When I was making my list of reading prompts for the year and I chose "It's a Woman's World" I was thinking along the lines of domestic fiction, maybe something by Elizabeth Taylor. Now that the prompt has come up, however, I was thinking about various situations or places or worlds that are mostly women, so I have put a slightly different spin on the theme. Here are novels and a graphic memoir that are all made up of primarily women.
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden -- "High in the Himalayas near Darjeeling, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. When it was the General's 'harem' palace, richly dressed ladies wandered the windswept terraces; at night, music floated out over the villages and gorges. Now, the General's son has bestowed it on an order of nuns, the Sisters of Mary. Well-intentioned yet misguided, the nuns set about taming the gardens and opening a school and dispensary for the villagers. They are dependent on the local English agent of Empire, Mr Dean; but his charm and insolent candour are disconcerting. And the implacable emptiness of the mountain, the ceaseless winds, exact a toll on the Sisters." I will be seeing the film adaptation of this book in March as part of a film class I am signed up for and hope to read the book first.
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh -- "King has tenderly staked out a territory for his wife and three daughters, Grace, Lia, and Sky. Here on his island, women are protected from the chaos and violence of men on the mainland. The cult-like rituals and therapies they endure fortify them from the spreading toxicity of a degrading world. But when King disappears and two men and a boy wash ashore, the sisters’ safe world begins to unravel. Over the span of one blistering hot week, a psychological cat-and-mouse game plays out. Sexual tensions and sibling rivalries flare as the sisters are forced to confront the amorphous threat the strangers represent."
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner -- "It’s 2003 and Romy Hall, named after a German actress, is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: her young son, Jackson, and the San Francisco of her youth. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, portrayed with great humor and precision."
Five Days of Fog by Anna Freeman -- "As the Great Smog falls over London in 1952, Florrie Palmer has a choice to make. Will she stay with the Cutters, a gang of female criminals who have terrorized London for years and are led by her own mother? Or leave it all behind to make a safer, duller life with the man she loves? And what will she do if she's too crooked to go straight, and too good to go bad? Over the next five days, Florrie will have to find her own path and the courage to stumble along it - in a fog so thick that she can't see her own feet."
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu -- "With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies." If you have never come across this, it is well worth searching out--the illustrations are wonderful. I will definitely be reading this at some point this year!
So, I have a variety--a nunnery, a dystopian world, a women's prison, an all-female criminal gang and a survey of strong, independent women. Definitely a list of excellent books to choose from this month!