In honor of Women’s History Month, I have curated two lists of titles for a “Book a Week” reading challenge (because I am indecisive and couldn’t pick just one theme). Here is my conglomeration of book recommendations featuring female protagonists that are historical in one way or another. Feel free to stick to one list or the other or mix and match!
List One: Fantastical Females
My first recommendation is one of my personal favorites—The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. This book begins in France, 1714, and follows a young girl who has big dreams to get out of her small town and explore the world. To make this dream possible, she makes an unfortunate deal that sends her life in a direction she never would have seen coming. She will stay young forever and can do whatever, but she is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets the moment they look away. Over centuries and continents, Addie LaRue must find out how to leave her mark on the world. And things get even more mixed up when she meets a man who remembers.
Next in the rotation is The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry. This young adult novel shows France, 1241, when the European world is still reeling from the crusades and powers like Dolssa’s are feared as witchcraft. She flees from an obsessed friar seeking to burn her at the stake and finds herself alone and near death. Botille, a matchmaker from a nearby town, finds Dolssa and takes her in. But with the friar still chasing her, both women find that they have put the entire town at the mercy of murderers. The work explores both the fear that women with power evoked throughout history and the richness of female friendship.
Another fascinating and fantastical read featuring the power of women and the fear it insights is The Grace Year by Kim Liggett. In Garner County, girls are told from a young age that they contain a dangerous magic that makes their very existence an aphrodisiac to all grown men. When they reach sixteen years old, the young women are sent away, banished for a whole year to release their magic and be purified before returning home to marry. But not all of them will come home. One of the more interesting parts of this novel is the way it explores the complex, and sometimes toxic relationships between young women and the decisions they make to become who they seek to be.
Lastly for this first list is Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. While this is not a fantasy, I still feel it belongs in this category. Told through the lens of interviews with the band, this book covers the rise and fall of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Daisy is an anti-hero, leading the story as a complex and somewhat unlikeable character. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook for this title, as it is told with a full cast that I feel portray the distinct voices of the characters very well. Also, since the tale is already written as an oral account, I feel it is taken in best in this manner.
List Two: Female Classics
Starting with an obvious choice, I recommend Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I know this is a cliché recommendation for women’s classics, but it’s basic because it’s good. Elizabeth Bennet is a vivacious character to follow as she navigates respectable society and crosses paths with the surely Mr. Darcy. Both begin their acquaintance with equal parts curiosity/interest and trepidation. The character growth they both must go through makes this work a beautiful tale of maturation, compromise, and love. And when you’re done, you can watch the multitude of adaptations and argue with your friends about which is the best (the BBC mini-series with Colin Firth is the most accurate, but the 2005 movie with Keira Knightley will always hold a special place in my heart).
Next is another Jane Austen, but it is one I would argue holds even more character growth for our female protagonist. Emma is a tale of a beautiful and spoilt young woman who fancies herself a matchmaker. Like Glinda in “Wicked,” Emma decides to give another young woman a makeover and mold her into her own personal doll to parade around society. Caught up in her own little world, Emma blinds herself to the destruction she leaves in the wake of her “projects.” Filled with Austen’s trademark wit, this work is worth picking up for people who have not explored more of the author’s writings.
My third classic recommendation is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In truth, I have not read this book, but it is both my mother’s and my roommate’s favorite, and I have seen every movie adaptation of it that has been made. Based on Alcott’s own early life, Little Women shows the diverse personalities and life goals of the four March sisters in Civil War era New England. Jo March is the main focus of the novel, and many see her as a feminist icon character, but all the sisters and their devotion to one another make this book the true work of art that it is. And as for the movie adaptations, Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version starring Saoirse Ronan would be a great watch this month.
Lastly for the classics is a book that is not technically a classic but gives off those vibes to me. That book would be The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The story is told with warmth and humor and a love for the written word. On an island occupied by Germans during World War II, a group of friends created The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society as a spur-of-the-moment alibi for breaking curfew. Told through letters between an author named Juliet Ashton, who is seeking a subject for her next novel, and one of the members of this society, the novel covers the impact of the German occupation and the love of literature that brings these people together.
Without the through line of these works being recommended for Women’s History Month, it may feel like an odd list, but I stand by it all the same. If you feel like participating in a “Book a Week” challenge to celebrate with us, feel free to let us know by stopping over on Instagram, @susqulib, finding the post for this list, and commenting to let us know what books you plan to pick up! Will you follow one particular list or mix them up?
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