women read

Name: Freya Reading: All The Things She Said, Daisy Jones Why did you want to read this? It was our birthday and Mel and I thought fuck it, we should do another reading! Through lockdown I came to miss queer spaces intensely and gulped this down when it came out. We’ve also had lots of queer readers on the podcast so far, but not so many GAY BOOKS, so I thought I’d up the quota with this. How did...

Name: Jane Reading: Hot Milk, Deborah Levy Why did you want to read this? Hot Milk is the first book of Deborah Levy’s I read and is my enduring favourite. I loved meeting Sofia as she emerges from the stinging sea, seeking pain relief from the injury hut – one of many incredible metaphors for her life as a young woman, where broken things don’t quite receive adequate repair and bold ambitions are...

Name : Hannah Reading : When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr Why did you want to read this? I chose When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit because it was my absolute favourite as a child and probably the book I've read the most times of any. As an adult, I don't really reread books at all but I used to read this several times a year as a kid. It reads much more poignantly now though. How did you reco...

Name : Janice  Reading : Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London, Lauren Elkin  Why did you want to read this? Walking the city was one of, if not most, crucial experiences of my formative years. Like Elkin, I discovered the concept of flâneur during my undergrad and explored in my own ways academically if there was/is, and thus what was/is the flâneus...

Name : Sára Reading : Widow Basquiat, Jennifer Clement Why did you want to read this? This is one of my all-time favourite books. It travels well and doesn't age. It was given to me by a musician friend. The atmosphere and the people in the book have a loud pulse that doesn't fade. I love that Clement uses prose to write a memoir so close to the skin. It is also an excellent book to read to someo...

Name : Jessica Reading : We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson Why did you want to read this? I'm curating a new programme that is centred around issues of place and belonging. Shirley Jackson takes any uneasiness around these things and slowly, skilfully amplifies it into horror. I decided on We Have Always Lived in the Castle because that first chapter does a whole h...

Name : Claire  Reading : Ice, Anna Kavan  Why did you want to read this? Ironically this narrative about the world turning to ice was first recommended to me via a paper napkin scribble by my best friend one hot summer day. Now, due to the oncoming bleakness of a British winter, it feels seasonally appropriate. I recommend the thrill of reading this book on its own terms, and waitin...

Name : Ellen Reading : Bluets, Maggie Nelson Why did you want to read this? Bluets shares the qualities of many of my favourite books – experimental in form, collapsing the lines between prose, poetry, essay and memoir. 240 numbered paragraphs make up this fragmentary, rhythmic meditation, which explores art, literature, grief and female desire through the tinted lens of Nelson’s love fo...

Name : Blue Reading : Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss Why did you want to read this? I read this book earlier this year and was totally gripped by the seething suspense, seeing patriarchy and power through the eyes of a teenage girl. It touches upon questions that I feel are incredibly important if you become too enamoured with history or the past as inspiration for art or a way of life. How slippery and s...

Name : Sophie Reading : The Periodic Table, Primo Levi Why did you want to read this? It’s one of the best books I read in my life so far. It’s extraordinary and stays with you for a long time.  How did you record yourself? Outside, a rare sunny evening, on the steps in front of our house. I hope the road in the distance is not too loud, I think at some point a freight train passes which...

Name : Rebecca Reading : Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning Why did you want to read this? When I first read Aurora Leigh , I felt like this nineteenth century gem had been hidden from me. Elizabeth Barrett Browning beats most of her contemporaries in the vitality of her language, and the poem carries me throughout with the force of its energy. I find the depiction of young Aurora Leigh's gr...

Name : Seo Hye Reading : Minor Feelings, Cathy Park Hong Why did you want to read this? When I was choosing a book to read, I was considering picking one of my favourite classic literature books, but instead I chose something I have read much more recently and is written by a woman of POC. This book was initially recommended by Asian American friends and I wanted to share something that may be not...

Name : Vaska Reading : Underland, Robert Macfarlane Why did you want to read this? This past year I discovered some beautiful non-fiction books and Underland was one of them. Macfarlane shines a light on places most of us will never have the opportunity to visit and really makes them come alive on the page. He writes beautifully about the underground places themselves, but also explores what the d...

Name : Lindsay Reading : Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard Why did you want to read this? Pilgrim at Tinker Creek holds reverence for nature, yet is unafraid to describe its cruelty. Annie Dillard wrote this in 1974, when she was about 30 years old, my age. I think of her when I walk in the neighborhood or hike outside the city where I live, and I try to locate beauty in the way she does. How...

Name : Larissa Reading : Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson Why did you want to read this? sappho is my favourite poet and anne carson looks at her writing in such a beautiful way. it is such a beautiful way of thinking and writing about poetry. it also talks about love and desire, which are themes i deeply care about. How did you record yourself? sat on bed, the sun shining on my legs, w...

Name : Bettina Reading : The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante Why did you want to read this? I loved Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, and this is Ferrante’s most recent book, set in Naples again. The book allows you to inhabit the inner turmoil of adolescent Giovanna who enters the lying life of adults... I revel in the idea that Ferrante’s prose feels totally uncensored. How did you record...

Name : Sarah Reading : Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James Why did you want to read this? I was given this book as a present from my Mum - the joy at unwrapping a continuation of one of the most beloved stories of all time AND with a detective twist?! The perfect story for anyone who watched the BBC dramatisation of Pride & Prejudice so many times when it came out as a teenager (and probably...

Name : Monica Reading : Agua Viva, Clarice Lispector Why did you want to read this? Because I love Clarice and the cryptic power of her introspective, impressionistic worlds! Her novels and their inhabitants are always so bold & strange. I think she’s a writer who is hyperconscious of language, always searching within it, determined to reconcile it with reality and vice versa. Of her works, th...

Name : Emily Reading : The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald  Why did you want to read this? I was loaned Rings of Saturn on a trip to Norway. At that time, I had never been truly alone in a foreign country. As I was walking along the shore of Sydspissen, Tromsø coming to terms with the loneliness and isolation I felt, The Rings of Saturn proved a curious companion. It combines two of my favourit...

Name : Zanna Reading : How to Eat, Nigella Lawson Why did you want to read this? I wanted to read this, because I love how Nigella talks about her love for food. You so rarely hear people talking about the joy of actually eating, and I love how simple that idea is. I also thought it might be a fun thing to read, and that if I get any of the reading wrong, I can pretend it's pronounced that way, li...

Name : Elizabeth  Reading : The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy  Why did you want to read this? I love Roy’s tidal, circular writing, and the textures of her eccentric characters. This was brought out vividly when reading – you might hear me stumble over some of her dizzying, alliterative sentences. When I first read the novel, I was a teenager drawn by the John Berger epigraph, and I...

Name : Julie Reading : The Waves, Virginia Woolf Why did you want to read this? I chose to read this as I love the sea in literature, as I do in my own life. It always feels a blank canvas on which to project so many thoughts and metaphors. As well as being mysterious and beautiful, Virginia Woolf’s writing is extraordinary to read but not always easy. In the opening to The Waves I am astonished b...

Name : Isabella Reading : Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Why did you want to read this? I wanted to record this for the pure delicious wickedness of having these words in my mouth. In these last months, I have read so many letter-exchanges: Nin/Miller, Jonker/Brink, Acker/Wark, Bachmann/Celan, Camus/Casares, Bowen/Ritchie, Vita/Violet/Virginia, Kafka to Milena and Shklovsky's...

Name: Fiona Reading: Breath of the Sun, Isaac R. Fellman   Why did you want to read this? I love the depth of world-building in this book, and the satisfying way it’s spooled out throughout the story, both by the narrator and interjecting footnotes and edits from others. It’s about trying to climb an unknowably tall mountain that reaches into space, and science, and faith, and the comple...

Name : Viv   Reading : Half a Lifelong Romance, Eileen Chang   Why did you want to read this? I read this a few years ago after a slump in reading non-fiction. I'd realised that all the non-fiction I was reading was by white or Japanese men, I was pretty sick of it, so I made a point of looking for books written by East Asian women. It was also around that time when I saw my mu...