Staff Picks Category: Women

Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn [Book]

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Based on historical events in Nazi Germany, this novel follows the lives of three women who intersect at Heim Hochland as part of the Lebensborn breeding program intended to help racially fit women produce Aryan babies for Hitler. Gundi is a university student involved in the resistance who finds herself pregnant by her activist Jewish boyfriend. Hilde is eighteen, underappreciated at home, devoted to Hitler’s regime, and eager to raise her status by having a Nazi official’s baby. Irma is a nurse who lost her fiancé and unborn child during the Great War, discovered her beau concealing a woman in his cellar, and needs the fresh start that working at Heim Hochland offers. Surrounded by looted art and antiques, sustained by the best food available, and subject to the whims of powerful men, these women find connections among the expectant mothers, “apprentice” mothers, and employees of the facility. When Gundi’s child is born with obviously non-Aryan characteristics, she learns of the potential consequences (euthanasia) and must seek help where she can. Parallels may be drawn between Nazi eugenics then and reproductive agency now, and the fundamental sexism of men making decisions about women’s bodies, providing ample topics for discussion groups.

For fans of The Lilac Girls, The Island of Sea Women, Call the Midwife, and World War II women’s stories.

Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy [Audiobook]

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If ever a novel was meant to be read aloud, this is the one. It is voiced with perfection by Julia Whelan and Edorardo Balerini. A suicidal severely disturbed but brilliant mathematician has admitted herself to a psychiatric facility. Her psychologist peels away the layers of falsehood and obfuscation as the sessions proceed. This was the last book McCarthy published before his recent death. There is no happily ever after here, but a peaceful goodbye.

Widowland by C. J. Carey [Book]

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In this alternate history, Germany and Great Britain are thirteen years into an alliance that began with the 1940 murder of George VI and his family in favor of the rule of Edward VIII, remorseless pawn of The Leader. Women are classified into six categories based on their usefulness to men and, by extension, the empire. Any sign of rebellion or resistance is punishable by interrogation, torture, and death. Rose Ransom is a Geli, the most elite class of women, and has a job with the culture ministry editing literature of the past to match the current values of the regime. When inflammatory quotes from forbidden texts begin to appear as graffiti, she is asked to infiltrate a Widowland community, where childless women over 50 are relegated and the insurgent messages appear to originate. The subversion must be stopped before The Leader arrives for the coronation of King Edward and Queen Wallis, and Rose is expected to act in the best interests of the Protectorate. Carey builds a chillingly believable setting and society that feels relevant now.

For fans of historical fiction, women’s stories, alternate history (it’s all three!) and readers looking for The Handmaid’s Tale by way of Fatherland.

They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe [Book]

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In the shadow of an old lighthouse on the Pacific coast, seven generations of women have each been affected by a family curse in their own way. They are drawn to and terrified of the ocean, the source of heartbreak and tragedy for women of their line. Meredith Strand, who fled to the east coast as a young woman, returns home to Cape Disappointment with her daughter Alice in tow, seeking refuge from her impending divorce. Meredith’s mother Judith struggles with memory as her belief in the curse seems to govern her life and choices. When Judith is taken by the sea and Alice disappears, Meredith must face a mysterious adversary to rescue her daughter and break the curse’s pattern of misfortune for both of them and the future of their family. More than a century of loss related by narrators from different generations, combined with a malevolent ghost, give this gothic read plenty of appeal for horror fans, while the family drama will compel readers of women’s fiction.

For Those Who Are Lost by Julia Bryan Thomas [Book]

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In the chaos of evacuating children from Guernsey to England in 1940, Lily Carre switches places with her sister Helen, undertaking the care of a pair of children–Henry and Catherine Simon–who are being reluctantly sent away by their mother Ava. Lily wants to escape an unhappy marriage, and Helen wants to remain on Guernsey with their aging parents. Once in England, Lily puts nine-year-old Henry on a train bound for Manchester, where he starts out in a dormitory of evacuees and is eventually sent to a Yorkshire farm for the rest of the war. Lily takes four-year-old Catherine with her to Cornwall, which she arbitrarily chose based on its proximity to the sea and distance from the continent. They find refuge with the assistance of local vicar Peter Ashby and embed themselves in village life, Lily posing as a widow and Catherine’s mother. Following the stories of Lily, Ava, Henry, and Peter during the war, and checking in with Catherine thirty years later, the reader sees several aspects of life during wartime and long term consequences of impulsive decisions.

A sure bet for readers of personal war stories and those who want to know, “What about the women and children?”

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams [Book]

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Words matter. Williams’ romantic novel places several imaginary characters inside the very real creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. The women who were really involved in that enterprise have left little historical record. The novel’s focus is the lost words: the words of women and the poor that are not recorded in history and the lives of women that go unrecorded and disregarded by academia. The protagonist experiences a series of losses, yet the book is overwhelmingly positive in outlook. A strong sense of place takes the reader to England at the turn of the last century and at the beginnings of World War I.

What a Happy Family by Saumya Dave [Book]

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Saumya Dave follows up her debut (Well-Behaved Indian Women, 2020) with this story about another Indian-American family. The narrative is told from varying points of view: Bina and Deepak Joshi, who immigrated to the United States to give their children opportunities they never had; eldest daughter Suhani, following in her father’s footsteps as a psychiatrist; her white husband Zack; middle daughter Natasha, who turns down a proposal from the son of lifelong family friends to pursue a career in comedy; and son Anuj, their youngest child. Natasha’s rejection of her boyfriend’s proposal, shortly after she loses her job, begins a series of events that affect the family, their connections to their community, and their ability to support each other. Dave examines happiness itself from several angles, revealing different aspects for members of the family related to their individual mental health and interpersonal dynamics. Equal parts family drama, women’s fiction, and coming-of-age story, each family member is challenged and finds their way through with the strength of their relationships intact, if changed by experience. A sure bet for vacation reading and fans of hopeful family dramas.

A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell [E-Audiobook]

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This biography of a completely unsung WWII heroine reads like a spy thriller. In spite of what seems today incredible discrimination because of her gender, American Virginia Hall was instrumental to the creation of various undercover operations in Nazi occupied France, working for the British long before the US entered the war. The danger of those operations, descriptions of the conditions for the civilian population, and of the torture to which suspected members of the Resistance were subjected are not sensationalized. The narrator, Julie Stevenson, does an admirable job of distinguishing between the various, largely male, characters. This title is recommended especially to fans of Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series, which are about a woman in similar circumstances in the SOE in the British secret service.

Everything After by Jill Santopolo. [Book]

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In Santopolo’s (The Light We Lost, 2018) latest, Emily Gold is a psychologist with a fulfilling practice, married to Ezra, a compassionate pediatric oncologist. They live in a lovely Manhattan apartment and are preparing to expand their family. Emily’s feelings about getting pregnant now are mixed with her feelings about a pregnancy thirteen years earlier, when she was a college student and musician on the cusp of success playing gigs with her talented boyfriend. Told in chapters that alternate between college Emily’s journal and grown up Emily’s thoughts, the reader learns more about Emily’s past than even her husband knows. A challenging week for her marriage, with problems at home and work, coincides with the appearance of her college boyfriend on the hit music charts (and a local performance), compelling Emily to question the decisions she made then and is making now. Life, love, and loss are themes throughout both timelines.

Offer this to fans of women’s stories like those by Rebecca Serle and Taylor Jenkins Reid, readers who appreciate a good “what if…?” and those who like interpersonal drama set in New York City.

Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelly [Book]

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Crying in H Mart [Book]

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Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (also known by her band name Japanese Breakfast) is a beautifully crafted memoir about Zauner’s relationship with her mother and coming to terms with her mother’s slow decline and death. It grapples with themes of identity, loss, love, grief, and culture. She tells us about her and her mothers connection through vivid descriptions of Korean food and how food connects people, families, and cultures. It is a warm and yet heartbreaking story (one that will make you cry within the first chapter) that teaches us how we must not only remember the people who formed us, but also that we have the power to construct our own identities too.

All Girls by Emily Layden [Book]

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Layden’s debut novel, set in the fictional all-girls Atwater boarding school, is filled with longstanding traditions, social complexities, shifting alliances, and shocking secrets. The story of an academic year is told through the eyes of nine different students, month by month. From a freshman legacy student whose grandmother and mother both attended to a talented senior who is the school’s poster girl, each young woman reveals her motivations and concerns as she attends classes, participates in events, and lives her life. A twenty-year-old scandal resurfaces as students arrive to begin the year, and the school’s handling of the situation at the time has lasting effects for the institution itself and the students readers grow to care about over the months. Readers will find themselves thinking about the vividly and compassionately rendered characters long after their chapters end, and considering decisions they would make in the same situations. Give it to grown up fans of Gossip Girl and readers of Curtis Sittenfeld and Emma Straub. YA crossover appeal for, again, fans of Gossip Girl and aspirational prep school students.