5 Good Books for Women to Read During Winter Break 2017

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These five good books for women are recommended by Rutger’s University-Newark instructor and author Chris Kapp.

Some of the best books from my reading list this year, heartily recommended for the reader on your holiday list (or yourself):

The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert (Picador)

Amazon.com Rating: 4.7 stars  Buy It Now

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert’s examination of earth’s mass extinctions and our understanding of geological history, evolution, and species death is entertaining, captivating, and terrifying all at once.

Oxygen, Carol Cassella (Simon and Schuster)

Amazon.com Rating: 4.5 stars  Buy It Now

If you’re missing Grey’s Anatomy during the winter hiatus, this will hold you over. Cassella’s novel about an anesthesiologist explores the tensions between doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies. It also has a great twist at the end you won’t see coming.

Difficult Women, Roxane Gay (Grove Press)

Amazon.com Rating: 3.7 stars   Buy It Now

I love everything Roxane Gay writes, and these short stories are fearless and beautifully written.

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage)

Amazon.com Rating: 3.7 stars  Buy It Now

Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year and Kathy H., the narrator in this slow, simmering novel, will stick with you long after her story ends.

The Mother of All Questions, Rebecca Solnit (Haymarket Books)

Amazon.com Rating: 4.7 stars Buy It Now

Solnit’s essays on gender and feminism are an insightful and well-researched analysis of the influences and events that have led up to this (hopefully) groundbreaking moment in time.

Also recommended:

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng (Penguin)

The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison (Graywolf)

Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Anchor Books)

The Blazing World, Siri Hustvedt (Simon and Schuster)

Stolen Beauty, Laurie Lico Albanese (Atria Books)

Happy reading!

Christina Kapp teaches composition in the Writing Program at Rutgers University—Newark and creative writing at The Writers Circle Workshops in Summit, NJ. Follow her on Twitter at @ChristinaKapp.