Sticky hot summer days are made for reading, and this week’s heatwave means the FGRLS CLUB team has devoured *even* more books than usual. Enjoy our picks below, and support the amazing female authors we’re loving by purchasing or preordering their work.
Chloe’s Picks
Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir, By Jeannie Vanasco
This incredible memoir is set to be published October 1st 2019, and you should all absolutely pre-order it right this second. I can’t stress enough the necessity of this book. Jeannie Vanasco explores areas we, as a society, don’t like to go – confronting her rapist, and the nuances of being a rape victim.
The Suspect, By Fiona Barton
Fiona Barton’s latest work is a crime thriller told through several different voices, as the characters uncover what happened when two eighteen-year-old girls go missing on their gap year in Thailand. Gripping, clever and tense – everything you want from a good thriller, basically. This is a book you’ll live inside of for a weekend straight, turning page upon page, until the early hours. It’s not a life-changing book, but it’s entertaining and perfect for a lazy day in the park.
More Orgasms Please: Why Female Pleasure Matters, By The Hotbed Collective.
You may have listened to The Hotbed Collective’s popular podcast, and now, low and behold, they have a book out. Writers Anniki Sommerville and Lisa Williams have created a ‘couch to 5k for orgasms’ that covers everything from the orgasm gap, feminist porn and how body image can affect your sex life. Their voices are funny, comforting and approachable – as someone who’s read Vagina by Naomi Wolf cover to cover, I feel like this is a less daunting take on the ever mystical topic of female pleasure.
Sara’s Pick
99% Mine, by Sally Thorne
This book ended up top of my reading pile after being sent it by the lovely Amy from @wordsandkisses, a Romance Book Subscription club that sends you the very best romance novels in a beautifully packaged box. I immediately said YES PLEASE when Amy reached out, because I’m a) an avid reader and b) a hopeless romantic, and if 99% Mine is anything to go by, subscribers are in for a treat. The book is a friends-to-lovers story that sees our feisty and fearless heroine, Darcy, restoring her grandmother’s cottage with the help of handyman Tom Valeska, her brother’s best friend, and Darcy’s long-time crush. For anyone that grew up on a diet of 60 Minute Makeover and Homes Under The Hammer, the underlying home renovation narrative a dream. What steals the show, however, is the sexual tension between our two protagonists – it’s such a slow builder that I may or may not have found myself shouting ‘just do it already!’ whilst reading it one lunchtime, to the bemusement of my work friends. This is the MOST thrilling read that will get you hot under the collar and believing in love again.
Amy’s Pick
Our Stop – Laura Jane Williams
Nadia Fielding and Daniel Weissman: a love (?) story that unfolds on the underground, Secret Cinema and those balmy summer evenings only London knows how to do. It is also supremely romantic, with lusty expectations and chances so narrowly missed you’ll be screaming into the pages. But it is more than just a rom-com. It has friendship and lightness, but also pain and sorrow. Our Stop has a consciousness – of the moment and its nuances, of what we should be held accountable for – rarely displayed in any fiction, let alone “chick lit”. A truly feminist novel with heart, awareness, and hope for us all.
We hope you discover some great new reads with this FGRLS Book Club, for more feminist-reads that’ll tickle your fancy, click HERE.
*The books in this article were kindly gifted.
