Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus hit me hard because I am a woman majoring in a science degree. I have been told by teachers to be sure about wanting to pursue science in the future, as I will have a hard time getting ahead as a woman. Elizabeth, the main character, faces similar challenges of being undermined or underappreciated because of being a woman. She starts off at a science firm, but after the death of her boyfriend, she is fired for being pregnant and unwed.
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, we meet two characters, Laila and Mariam. The book is divided into 4 parts. It starts off with Mariam’s perspective on being an illegitimate teenager from Herat whose life falls apart when the death of her mother occurs. She admires her father but soon that also crashes as she is forced into marrying an older man, a shoemaker from Kabul, by her father. In Kabul, Mariam is held to a very high standard which leads to her not being able to show herself or speak for herself.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is a historical fiction novel set in England. It alternates between the years 1940 - WW2 - and 1947 - Post World War normalcy. The book features three British women - Osla, Mab, and Beth - working as code breakers in 1940 at the secretive estate of Bletchley Park. They are part of a big mission and crucial to the outcome of the war. Recruited for their unique abilities and minds, they work all day cracking German codes, including the infamous Enigma machine.
My Body by Emily Ratajkowski gives input on the stresses placed on women in life. The genre of this book would fall under feminist essays. Ratajkowski uses her emotional experiences in order to give a sense of raw truth. The title My Body is seen throughout this book filled with essays, and allows readers to connect their own experiences to her well written ones. Emily Ratajkowski narrates her life beginning with her childhood to her recent divorce.
The work by Márquez follows the death of Santiago Nasar, what preceded it, and what happened afterwards. The book begins by telling the reader that Nasar is to die. Then, it shifts back to the beginning of the story as to why Santiago Nasar was to be killed. The Vicario brothers, Pedro and Pablo, murdered Santiago Nasar due to him allegedly committing adultery with Angela Vicario before she married someone else.
Zealous reverend Nathan Price travels to Kilanga from Georgia with his wife Orleanna and four daughters: Leah, Adah, Rachel, and Ruth May. As the five women alternate perspectives, each of them shares their unique story as they navigate through their unfamiliar environment in the Congo. As the story progresses, each character is morphed by the new Congolese culture. Each character comes to realize her place in the world with regards to their patriarch Nathan and the culture they left behind in America.
The United States gets replaced by the Republic of Gilead and the reproduction rates are super low. To combat this Handmaids are assigned to bear the children of elite couples. The story follows a handmaid assigned the name Offred. Her rights are heavily restricted and stripped of her old life. As the story goes on we meet the handmaids that are a part of a group to try and escape. Although escaping isn’t that easy in Gilead. There are guards and strict rules and punishments and it is too risky to be so reckless.
Midnight at the Electric is a sci-fi/historical fiction novel that tells 3 stories of 3 young women, Adri, Catherine, and Lenore, facing difficult times in their lives as they learn about the values of friends, family, and love. One takes place in Kansas in 2065, one in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, and one in post-World War I England. These stories are all beautifully interweaved, but we do not learn how until the end of the book.
In this collection of eight short stories, author Carmen Maria Machado explores the lives of women through a journey into psychological realism, fantasy, horror, and more. In “The Husband Stitch”, a husband attempts to remove the green ribbon tied around his wife’s neck — her only secret. In “The Resident”, a writer has trouble reckoning with her childhood trauma while vacationing in isolation at an artists’ retreat. In “Especially Heinous”, the show Law and Order: SVU is reimagined with doppelgängers, insanity, and the ghosts of raped and murdered girls.
