The wit and wisdom of women

Celebrating books that show off the wonder that is a woman in all her many shapes and forms.

THEY say that you’re never the same person at the end of a good book.

Good books – whether they be well-written literature, heartfelt personal accounts, or tested guides to the world around us – all have the power to touch us, exposing us to ideas, perspectives, or worlds we would never have known otherwise. They broaden our minds and make us better people.

In conjunction with Women’s Day today, we offer a baker’s dozen of such books, both fiction and nonfiction, that we hope will inspire and empower our women readers.

(As a bonus, most of them can probably help male readers understand the female of the species a little better .... )

Bossypants (2011) Tina Fey

Most people know Tina Fey today from her many TV and movie roles, including as the star of award-winning sitcom 30 Rock. Being a comedian on TV is a career that she dreamt of from when she was young. Bossypants tells the story of her life, and how she eventually achieved that dream in an area of work that is dominated by men.

A deftly funny book, Bossypants will put an end to the sadly misbegotten belief that women can’t be funny.

Bad Feminist (2014) Roxanne Gay

Haitian-American author Roxanne Gay’s book is a collection of funny and insightful essays. Bad Feminist takes readers through the journey of Gay’s evolution as a woman of colour while also making observations about the culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today.

Spanning politics, criticism, and feminism, Gay’s book explores being a feminist while loving things that could seem at odds with feminist ideology. Definitely an invitation to broaden one’s mindset.

Backwards And In Heels (2017) Alicia Malone

Broadcast reporter Alicia Malone’s book takes its title from a famous line from American cartoonist Bob Thaves: “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

Malone’s book covers the complex history of women in Hollywood, from the first women directors, to the iconic movie stars, and present day activists. She champions the American movie industry’s women of the past and present, and calls for a level playing field in the future of the world of film.

Collected Poems (2015) Carol Ann Duffy

Poet Carol Ann Duffy has won every major poetry prize in Britain. She was appointed poet laureate in 2009, making her the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position. Her first Collected Poems

includes all of the poems from her nine acclaimed volumes of adult poetry, from Standing Female Nude

to Ritual Lightning.

Endlessly varied and poignant, the works here showcase Duffy’s full poetic range with poems of celebration and protest, public poems and deeply personal ones, all affirming Duffy’s belief that “poetry is the music of being human”.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search For Everything Across Italy, India And Indonesia (2006) Elizabeth Gilbert

At 31 years old, American author Elizabeth Gilbert had a beautiful home, a husband, and a successful career as a writer. She was, however, unhappy in her marriage. After finalizing a difficult divorce, she decides to leave normal behind and ends up spending the next year travelling in Italy (“Eat”), India (“Pray”) and Bali, where she fell in love (“Love”).

A charming, soul-searching memoir of an unconventional journey, this book reminds us that, sometimes, the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself. And it reportedly inspired hordes of women to take off on their own journeys, metaphorical and physical.

I Am Malala (2013) Malala Yousafzai & Christina Lamb

In 2012, 15-year old Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai risked her life to stand up to the Taliban for her right to go to school. For this, she was shot – and overnight, she became a symbol of peaceful protest and education. In this book, co-written with journalist Christina Lamb, Malala tells the story of her life, and her unusual family who refused to be cowed even as militants invaded their homeland.

It is a book that will inspire readers to think about the value of literacy, the importance of speaking up against intolerance, and the dangers of complacency.

Lean In: Women, Work, And The Will To Lead (2013) Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and founder of the Lean In Foundation, a platform dedicated to helping women achieve their ambitions. She caused quite a stir with her book by putting the onus on women to “lean in” at their workplaces, to go for that raise or promotion boldly rather than stepping back and deferring to men.

Sandberg draws on her experiences of working in some of the world’s most successful businesses, and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.

Letter To My Daughter (2008) Maya Angelou

This is the third book of essays by esteemed AfricanAmerican writer Maya Angelou (1928-2014); it comprises 28 short essays, as well as a commencement address and a few poems, all dedicated to “the daughter” she never had. The book was inspired by 20 years of notes that Angelou had written to her good friend, showbiz mogul Oprah Winfrey.

Letter To My Daughter contains many glimpses of a colourful life that taught her compassion and fortitude, and Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women that she considers her extended family.

Little Women (1868) Louisa M. Alcott

Little Women is the tale of the four March sisters – compliant Meg, strongwilled Jo, gentle Beth and self-centred Amy – and their journey from childhood to womanhood. It’s a coming-of-age story about love, loss, hardship, friendship and struggle.

Even 150 years after it was written, the book remains very popular and is credited with empowering girls by teaching them to realise and be proud of their individuality. Most notably through the character Jo, Little Women has taught generations that it is OK to be ambitious and have dreams that differ from the norm.

Persepolis (2000) Marjane Satrapi

In powerful black-andwhite comic strip images, Marjane Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran, Iran, from the ages of six to 14; those years saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.

Intensely personal and profoundly political, Persepolis is both a story of a girl growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity.

Sour Heart (2017) Jenny Zhang

Chinese-American author Jenny Zhang presents a collection of short stories largely told from the point of view of young girls – young Chinese immigrant girls, to be specific.

Set in a variety of places, from a public school in Queens, New York City, to the streets of Shanghai during the 1960s Cultural Revolution, Zhang’s stories are an examination of what it is like to belong to a family, find your home, leave it, reject it, and return again. Her tales invite you to think about identity and culture, and what it takes to truly blend into a society.

The collection won the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.

The Year Of Magical Thinking (2005) Joan Didion

In 2003, John Gregory Dunne, American novelist, screenwriter and literary critic and Joan Didion’s husband, died suddenly of a coronary thrombosis. Days earlier, the couple’s daughter, Quintana, had been hospitalised with pneumonia that had developed into septic shock. Didion’s book recounts her experiences with grief following her husband’s death using a narrative structure that follows the author’s re-living and re-analysis of the death throughout the year following it, while she was also caring for Quintana.

An extremely honest account of a strong woman dealing with grief.

We Should All Be Feminists (2014) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is an adaptation and elaboration of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s much admired 2012 TEDx Talk of the same name (tinyurl.com/ star2-talk). It’s a personal, eloquently-argued essay that offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the 21st century, one rooted in inclusion and awareness.

The book includes anecdotes and analysis about what it means to be a feminist, with Adichie arguing that the term “feminist” should be embraced by all. Society, she states, has to be changed if we are to reach equality.