tara Westover
This memoir of Westover’s life, detailing her at times unbelievable days in the Idaho mountains with her family. Being devout Mormons in middle-America barely scratches the surface. As the tale unfolds, we follow her journey of pursuing a post-secondary education, with no former schooling experience. This is a story of perseverance and rigor, Westover leaves no stone unturned in her quest for truth, through the means of an education she never had.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
This read is perhaps the most thrilling “whodunit?” tale of all time. Ten strangers, one island, and no one seems to know why they’re there? That is until one by one, they start to perish. The queen of mystery has cooked up the most complex of stories, with every character running in circles trying to beat the clock, this story will leave you wondering until the very last page, who did it?
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The telling of a fictional story of a world where women are segregated into a class system, revealing the dangers of a domineering patriarchal state. Skipping from past to present, Atwood reveals to us the slow transition to this dystopian future of full dictatorship and how women are the first to bear the brunt of this inhumane new world-order. Arguably her most known book, The Handmaid’s Tale is an eerie tale of a society that diminishes and silences the autonomy of women in a way that isn’t all that far from our past reality.
They Said This Would Be Fun by Eternity Martis
A memoir of Martis’s post-secondary experience at a nearly all-white campus as a young black woman. The Toronto-born journalist and writer accepted her admission to The University of Western Ontario in the 2010s and experienced racism on a level unknown to her until she was there. This powerful retelling of her story not only sheds light on the issues surrounding race in Canada but also provides readers a real encounter with the experiences of those who call this reality.