Happy Women's Day from Team PMI!
In celebration of the Women's Day, our team has curated a list of their favorite reads penned by women authors from diverse backgrounds and eras.
Before you proceed, beware: your reading list is about to grow!
Radhika Raje: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is The Women by Kristin Hannah. This was my first ever Kristin Hannah book and it was a wild ride of emotions. This book just sucks you in and it's difficult to put it down. It was quite a revelation to know the kind of troubles that women at war had to deal with and the lasting trauma it created. Women have been largely ignored in most wars and it seems the same was the case in the Vietnam War.
‘The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn't quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.’
Kristin Hannah
The Women shares a very unique story of a woman who breaks all the conventional norms in her book. Highly recommended!
The Women
by Kristin Hannah
An instant Number One Sunday Times bestseller and soon to be a major motion picture
Utterly absorbing . . . A triumph.
Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six
Stuns with sacrifice. Uplifts with heroism.
Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
Divyanshi Dash: Women's History Month will be incomplete without recognizing queer women which is exactly why my #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is Concerning My Daughter by Kim Hye-Jin. An essential story about being a mother, a daughter and after all, a woman. It is a short and quick read about a mother who is reluctant about welcoming her thirty-something daughter into her home with her girlfriend. She cannot accept it. But does not having a traditional life mean that it is unacceptable?
Concerning My Daughter
by Kim Hye-jin
An admirably nuanced portrait of prejudice . . . one that boldly takes on the daunting task of humanizing someone whose prejudice has made her cruel.
Imogen West Knights, The New York Times
I can't help but be moved by a story about women meeting, fighting, helping each other, looking after one another, and raising their voices against the prejudice and criticism they are subject to.
Cho Nam-joo, author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Shreyoshee Bandyopadhyay: #PMIReadMoreWomen immediately brought Julia Armfield's work to mind; we're lucky to have Our Wives Under the Sea and salt slow on Pan Macmillan India's list. Horror is a genre of counter-narratives and Armfield's work explores the darker shades of womanhood, the liberation of queerness. I love Armfield's women characters, bizarre and violent and somehow strangely familiar. If you're in the mood for something sharp and satisfying this Women's History Month, take a bite out of one of these books!
Books by Julia Armfield
Divya Bhatia: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. A reimagining of the Mahabharata through the eyes of Draupadi, The Palace of Illusions gives voice to a woman often sidelined in history. Divakaruni’s lyrical storytelling and rich character exploration make this novel both powerful and deeply moving. It’s a tale of love, destiny, and the strength of a woman who dared to challenge the world around her.
Wishing all the incredible women a day filled with joy and a future filled with success—Happy Women's Day!
The Palace of Illusions
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
An epic story ... poignantly told
Hindustan Times
Radiant ... A charming and remarkable book
Houston Chronicle
As bright a gem as the Hope Diamond
Los Angeles Times
A daring novel
Vogue India
Bazila Bilal: Where Mayflies Live Forever by Anupama Mohan. Set in a small town, the novel is vivid and voices the horrors endured by survivors of sexual trauma and wrecks you completely. It stirs rage, fear, and sorrow as the story unfolds, laying bare the suffering of women in an unfiltered, brutally honest approach like no other. Yet, amidst all the pain, it is cathartic —the sheer satisfaction of imagining the severed head of the perpetrator is beyond words. Steeped in suffering, the novel finds balance by celebrating the beauty of nature and the quiet joy of seemingly insignificant things—like the mayfly, like braids. It’s a poetic tale of pain, but also of hope and resilience. No matter how ravaged the body, the spirit remains untouched by the horrors inflicted upon it. Like Veni, we carry within us an unbreakable spirit, and nature, in all its glory, holds the power to heal us—even from the unimaginable.
My best regards, and a very Happy Women’s Day to all the wonderful women out there!
Where Mayflies Live Forever
by Anupama Mohan
Hard-hitting
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
[A] novel of deep feeling
Tanuj Solanki
Tina Baruah: I absolutely love this book for teaching my teenage daughter how to keep her room, desk, and wardrobe clutter-free. The manga-style illustrations captivated her quickly, and she eagerly read it from front to back and then, in typical manga style, back to front. From that moment, the transformation I've witnessed has been awe-inspiring.
Shoe boxes have gained more value than the shoes themselves, and it's hilarious to watch her and our ginger cat battling for ownership over Amazon cartons. These cartons are rapidly replacing plastic organizers on kitchen shelves and in wardrobes, with items stacked as neatly as the terracotta armies of Qin Shi Huang. This is an amazing book and an ideal Women's Day recommendation!
The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up
by Marie Kondo
Like a cartoon character come to life to bless you with tidiness.
The Washington Post
Charming and whimsical . . . if organizational mandates are medicine, this book is like a spoonful of sugar.
Los Angeles Times
Her voice . . . is by turns stern and enchanted, like a fairy godmother for socks.
The Wall Street Journal
The organization expert who dazzled the world.
People
Asha Sainath: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is Think Like a Breadwinner by Jennifer Barrett. I loved this book! This book is a must-read, offering valuable insights and practical advice on building wealth, while also highlighting the significant differences in how men and women are taught to approach personal finance.
In this book, the author, Jennifer, emphasizes that this fairy tale narrative is not only outdated but also damaging, as it reinforces the idea that women are helpless and dependent on others for financial security. Instead, we should teach them how to take care of themselves, how to earn their own money, how to invest and save, and how to build a secure financial future. By doing so, we'll empower them to become financially independent and confident breadwinners.
Think Like a Breadwinner
by Jennifer Barrett
A new kind of manifesto for the working woman, with practical guidance on building wealth as well as inspiration for harnessing the freedom and power that comes from a breadwinning mindset.
Barrett’s manifesto is a must read for any woman at any stage of her career.
Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play
Pooja Sharma: A book I'd recommend you pick up this #WomensHistoryMonth is The Amendments. Niamh Mulvey will ensnare you with a writing style so deft that it's perfect for those who love a slower, introspective novel.
‘She had lost so much, she felt like the clothes hangers in her wardrobe, her clothes fell off of them onto the floor and the hangers hung there emptily defiant, and that was her.’
Niamh Mulvey
Set against the backdrop of Ireland's political turmoil, this multi-generational debut explores emotional trauma inevitably passed down through generations, offering a poignant tale of forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom.
The Amendments
by Niamh Mulvey
Niamh Mulvey's wonderfully compelling characters and deft, clear prose offer great pleasure. Her sense of political and cultural change is sharp, and the beauty she finds in days of struggle is haunting.
Joseph O'Connor, author of My Father's House and Star of the Sea
A smart, subtle, engrossing and moving novel that gives voice to so much that's unspoken about Ireland and about youth.
Emma Donoghue, Booker prize-shortlisted author of Room
Udyotna Kumar: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is From Here to the Great Unknown by Riley Keough with Lisa Maria Presley. I was glued from start to finish and I still go back time and again to this gorgeous memoir of Elvis's only child, Lisa Marie Presley, written by her daughter using old letters and recorded tapes. It is by far the most beautiful portrait of a woman, a mother and a life gently fading into non-existence, resurrected in striking, vivid detail -- one of the best celebrity memoirs I've ever had the privilege of reading. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone experiencing grief or the loss of a loved one. It is a life-affirming, heartwarming reminder of why life is worth living -- a simple pleasure in itself; as if the gentle sloping rays of the evening sun were shining through its pages. Nostalgic, homely, comforting ...
From Here to the Great Unknown
by Lisa Marie Presley
The result is an intimate celebrity memoir that gets beyond trashy revelation or prissy image control to tell something that sounds like the truth.
The Times
Tragedy and addiction vie for your attention in this jaw-dropping memoir.
The Guardian
This is a portrait of someone who strived for a normal life but for whom normality was forever denied.
i news
Anahita Tenzing Sharma: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. From the first page to the last, I was captivated by this poignant memoir on food, identity and familial love, a tale that vividly resonates with anyone who has loved and lost. Zauner's prose is vulnerable and raw, delivering lyrical descriptions of the devastating and the delicious, with equal measure.
‘I remember these things clearly because that was how my mother loved you, not through white lies and constant verbal affirmation, but in subtle observations of what brought you joy, pocketed away to make you feel comforted and cared for without even realizing it.’
Michelle Zauner
For anyone touched by loss, this memoir is a gentle reminder of why our connections and histories matter. (Pro-tip: keep tissues handy for this one.)
Crying in H Mart
by Michelle Zauner
A story that is both beautiful and heartbreaking; it is as raw as it is precious. I bawled my eyes out, but I also loved it and I hope you do too.
Dua Lipa
Incredible . . . It absolutely wrecked me . . . So, so emotional
Natalie Portman
Crying In H Mart destroyed me . . . It’s fantastic.
Olivia Rodrigo
Pujitha Krishnan: The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing is a wonderfully meditative book on gardens and gardening, of course, but so much more. In this memoir, Laing takes us along on her journey of creating a garden in her home that she purchased during the dark days of the pandemic. You’ll enjoy this read if you’re a gardener as you follow Laing’s planning, planting and pruning calendar. There is a lot here for non-gardeners too: engaging debates on Eden and paradise, Milton’s Paradise Lost, the fate of common lands, privilege (leisure and resources) and access (land ownership), impermanence, the search for a sense of rootedness and more... This is a book to take your time with and read over many languid afternoons.
The Garden Against Time
by Olivia Laing
This isn’t a historical survey of gardening, much less a practical guide, so much as an inquiry into the idea of the garden — its history and poetics, its relationship to sex, imagination and power. Laing belongs in an as-yet-undefined and perhaps undefinable class of prose artists who blend feeling and analysis, speculation and research, wit and instruction as they track down the elusive patterns and inescapable contradictions of modern experience
New York Times
Saburi Sumran Pandit: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is Anita Desai's latest, Rosarita. The book left me with wanting more ... but the story in itself was extremely thought provoking and urgent in its approach and demanding, pushing us to ask if we knew/know enough about our mother's life.
‘Stay, sit, you tell yourself. Wait, here, now, she will appear and you will see her as she had never shown herself and you had never seen.’
Anita Desai
The story centers around Bonita, a young student from India, who finds herself in the idyllic setting of San Miguel, Mexico, where she has come to learn Spanish. However, when an enigmatic woman claims to recognize Bonita as the daughter of a woman who once shared a similar journey, Bonita is thrust into a tale that bridges past and present.
Rosarita
by Anita Desai
Anita Desai is a magnificent writer
SALMAN RUSHDIE
To compare Anita Desai's fiction with that of Chekhov or the short stories of Tolstoy is not extravagant; it is entirely warranted
IRISH TIMES
Pratibha Jain: My #PMIReadMoreWomen recommendation is The Sati Series by Koral Dasgupta as a powerful tribute to the strength, resilience, and complexity of women. The series reimagines the lives of the Pancha Kanyas—Ahalya, Kunti, Draupadi, Tara, and Mandodari—iconic figures from Hindu mythology who embody courage, wisdom, and endurance. Through these stories, Koral Dasgupta brings to light the multifaceted roles these women played, challenging traditional narratives and offering readers a deeper, more empowering perspective. This series is not just a retelling of myths, but a celebration of the unwavering spirit of women who defied the odds, making it a perfect read for the Women's History Month!
The Sati Series
In the Sati series, Koral Dasgupta explores the lives of the Pancha Kanyas from Indian mythology and reinvents them in the modern context with a feminist consciousness.
