Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and Honey offers a collection of poetry and prose about survival more akin to powerful yet incredibly simple quotes that reflect on the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. And who doesn’t love quotes?

The overall sentiment is what makes this a must-read: even in life’s most bitter moments,  there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets, the ferocious pull of motherhood and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster or heartbreak. It’s also Reese Witherspoon’s next book-TV series adaptation, so you know it’s going to be good.

Persepolis: The Story of Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

Written through the lens of the author when she was a little girl, Persepolis is an intensely personal account growing up during the war in Iran with profound political messages that are wholly original. Persepolis serves as a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of adversity.

The Girls by Emma Cline

If you’re a sucker for a true story, then this evocative novel inspired by the Charles Manson affair will have your head rolling. The Girls follows the journey of a teenage girl into a dangerous commune in California during the late ’60s… Best of luck not putting this one down…

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

If you measure the success of a book by how moved you are, then this one should be at the top of your list.

Having enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn delivers a highly emotive tale crowded with life detailing the story of a young, sensitive Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg.

Nine Stories by J.D Salinger

Nine Stories is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger first published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor”. If you’ve ever read Who Moved My Cheese  then you know first hand how applicable and telling a short story can be in shaping one’s life. That, or you’re really bad at finishing a full book.

Power Politics by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s Power Politics first appeared in 1971, startling its audience with its vital dance of woman and man. It still startles, and is just as iconoclastic as ever. Atwood’s poems make us realise that what we may think are our own personal unique dichotomies, are in fact multiple and universal. Oh, and she’s the mastermind behind The Handmaid’s Tale. Enough said.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

With wit and wisdom, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between four Chinese women who have recently immigrated to San Francisco with their American-born daughters. Prepare to have your eyes opened to the cultural conflict and often-turbulent relationship between four first-generation Chinese-American women and their mothers. It also had a film adaptation produced in 1993 but we all know books are always better…

The End of Men: And the Rise of Women by Hanna Rosin

Essential reading for our times, as women are pulling together to demand their rights, this novel marks a landmark portrait of women, men, and power in a transformed world. It just feels rude not to have at least given this one a nose in, right?

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey. Spoiler alert: there’s an Eleanor Oliphant in all of our lives.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

With a quick skim of the plot it’ll be hard to leave the store without this intriguing novel in hand (once you’ve paid for it of course). In an ugly duckling-esque kind of a way, Luckiest Girl Alive follows one teenager’s rise to an idyllic life complete with glamorous job, blue blood fiancé and designer wardrobe (#goals, right?) in a bid to reinvent herself following a shocking public humiliation back in high school. But then, just when she pulls up to the perfect life that’s she always wanted, karma comes a-knocking…

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

This stunning debut novel about grief and wonder as one young woman travels the world to affirm her theory of how her best friend died in a swimming accident was an instant New York Times bestseller and captured widespread critical acclaim. Grief hits people in different ways, just as coming to terms with reality isn’t always straight-forward. But, alas, it’s part of life, ultimately making The Thing About Jellyfish a book to cross off sooner rather than later.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Strap yourself in for Sylvia Plath’s shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity. The Bell Jar is a deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche securing its acclaimed status of a haunting American classic.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Do yourself a favour and get wrapped up in this incredible novel.

Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown

If you graduated from university but still feel like a student… If you wear a business suit to job interviews but pyjamas to the grocery store… If you’ve moved out of home but no have no idea how to cook or clean… It’s okay. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Enter, Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. You’re welcome.

Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun and be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

Calling all boss ladies… In this poignant, hilarious and deeply intimate call to arms, Hollywood’s most powerful woman, the mega-talented creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away with Murder and Catch, reveals how saying YES changed her life – and how it can change yours, too.

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behaviour modification whatsoever, or most importantly, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives – experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarisation. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling and honesty, Brown once again changes the cultural conversation while mapping out a clear path to true belonging.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

This one is an oldie but a goodie. Set in the rich farmland of the Salinas Valley, California, this powerful, often brutal novel, follows the intertwined destinies of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – whose generations hopelessly re-enact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Here Steinbeck created some of his most memorable characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity; the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love’s absence.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

In an enthralling novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.