5 must reads: reading fiction with purpose this summer
Summer is the perfect time to catch up on a good book, work your way down your ever-growing TBR, and spend some quality quiet time with yourself. But I find myself unsatisfied with a lot of the novels being pushed at women, as our ‘beach reads’, usually focused on pithy sex, romance and written by men, the ‘chick flicks’ of the novel world. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I find myself wanting more, but still wanting something that’s enjoyable to read, while sunbathing.
So, I’ve been on a mission (technically, an academic one as an English student!) to find five book recommendations, written about, by and for women, to enjoy, but also feel educated by this summer.
The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd (2001)
Set in 1964, the story explores the intricacies of race in South Carolina through the eyes of Lily, a white teenager. It is an absolutely stunning novel, it’s got romance, sisterhood, mystery, friendship, an idyllic setting of a honey farm, with harshly tragic undertones of inequality and hatred. The clear and characterful southern voice makes it easy to read and it’s not too long. The characters are so well developed and the plot so well written that you can almost taste the peanuts soaked in coke and the Black Madonna honey. This is a book I recommend to everyone over and over, it’s perfect, provoking and profound.
Normal People - Sally Rooney (2018)
Shooting to fame due to the 2020 TV adaptation, Normal People tends to be considered a ‘basic’ choice these days. But I would argue, it’s basic for a reason. Rooney writes so seamlessly and effortlessly, that you can’t deny the sheer splendour of this novel. It is a masterpiece and I really mean that. Every person can find some part of themselves in that book. If you’ve already read it, read it again, I beg you, it’ll feel like you’re reading a different story. Rooney writes so cleverly that the characters and plot grow and change with you and your alliances shift accordingly. It really is just so damn clever. And if you’re about to complain about speech marks, get over it.
Little Women - Louisa May Allcott (1868)
Hear me out. Is it way older than the rest of the novels on this list? Yes. Is it a children’s book? Also, yes. Is it still one of the most satisfying reads to date? Absolutely yes. I find that it’s aged incredibly well for over 150 years since it’s first publication, and the characters are as real, and there is definitely a sense of comfort in the novel, whether that’s in revisiting your own childhood, or indulging in the adolescence of the sisters, and their teenage dramas. Decide whether you're a Meg, Jo, Beth or Amy. Everyone wants to be a Jo, but I know I’m Meg. Personally, this book is my guilty pleasure. Scratch that, not even guilty. I own five copies and display them with pride on my shelf. Little Women is a book like no other.
Wise Children- Angela Carter (1991)
Bizarre and theatrical, Carter’s final, and probably least known novel never fails to stun me. Its eccentricities and larger than life plot somehow don’t detract from the more subtle stitchings of the plot, woven in sisterhood and women’s bent in life. It is such a well-written piece of work and easily transports you to a world, not so different from our own, but different enough to experience true escapism in the magic of Carter’s story. I wish I could read it again for the first time.
Home Fire- Kamila Shamsie (2017)
I read this for my classics module this year, and I didn’t expect to love iot as much as I did. It is an absolute work of art. Modelled on Antigone, an Ancient Greek text, it follows a Muslim family in post 9/11 Britain, and the intricacies of family, religion, gender and politics. Shamsie is a genius, and the novel is compulsively analyzable (not just because I did actually have to analyse it). Fantastically composed, it doesn’t leave one stone unturned, and you find yourself unable to completely hate or completely love any character, as they are all so endearingly flawed, and thus, real and tangible. A little more serious than the other reads, but just so, so good.
Already read all of these? Why not try Hamnet by Maggie O- Farrell, The Parasites by Daphne Du Maurier or If We Were Villains by M L Rio… Or read something that you’ve never heard of and be a trailblazer. It will have been published for a reason.
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Tori is a student in London, who dreams of writing full time. Her passions are theatre and poetry. After growing up in rural Cheshire, Tori loves nature but is inspired by by city life.
