International Women’s Day is a day that encompasses a variety of feelings, hopes and goals. Women look at how far we’ve come, evaluate the fight still ahead of us, remember the women pioneers no longer with us, and celebrate and amplify the voices of the powerful women speaking out today.
The written word is, and has always been, a powerful tool in the fight for equality, and women have long been putting pen to paper in order to tell and save stories that are beautiful, important, and crucial.
So, who better to ask for book recommendations, than some of Australia’s best female authors? I asked this collection of incredible writers to recommend a book by another woman author; a book that they consider a ‘must read’ for women, one of their all-time favourites.
So consider this your International Women’s Day reading list: about women, for women, by women.
Clementine Ford recommends The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson.
Source: Affirm Press
"I recently read Alice Robinson's The Glad Shout and it floored me," Ford tells SBS Life. "Terrifying, beautiful and resonant in so many ways. This is a book about surviving disaster, told through the twin lenses of a cataclysmic weather event and an exploration of motherhood. Breathtaking."
Clementine Ford is the author of 'Fight Like a Girl' and 'Boys will be Boys'. Her most recent book, ‘Boys will be Boys’, examines what men must do to change modern society’s reliance on an ingrained masculinity that is toxic to all, and gives advice to parents that ask how to raise boys that are active and thorough supporters of the daily fight for gender equality.
Carly Findlay recommends Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman.
Source: Hardie Grant
"Ginger’s strength and researching ability is commendable," Finlay says of the book.
"It’s so well written and researched, and easily readable for all the referencing and dark subject matter. 'Troll Hunting' isn’t fiction. It's real life. The internet is real life, therefore trolling is real life. I’ve been trolled many times, and Ginger interviewed me about my experiences for the book. I really hope it shakes up the way trolling is dealt with by authorities - because trolling destroys lives.”
Carly Findlay is the author of ‘Say Hello’, a triumphant memoir about the experience of living with a rare, severe skin condition called Ichthyosis, which gives thought-provoking insight into how modern society treats people with disability and facial difference.
Ruby Hamad recommends Beyond Veiled Clichés by Amal Awad.
Source: Penguin Books
“Beyond Veiled Clichés was the first of its kind in Australia," Hamad says.
"A book written by an Arab woman that unravels the reductive stereotypes that limit the lives of Arab women both here and in the Middle East. Amal is one of our most generous authors and this book is a must for anyone seeking insight into the lives of some of the most discussed, but least understood, women in the world.”
Ruby Hamad is the author of ‘White Tears, Brown Scars’, soon to be published by Melbourne University Publishing. It delves into a common experience for racial minorities: that when white women cry foul, it is too often women of colour who suffer, and are silenced.
Anna Spargo-Ryan recommends Trick of the Light by Laura Elvery.
Source: Trick of the light
"Every story in the collection is precise, perfectly crafted, but they never cross over into sentimental," Spargo-Ryan tells SBS Life. "Just true things about being a person and especially a woman, told with a lovely frank beauty.”
Anna Spargo-Ryan is the author of ‘The Paper House’ and ‘The Gulf’. Her most recent novel, ‘The Gulf’, tells the story of a teenage girl who desperately wants to provide protection within an unstable family.
Ginger Gorman recommends The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter.
Source: Pan Macmillan
"It’s poetry and prose and crime fiction all in one," Gorman says.
"She used language in such a fresh and often sparse way, that it was astounding. Brave. And on top of that, the story was gripping. This book made me realise that I could also be bold with language and that language could be elastic. Although my own book, Troll Hunting, is non-fiction, Dorothy’s writing helped me break with tradition and choose my own unconventional style.”
Ginger Gorman is the author of ‘Troll Hunting’, a invaluable deep-dive into the scary new world of online trolls, and why they do it.
Sam George-Allen recommends The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.
Source: Harper Collins
“For a few years this was the only present I gave to my female friends," George-Allan says of the book.
"It’s the kind of book that irreversibly changes your perspective on things: all of a sudden, the curtain has been lifted and you can see the strings making everything move. Naomi Wolf’s scorching appraisal of a patriarchy that duped women into dumbing themselves down, prettying themselves up and impoverishing themselves in pursuit of an ever-shifting beauty ideal was the first book that put my burgeoning feminist theory into vivid practice. Nothing has been the same for me since.”
Sam George-Allen is the author of ‘Witches: What Women Do Together’, a deeply personal look at how women come together - for recreation, for sisterhood, and often out of necessity.
