International Women’s Day 2020: our reading recommendations

I’ve been reading two works by poets, Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan and Flèche by Mary Jean Chan, alongside Carmen Maria Machado’s collection of short stories, Her Body & Other Parties. All three felt to me like they’d been written by great talents staking new ground in how stories are told, what form they take and who gets to write them. They’re formally ingenious, sensuous and vital, with women’s experience at the heart of serious forms. All kinds of exhilarating.

Department of Speculation

Karishma Jobanputra, Intern

Jenny Offill’s Department of Speculation is a daring and vivid exploration of what it feels like to live inside a failing marriage and the distinct nature of parenthood. Told in the form of short, poetic fragments that ask the reader to draw their own conclusions and connections, the novel reads as a thoughtful, funny and brilliantly clever series of meditations on daily life, the roles we play and the tension that comes from being an artist but also a woman, wife and mother. Short, poignant and exceptionally easy to hurtle through in one sitting.

I loved The Five by Hallie Rubenhold – the lives of the victims of Jack the 

Ripper are brought out in shining, sympathetic detail, and an era illuminated.

I also finally finished The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, which was every bit as good and challenging and thought-provoking as promised; writing and characters that get under your skin and will burn long in my mind.

The Goldfinch

Paul Forty, Consultant Editor

Believe it or not I am reading Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford (published 1957). As quirky biography goes, it’s delightful – a bit dated, maybe, but great fun.

And before that I read (at last) Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. Which is utterly brilliant. I wouldn’t go as far as ‘heartbreaking’ (the quote on the front), but gripping and emotionally complex. I loved it.

Uncanny Valley

Ed Lake, Editorial Director

I pick Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner. This memoir of a wallflower at the orgy of the San Francisco tech boom is funny, incisive, and manages to capture the strange decadence of some very recent history in a way that nothing else quite has.

Standard Deviation

Kate McFarlan, Publishing Operations Director

I loved Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. I was given it by a man, recommended it to two other men who, as I had, laughed aloud, cried, and loved it. The origami scenes were so funny and so agonising at the same time. Brilliant.

Circe 

Elizabeth Hitti, Publicity & Marketing Assistant

Madeline Miller’s Circe gives women in Greek mythology a voice as she explores humanity, independence and self-discovery. Miller successfully weaves ancient myths with the universal human condition, such as independence and self-discovery, into a compelling novel that is relatable to all.  

The Real Lolita 

Miranda Jewess, Viper Books publisher

I read The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman. It beautifully marries literary detective work and analysis of Nabokov’s book, with true crime and social commentary. Why a powerful fictional exploration of child rape – which is how Nabokov saw it – has so often been characterised as a love story. And Sally Horner, whose tragic life was the inspiration for the novel, but who has been all but forgotten.