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9 books every woman should read in their lifetime
Mindfulness

9 books EVERY woman should read in their LIFETIME

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Every book you read serves a purpose. There’s the highbrow explorations of a subject you feel like you should really understand (shout out Sapiens) or the shamelessly self-indulgent page-turners designed to be read on a sun lounger preferably with an aperol, and then there’s the ones that just feel special. The ones that feel significant to you, as though something inside you has changed as a result of reading it. The ones that leave you feeling seen, heard, thinking “I thought only I thought about it that way” and telling literally anyone who will listen that they HAVE to read it.


We asked our network of women which books they felt had described the female experience in a way that resonated in their core. Here’s their list of soul reads. 


Untamed by Glennon Doyle 


“This book just perfectly sums up what it means to be a woman today. Glennon Doyle describes the way that the world (from a young age) teaches women to be small and play the game and how we never get taught how to stand in our own power. If you haven’t read it, you should. She teaches the reader how to make peace with their body and with who they are and to just embrace the full human experience, whether it’s anger or heartbreak, or whatever you feel. It teaches you to embrace your wildness. It’s definitely a book I would read to my daughter, love love loved it.”


Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel 


“Mating in Captivity invites you to explore the paradoxical union of domesticity and sexual desire, and explains how you can bring your lust into your partnerships. It highlighted how my need for secure love often feels at odds with my own sexual desire. It gave me language around relationships, and opened my eyes to the notion of needing to leave space for both care and passion. It brought to life the feelings I had but didn’t know how to verbalise.”


Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes


“Clarissa Pinkola Estes believes that within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with passion, creativity, and ageless intuition. She taught me that the Wild Woman still exists, but she is an endangered species. This book helped me to see that you can choose the woman you want to be. There’s an old fable at the start of every chapter that frames the different female archetypes in such a beautiful way. It’s about being appreciated, untamed and ultimately the wildest, best version of yourself.” 


Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton 


“It highlights the importance of female friendships, and how a good friend can feel like a soul mate connection. I learnt that it’s okay to fuck up and it doesn’t have to be life-ruining, it can actually be funny. She says the truth about feelings that other people are too scared to say, like when her best friend got engaged. No one talks about it, but it can feel really shitty when that happens. Ultimately, it’s written in a way that makes you feel less alone, and confirms that wherever you’re at, you’re exactly where you need to be.”


A Certain Smile Francoise Sagan


“I read this when I was 21 and even though it felt like the perfect time then, I’ve revisited it several times since and I always learn something new. There’s themes of growing up, self-worth and accepting things for what they are. The main character idealises a man and her relationship with him, and the lesson is to never devalue yourself, and don’t let anyone else tell you what your meaning is, decide for yourself. I learnt you need to fill yourself up with your own personal meaning, before someone comes along and positions themselves in first place.” 


The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood 


“The whole story set up the idea of consuming or being consumed. What I got from it was a woman who feels like her body and self are slowly separating, with a strong focus on the destructive nature of the female-male dynamic. The concept of emotional cannibalism was new to me, and there’s a seriously satisfying message as her relationship slowly starts to consume her until she cuts him LOOSE.”


Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker 


“This book is ostensibly the story of Tashi, a tribal African woman who lives much of her adult life in North America. It’s about FGM, but it’s also a love story that opened me up more than any other book has ever. It taught me that women’s struggle is REAL and that this shit happens All.The.Time. The author is a genius - her writing transports you and gets you to understand things from a point of pure empathy. I’ve read everything she’s ever written.”


You Are Not Broken by Rhonda Harris-Choudhry


“Reading this helped me to realise that it wasn’t me that was broken, but my law of attraction system was. It taught me to start manifesting the life I always wanted by helping me make links to my past traumas. I learnt how to cut the cord to things that no longer serve me and to rewrite my toxic patterns. It gave me tools on how to understand and work with triggers that are related to things from my past I had no idea still affected me.”



Her Body and Other parties by Machado (Anna)


“Carmen Maria Machado uses literally every genre to map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. It’s a collection of short stories that I know will stay with me for a long, long time. It’s experimental, feminist and so immensely powerful. It focuses on the traumas women experience, the cruelty their bodies are put through and the aftermath of these events. It’s raw, it’s explicit and it feels like a punch in the gut. A difficult, but utterly important read.”

Article image credit @hannahhse

Article written by Ianthe Jacob