For August, our book editor Naomi round brings you 5 books that explore the hardships of women and to establish gender equality and female rights!
Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo ****
When army officer Chike Ameobi is ordered to kill innocent civilians, he knows it is time to desert his post. As he travels toward Lagos with Yemi, his junior officer, and into the heart of a political scandal involving Nigeria’s education minister, Chike becomes the leader of a new platoon, a band of runaways who share his desire for a different kind of life. Full of humor and heart, Welcome to Lagos is a high-spirited novel about aspirations and escape, innocence and corruption. It offers a provocative portrait of contemporary Nigeria that marks the arrival in the United States of an extraordinary young writer!
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy ****
All her life, Ariel Levy was told that she was too fervent, too forceful, too much. As a young woman, she decided that becoming a writer would perfectly channel her strength and desire. She would be a professional explorer—“the kind of woman who is free to do whatever she chooses.” Levy moved to Manhattan to pursue her dream, and spent years of adventure, traveling all over the world writing stories about unconventional heroines, following their fearless examples in her own life. But when she experiences unthinkable heartbreak, Levy is forced to surrender her illusion of control. In telling her story, Levy has captured a portrait of our time, of the shifting forces in American culture, of what has changed and what has remained. And of how to begin again.
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker *****
One night in an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. Those affected by the illness, doctors discover, are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?
My Girlhood by Taslima Nasrin ****
Set in the backdrop of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, ‘My Girlhood’ is an autobiography that recollects the author’s childhood days. Taslima Nasrin starts her biography from her birth on a holy day to the dawn of womanhood when she became fourteen. She conveyed her earliest memories of violence, memories of her pious mother, and the rise of religious fundamentalism in Bangladesh. She highlights the trauma she went through after facing molestation.
The story gives an insight into the journey of a young woman born in a war-torn country, political turmoil, and how she found her own identity.
Struggle to Be the Sun Again by Hyun Kyung Chung ****
Author Chung Hyun Kyung depicts the 1991 World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra in the book Struggle to be the Sun again. She portrayed a vivid presentation of Christianity in an Asian context. Hyun Kyung describes the social and historical context of Asian Women’s theology and asks thought-provoking questions to raise awareness about women’s rights. She askes questions such as, ‘Who is Jesus for Asian Women? What form should spirituality take for Asian women? Indeed what should their theology be?’
