“You are mistaken. Life is not weak, it is infinite, and when faced with trouble, life endures.” Emel is the daughter of the Salt King, the most powerful man in the desert. So, she and her sisters should be among the most powerful women in the desert, but in truth, they have less freedom than…
Tag: Trigger Warning: Rape
Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
“You want to be the heroine of your story,” he tells me. “You don’t want to be the villain to your people. You want to convince me of your worth. If you convince me of your worth, then perhaps you’re worthy of the love of our people, too.” Sigourney is the only surviving daughter of…
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
“Quietly, she pats the place beside her where the rifle once lay then she shuts her eyes and dreams of a girl standing on a mountain, gazing at her fallen enemies with the gun in her hand, victorious.” Set during the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, The Shadow King focuses on the women soldiers who were…
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
“Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers.” Fang Runin, an orphaned shop girl, managed to ace the countries most prestigious academic exam,…
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
“Is it accurate to say that at this moment we women are asking ourselves what our priority is, and what is right—to protect our children or to enter the kingdom of heaven?” One night, a group of Mennonite women climb quietly into a hayloft to conduct a secret meeting. For two years, the women, and…
How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
In 1942, Japanese forces ransack a small Singaporean village, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child. In a neighboring village, the young Wand Di is taken from her home and shipped off to a military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery. In the year 2000, young Kevin is trying to figure out…
Broken Wings by Jia Pingwa
“This cave wasn’t the Bull Demon King’s belly any more, it was a clam that had swallowed a grain of sand (that was me) that chafed on the clam flesh, which in turn chafed on the sand and turned it into a pearl that hung around Bright’s neck and make him look good.” Butterfly regards…
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the dystopian country of Gilead. The novel explores what would happen if a Judaeo-Christian society sprung up in place of the United States. Women are no longer allowed to read or hold their own bank accounts. Some…
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
“What is love, Poori?” Savitha said. “What is love if not a hunger?” In the United States, January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The goal is to raise awareness and to inform the populace of the indicators of human trafficking. So for this month, my reading recommendation is Girls Burn Brighter by…
The Great Book Wyrm 