Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

by Lawrence Hill

"You feel you are turning the pages of history, the pages of truth."—Austin Clarke, author of The Polished Hoe Abducted from Africa as a child and enslaved in South Carolina, Aminata Diallo thinks only of freedom—and of the knowledge she needs to get home. Sold to an indigo trader who recognizes her intelligence, Aminata is torn from her husband and child and thrown into the chaos of the Revolutionary... (more)

The Toss of a Lemon

by Padma Viswanathan

The year of the marriage proposal, Sivakami is ten. She is neither tall nor short for her age, but she will not grow much more. Her shoulders are narrow but appear solid, as though the blades are fused to protect her heart from the back. She carries herself with an attractive stiffness: her shoulders straight and always aligned. She looks capable of bearing great burdens, not as though born to yoke but perhaps as... (more)

Slave

by Damien Lewis, Mende Nazer

Mende Nazer's "beautiful and at times heart-wrenching "account of her struggle to survive modern-day slavery ( The Washington Post ) At age twelve, Mende Nazer lost her childhood. It began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, setting fire to the village huts and murdering the adults. They rounded up thirty-one young children, including Mende, who was eventually sold to a... (more)

Hotel Du Lac

by Anita Brookner

In the novel that won her the Booker Prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question "Why love?" It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a psudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to resore her... (more)

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

by Winifred Watson

Now a major motion picture starring Frances McDormand ( Fargo ) and Amy Adams ( Enchanted )! “Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humor to be rediscovered?”— Guardian “The sweetest grown-up book in the world.”— Sunday Times “Everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world.”— Daily Mail , in reference to Miss Pettigrew... (more)

Nervous Conditions

by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Brown Girl in the Ring

by Nalo Hopkinson

An utterly fresh new voice joins the SF/fantasy field with this compelling story of Afro-Caribbean magic, ancient spirits who rule human lives, and a young woman forced to fend for herself in a 21st-century Toronto that has fallen into economic collapse.

The Palace of Illusions: A Novel

by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A reimagining of the world-famous Indian epic, the Mahabharat—told from the point of view of an amazing woman. Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale. The novel traces... (more)

The Bitch in the House

Women in the 21st century have more than ever before, yet many find themselves angry, dissatisfied and stressed. This book explores these issues, with 26 women inviting readers into their lives, minds and bedrooms to talk about the choices they've made. They discuss their relationships, families, frustrations and hopes. For some, the conflicts involve the stresses of juggling motherhood and a career; for others,... (more)

The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense

The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense

by Joyce Carol Oates

A young wife is home alone when the phone rings in "So Help Me God." Is the strange voice flirting with her from the other end of the line her jealous husband laying a trap, or a stranger who knows entirely too much about her? In "Madison at Guignol" an unhappy fashionista discovers a secret door inside her favorite clothing store and insists the staff let her enter. But even her fevered imagination cannot... (more)

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite

by Beatrice Colin

The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite (Book Review)The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite is a bestselling literary novel by Beatrice Colin. It is a paperback published by John Murray and its ISBN is 1848540310. It is so well written it is a pleasure to read and it is full of historical content of 20th century Germany and the history of the movie industry. It is a sad and touching story rich in characterisation... (more)

Henry's Sisters

by Cathy Lamb

Cathy Lamb, the acclaimed author of Julia's Chocolates and The Last Time I Was Me , delivers her most heartwarming novel to date as three sisters reunite during a family crisis. Ever since the Bommarito sisters were little girls, their mother, River, has written them a letter on pink paper when she has something especially important to impart. And this time, the message is urgent and impossible to ignore River... (more)

Serena : a novel

by Ron Rash

The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains -- but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband's life in the... (more)

Homeland

by Barbara Hambly

Those who loved Cold Mountain or Geraldine Brooks’s March will embrace and long remember this spellbinding novel of two remarkable women torn apart by conflict, sustained by literature and art, united by friendship and hope. As brother turns against brother in the bloodbath of the Civil War, two young women sacrifice everything but their friendship. Susanna Ashford is the Southerner, living on a plantation... (more)

The Quiet of the Birds: Collected Stories (v. 1)Nisha Da Cunha

The Quiet of the Birds: Collected Stories (v. 1)

by Nisha da Cunha

My Name Is Falon: One Woman's Saga from Scotland to the Texas Frontier

My Name Is Falon: One Woman's Saga from Scotland to the Texas Frontier

by Kim Wiese

Falon Macvail is barely fourteen years old when her family is forced to flee their home in Scotland, leaving behind everything she's ever known in the hands of greedy landowners. As their beloved country struggles through a time of great civil unrest and class upheaval, Falon and her family travel to a raw wilderness called Texas. Far from the threat of their murderous evictors, the Macvail family must carve out a... (more)

Mrs. Dalloway

by Virginia Woolf

Novel explores the thought and action in one day of a woman's life.

Vanity Fair

by William Makepeace Thackeray

Edited by John Carey.

The Golden Notebook

by Doris Lessing

Anna is a writer, author of one very successful novel, who now keeps four notebooks. In one, with a black cover, she reviews the African experience of her earlier years. In a red one she records her political life, her disillusionment with communism. In a yellow one she writes a novel in which the heroine relives part of her own experience. And in a blue one she keeps a personal diary. Finally, in love with an... (more)

She's Come Undone

by Wally Lamb

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and... (more)

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Tags: about women