My Brilliant Sister
By Amy Brown
While Stella Miles Franklin excelled in the literary world, her beloved sister Linda led a short domestic life as a wife and mother. In this remarkable, genre-bending debut novel, Amy Brown thrillingly reimagines those two lives — and her own — to explore and explode the contradictions and complexities of women’s roles and career choices.
Piglet
By Lottie Hazell
Piglet is a riveting debut novel that explores the tension between self-perception and societal expectations. Piglet’s seemingly perfect life unravels just days before her wedding when a shocking truth is revealed, forcing her to grapple with the choice of self-destruction or maintaining the facade she has meticulously built.
Poor Things
By Alasdair Gray
Set in late-Victorian Glasgow, Godwin Baxter’s scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realised when he brings the drowned body of Bella back to life. This Frankenstein-esque feat prompts reflections on the value of a life without freedom and autonomy, particularly through Bella’s perspective on her revived existence.
Only Say Good Things
By Crystal Hefner
Described as a “fascinating demythologising of the Playboy brand and Hefner himself”, Crystal Hefner’s memoir, Only Say Good Things, lays bare the devastating impact that a culture of relentless objectification and misogyny had on the author’s health as she climbed mansion ranks into marriage.
Fourteen Days
Edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston
During the first week of lockdown, Manhattan apartment tenants gather on the roof each evening, sharing stories and transforming from strangers into a close-knit community. Each neighbour has been secretly written by a different major literary voice, from Celeste Ng and Sylvia Day through to John Grisham and Margaret Atwood.
Beautiful Chaos
By Jessica Urlichs
A raw and honest collection of poems that explores the messy and beautiful journey of motherhood, capturing the highs and lows, and the transformative aspects from pregnancy to school age. These poignant verses by New Zealand author Jessica Urlichs provide a cathartic read for anyone navigating the beautiful chaos of motherhood.
