15 books about strong women you can't help but fall in love with
Published on Tweak India, August 2020
WWHD. It’s not the code I share with the aliens to help me escape Earth as one calamity after another befalls, it actually translates to — What Would Hermione Do? A teenage motto I accio-ed back in to my life as I attempted to live through a global pandemic with my sanity intact. Obsessed with the Harry Potter series, I realised over time that I didn’t care for Harry’s arrogance and brashness or Dumbledore’s selfishness (Did I stutter?). It was the strong women in the book who wholly captured my heart.
I was drawn to Hermione’s resilience, raw power and ultimate recalcitrance, to Luna Lovegood’s lunacy and Narcissa Malfoy’s recondite character that ultimately saved the day. Sure, it’s partly because I’m a cis gender woman, and I enjoy reading about characters I can see bits of myself in. It’s also because strong women have clawed their way from being plot twists and side pieces to narrators and writers of their own stories and deserve to take centre stage.
In our list of female-led books for kids, we shared the stories of inspiring girls your little monsters can relate to and learn from and in our feminist masterclass, we paid an ode to the writers who gave us a crash course in feminism.
Add them to your reading list, and then dip into this oestrogen-filled pool of memoirs and novels we love, to remind you that you are the Queenie of your own story.
We love our classics — The Little Women, the Bennetts, Scout Finches, Scarlett O’Haras and Lisbeth Salanders of the world but this is simply our curation of the curious, contemporary and the captivating.
15 books we love — written by or featuring strong women
Queenie by Candace Carty Williams
A truth universally acknowledged? There is no 25-year-old on Earth who is completely satisfied with their life (I can see through those lies, Sheetal). In your twenties, you’re still discovering who you are, and what you want.
For 25-year-old Londoner — Jamaican-British Queenie Jenkins, life is about straddling two confusing cultures — and somehow, fitting into neither. Throw in a break-up, dubious romantic decisions, a difficult job at a newspaper supplement and you have the recipe for a contemporary Bridget Jones.
But under Carty Williams’s penmanship, you feel Queenie’s raw pain, her struggles with mental health and identity, you see how her tumultuous past shaped her present and find yourself yearning for loyal friends like hers (available 24/7 via WhatsApp).
The lessons Queenie learns aren’t drawn out as teaching moments to her or the reader — you make the journey to finding yourself, right alongside Queenie.
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
No one can see as deep into your soul, and press your buttons as effectively as your lifelong best friend. It’s because you are inextricably linked. Just like Elena “Lenù” Greco and Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo, the lead pair in the four-part Neapolitan novels by the Italian author.
An exploration of the complex dynamics of female friendships, My Brilliant Friend, the first in the series, introduces us to the two women whose friendship began as first-graders in Naples and carried them through life.
Featuring two strong women, narrated by Elena, the allegedly autobiographical novel delves deep into why women are drawn to each other, and how female friendships, unlike romantic entanglements, may bend and change over time, but never truly break.
The real and raw story of the two will possibly have you rethinking your own brilliant friends, and just how large a role they play in your life.
The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
“Mein yeh sab nahi padh sakti” was my nani’s war cry when she returned my copy to me. I was taken aback — as far as grandmas go, mine is open-minded, and no subject, not even our alleged horniness that she recognised by restless legs syndrome, has been off limits.
But the Mahabharata as told from Draupadi’s (Panchaali’s) perspective, she couldn’t handle. And that’s precisely what makes the book crucial reading — as it tells the tale of a woman living in a patriarchal world, and forces us to rethink all the things we accepted as truth, mythological or historical.
It traces the story of Panchaali, right from her fiery birth to marriage, motherhood and beyond. A story about the gods with surprisingly human revelations.
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
What happens when you put a young lesbian who is convinced her life’s goal is to become a missionary, under the roof of evangelists? You get Jeanette Winterson’s semi-autobiographical künstlerroman — artist’s novel.
This coming-of-age story relies heavily on religious themes, as it follows the protagonist chasing what she thinks is her calling — a religious figure who will help better the world, to what is actually her calling — simply trying to find and accept herself.
Tackling religious themes and faith, the precarious journey from youth to adulthood and same-sex relationships, it’s an exploration of the delicate, nuanced many shades of grey that lie between the black and white.
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
Born in South Africa during the apartheid, by the year 1961, Nombeko Mayeki is living in abject poverty — but there’s one part of her that’s very rich. Her brain. She’s intelligent, charming, quick witted and smoother than your dad’s favourite whisky.
Swedish author Jonasson (the man behind The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared) follows Mayeki through an absurd, unbelievable adventure through a nuclear weapons facility, an escape to Sweden and settling down in a bizarre commune with a Swedish boyfriend, and the defusing of one giant ticking bomb.
Read the intricately crafted book to find out if that is literal or metaphorical, and to enjoy his mockery of religious fanatics and elite groups, and to watch this girl’s ludicrous adventures change her, emotionally and otherwise.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, the book that inspired the film explores race relationships through the story of three women narrators — 22-year-old Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, who is defying all conventions of the time, and and yearns to tell the story of the maids of the African American community; Aibileen Clark, a quiet, wise maid who works with Skeeter to share her experiences of being employed and bringing up 17 children (none of them her own), and Minny Jackson, the storm to Clark’s lake placid, whose volatility masks a turbulent person life.
Civil rights, women’s rights and the fact that storytelling itself is a powerful tool for change — it explores all these themes, and gives us one of the most iconic lines we must all remember. “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
A suicide, an abortion and family abuse, set against the backdrop of a conservative black community in Southern California, Bennett’s debut takes us on a coming of age journey through three teenagers — Nadia and Aubrey who are best friends, and initially drawn to each other because they’re both motherless, and have a common romantic interest in Luke.
All three’s lives are connected by their personal traumas, and the book takes on the themes of guilt, shame, and what happens to women when they break the expected patterns of behaviour.
It explores the turning point in their teenage lives, how life and loss indelibly change you and what happens when you have to return to a world you thought you’d left behind.
Olive Kitteridge By Elizabeth Strout
A salty, stubborn retired math teacher makes the unlikely protagonist in Strout’s Pulitzer-winning book about life in a small (fictional) town in Maine.
Olive is a flawed, judgmental middle-aged woman with a soft heart, a husband and an adult son who has come to resent his tyrannical mother. The book’s 13 stories, interrelated but not continuous, follow her and a mix of characters navigating marriage, infidelity, filial relationships and traumas.
Olive who isn’t above stealing and damaging her to-be daughter-in-law’s clothes as revenge, makes for a cantankerous and sometimes frustrating heroine — but one who proves that you don’t have to be perfect to be loveable. Or human.
P.S: The sequel Olive, Again, is out too and the original made it to celluloid with an HBO miniseries
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Women are not allowed to read, write, own property or handle money. They also don’t have control over their own reproductive functions. The fact that we could simply be talking about oppressive practises still existent in parts of the world make this book eternally relevant.
Atwood’s seminal work, tinged with her satirical views on American society, exploring themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society is set in a totalitarian state known as Gilead, where ‘handmaids’ are struggling for autonomy over their bodies. The book describes the protagonist Offred’s own struggle and the shared plight of the other handmaids.
Adapted into a tv show, and followed by a sequel, the classic remains the most moving work and essential reading.
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
‘Relationships are like sharks, Liz: if you’re not left with several bite marks after intercourse, then something’s wrong’ — 30 Rock is the wisest, and best show ever.
Created by none other than the mastermind behind timeless gems like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mean Girls —Tina Fey.
Chronicling her journey from nerdy kid to a star on SNL, to a wife and mom, and surviving fame and celebrity — “Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.”
Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxanne Gay
Zomato initiating the concept of period leave has sent people into a tizzy, some traditional feminists argue that it’s a sign of weakness, while others believe it’s a fair judgement. But who decides what is feminist, and what isn’t?
Bad Feminist: Essays by cultural critic, novelist and professor Roxane Gay delves deep into that very concept — exploring what it means to be a feminist while appreciating things that might seem at odds with the conventional feminist ideal.
Through her own personal experiences and pop culture sensations, like Sweet Valley, Gay explores the very debatable subject.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The first year of marriage for any couple can be trying, no matter how much in love you are — but what happens when a criminal conviction threatens to tear you apart?
In the novel, newlyweds, Celestial and Roy are living their dream in Atlanta, but their lives are torn apparent when Roy is accused of rape and sentenced to 12 years in jail — while Celestial discovers that she’s pregnant.
The book is a commentary on the justice system in America and the racial profiling of young black men. It explores how men and women deal with tragedy — a beguiling, heart-tugging read about the spiralling fallout of one tragic event, as told from three perspectives.
A Gift of Goddess Laxmi by Manobi Bandyopadhyay
A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi, the biography of Manobi Bandyopadhyay, as told to journalist Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey delves into the journey of India’s first transgender principal (principal of the Krishnagar Women’s College.)
Born as a boy in the Bandyopadhyay family, the deeply honest memoir tells the story of her transformation from man to woman while battling her family as they lived in denial of her reality.
Follow her relentless pursuit of her academic interest and career, which inspired an entire community.
In Conclusion Don’t Worry About It by Lauren Graham
We love seeing ourselves in fictional characters on screen, and even imagining what it would be like interacting with them. Just me? Maybe.
But Gilmore Girls, the mother-show about relationships, independent women and strong choices had me wishing for a Lorelai-like character in my life, even just to befriend her. And I found it hard to separate Graham from her role.
Turns out they’re same-same, but different, as evidenced in the commencement speech Graham gave at her hometown high school that was turned into a book that gently advises you to not worry about it all so much.
She reflects on growing up, and pursuing joy, even when it doesn’t seem to be pursuing you — a lesson we could all do well with remembering in what seem like unending dark days.
Girl in White Cotton (Burnt Sugar) by Avni Doshi
We’ve read and seen plenty of books and movies about betrayals between lovers. The cheating husband, the philandering wife. But Avni Doshi focused her attention on the one relationship where you don’t see betrayal coming, and when it does, grappling with it becomes harder than when you lose a spouse.
The relationship between mother and daughter — Tara, and Antara. Tara, the mother, spent her youth recklessly, abandoning her child, her family and living unconventionally to say the least. Now in her later years, as she battles the fallout of ageing, and a life of possible regrets, she has to let the daughter who thinks she never cared for her, look after her.
Set in Pune, India, the caustic, emotional novel accurately depicts the intricacies of the unbreakable (but sometimes unfixable) bond between mother, and daughter.
Special mention to Where’d you Go Bernadette and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, the sublime novels about strong women that made it to our feel-good books and realistic romance books lists, respectively.
