"I read it in my teens and it hooked me on mysterious China! I love novels about China and its history and culture, especially the story of women; so complex and colorful, and often so twisted, too."

"Alderman challenges the cliché that women are more noble than men, and that a world run by women would be more gentle, with benevolent leaders and no war. In fact, women become power hungry and begin to repress men. They commit war atrocities, perform male genital mutilation, rape and maim for sport and kill to occupy land. With power dynamics reversed, the women don’t choose a righteous path – they act no better than men who have abused power throughout history. I think Alderman’s point is that people who abuse, do so because they can."

"Francis Poletti writes books for children, but her stories are for everyone. They’re stories about women in history who were the first to achieve something, and what they had to battle against at that time, and how they preserved and pushed through and ended up achieving their dreams. “The Girl Who Ran,” is about a young heroine who is told that women can’t run, that running is against the rules, but she does it anyway."

"For centuries, the making of textiles has traditionally fallen to women. And, the subsequent fabrics they create are often regarded as frivolous objects. But from birth to death, fabric is a constant in our lives, and has been for centuries. In The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History Kassia St. Clair deftly, and exhaustively tackles the 30,000 year history of fabric. This isn’t a book I devoured from start to finish, but I keep returning to whenever I start to take fibers for granted."