What better way to welcome in March for Women’s History Month than to read stories about women? Not just any women, but complex, morally gray women who share their lives and stories in different ways. Reading stories about how female characters – even though all of these women are only fictional – interact with love, grief, friendship, self-worth, and other things, is empowering to read. Relatability is so important when it comes to knowing characters, and books are great for getting detailed about the complexity of people. There are queer stories, sister stories, magic stories, and so much more in these recommendations, there’s bound to be one that interests you that you can read during the month!
Starting off strong, we have Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. An absolute classic that was made into several different renditions of film, Greta Gerwig’s being the most recent (2019), but Gillian Armstrong’s version (1994) will always be my favorite because Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, and Christian Bale…. like, need I say more? It’s a wonderful story about the March family who, while their father is fighting in the Civil War, are navigating poverty in 19th century New England and society’s perception of womanhood as a group of 4 sisters with their mother. We follow them as they grow up and grow closer as they learn about themselves and each other. This book will pull on your heartstrings, but then make you laugh. It’s also interesting to see which characters you end up relating to the most out of the 4 sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth, and/or Amy.
The next book is called Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. If you’ve seen this book on the shelves before and have passed it because of the literal brick that it is, please don’t be intimidated by its size! The print is just large! It’s honestly one of the better fantasy books I’ve read in years. In this book, there is a Darkness that is spreading over the lands, particularly driven by this powerful dragon called the Nameless One that has been asleep for centuries but has awakened again and wants to claim power over all the kingdoms. It takes the work of magic, dragon-riders, royalty, and spies to make the kingdoms come together to fight this enemy and save their world from the draconic plague and a second Grief of Ages. It’s one of those stories where there are multiple different points of view, but they all somehow come together by the end to accomplish a mutual goal. The fights are epic, there are queer main characters, the women are powerful, there are dragons – what more could you want?
If you like dystopian novels (Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.), I’ve got something for you. The Farm by Joanne Ramos is a reproductive dystopia (that I actually just finished reading for one of my college courses and really enjoyed) that plays on the legalization of surrogacy in New York by offering a story of there being a surrogate farm in New York called Golden Oaks. It’s an interesting take on the labor of women – referring to the labor that is pregnancy and also everything else that women do – but also the different perspectives people have of surrogacy in general, and how those opinions differ when considered from varied race, socioeconomic class, gender, immigrant status, and age standpoints, all while critiquing capitalism and Western society! I love when dystopian stories do that. With complex female characters exposing different attitudes about pregnancy and motherhood, I was truly enthralled while reading this book.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a magical story that follows a girl named Clara from infancy all the way up until the end of her life. We watch as this little girl discovers the magical ability that she possesses, and how this impacts her relationship with her family, her future husband, her eventual kids, and even her grandkids. We watch her find herself and her purpose with her spiritual connection and when she eventually passes, how her family ends up becoming impactful in their own ways, even without magical abilities of their own – especially the women related to Clara. Being both a fantastical story and a political commentary on Chile prior to the start of WWI, it will have you experiencing every emotion possible: grief, joy, love, hatred, etc. Before this book, I’d never read a story that walked you through the generations of a family before, and I found it fascinating and enjoyed it a lot – highly recommend!
Speaking of spiritual connections, Eartheater by Dolores Reyes is my last, but certainly not least, recommendation. When Eartheater’s mother died when she was a little girl, she became so overcome with grief that she wanted to melt into the dirt and become one with her mother’s grave so that she wouldn’t be able to leave her. This urge compelled her to eat the dirt that sat atop the grave, and she discovered that when she ate dirt, she can see how someone died or where they were lost. After finding out how horrifically her mother died, she kept the information of how she could “see” to herself, until she gets older and the word spread. She ends up getting paid to find a lot of people who are either lost or dead, to the relief of their families. However, throughout the book, we see how she really struggles to find surety in herself, not just her ability. Apart from having a rather depressing gift, she’s also dirt poor, living with her only living relative – her brother, whom she loves very dearly – in a slum in Argentina. As a young adult, navigating love, her gift, family, and life’s responsibilities, she quickly becomes more and more relatable as a character, and you can’t help but feel for her.
I hope that you’re inspired to read at least one of these books! Happy Women’s History Month, everybody!