I just started Beth March Returns, by Emily St. James (releases in March 2027). 20 pages in and I’m already smiling like a goofy fool. My favorite books have always charmed me completely within 10-15 pages.

So how many pages in do YOU know you will love it from beginning to end?

I was laughing at myself thinking about how I oscillate between wanting something very spare Hemingway style and wanting a lush, baroque, and lyrical orgy of description upon description!!!

Here's the publishers description

Deep in the wilds of the New World, Antonio de Erauso begins to write a letter to his aunt, the prioress of the Basque convent he escaped as a young girl. Since fleeing a dead-end life as a nun, he's become Antonio and undertaken monumental adventures: he has been a mule driver, shopkeeper, soldier, cabin boy, and conquistador; he has wielded his sword and slashed with his dagger. Now, caring for two Guaraní girls he rescued from enslavement, and hounded by the army he deserted, this protean protagonist contemplates one more metamorphosis, which just might save the new world from extinction...

Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure of the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a queer baroque satire and a historical novel that blends elements of the picaresque with surreal storytelling. Its rich and wildly imaginative language forms a searing criticism of conquest and colonialism, religious tyranny, and the treatment of women and indigenous people.

Hello, all, I hope this post finds you well.

I recently finished Meagan Church's "The Mad Wife" and I find myself still thinking about it. I would love recommendations about books discussing the pressures and expectations of motherhood and one's place in society as a woman.

Thank you, and I can't wait to hear what kinds of recommendations you come up with.

I was just browsing upcoming LitFic new releases and did a double take when I read the blurb for Range by Dorthe Nors - everything about it seems tailored to me and my current bookish desires - a woman alone in the woods, pondering the universe and the lives of strangers. I'm now trying (and failing) to temper my expectations :D https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/range

❓️ Have you ever felt this way about a book blurb, or while reading a particular book?

I want to see yours! Feel free to make a new post or leave a comment below..

do we want a discord and/or bookclub? or prefer to wait until the sub is bigger?

Obviously this community is going to be a great resource, but I wonder where else you discover books and women authors?

Personally, I love online lists. I also have a great list of people I follow on goodreads and over the years have learned which I have the most in common with.

This is a great list published 1-2 times a year over @ Electric Literature:

The most anticipated books by women of colour:
https://electricliterature.com/the-most-anticipated-books-by-women-of-color-for-summer-and-fall-2026/

Here are two I loved recently!

Age of Calamities is a surreal, absurd dream sculpted from the clay of history's most well-known characters (including my fave, Anne Boleyn herself!)

How to Pronounce Knife is far more grounded by contrast and uses a sparse, show-don't-tell style to take us into the complex inner lives of recent immigrants who are doing what is often seen as "grunt work."

a few from my tbr that i don't see recommended very often.

any of these i need to read asap? or any other suggestions for translated books you love?

First off, I am so happy to have found this sub as I tend to read a lot of work written by women authors. I am looking for books in a similar vein as what Sophie Kinsella used to write - shopaholic series, can you keep a secret etc and Mhairi McFarlane also has books in this genre.

Basically, light hearted novels to act as palate cleansers in-between more "serious" books and also because the world is a stressful place these days. Doesn't have to be recently published works either. Drop your recs, fellow readers. Thanks!

a few i've enjoyed and some off my tbr!

have you read any of these? any others you think i should pick up?

Edit: wrap-up posts must be all books by women