I’m an Egyptologist by training and a storyteller by nature. Fascinated by the origins of patriarchy since I was a small girl raised by strong women in a patriarchal context, I turned to Greek and Roman history for answers. I earned an MA and a richer understanding of the civilizations that influenced the classical period, which led to the study of Egypt and Mesopotamia and finally to a Ph.D. in Egyptology. At heart, I’m more creative than scholar. Telling stories that bring ancient Egypt to life and leave readers better informed of the challenges women have faced, and sometimes overcome, is my passion.
Neferura, princess and high priestess of Kemet knows her duty is to her people. When your mother is the great Pharaoh, it is hard to forget. But Neferura's unique position at court comes with high stakes for her country, especially when she's forced to serve her vile half-brother.
When Neferura overhears Thutmose's plot to end her mother's rule, she knows he must be stopped. A mysterious, tattooed, wise woman and her shadowy network of spies offer an uneasy alliance. But the wise woman wields more power than Neferura knew possible—power with the potential to rival her own. Neferura must decide where her loyalties lie and how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the people she loves before everything crumbles at the hands of a tyrant.
I love the bravery of this book. It’s not easy for academics to send work into the world that is authentic, imaginative, and academically solid. Cooney gives readers a peak behind the curtains, showing us what life might have been like for ancient Egypt’s most renowned female pharaoh, Hatshepsut.
Immersive and informative, with lovely prose and, best of all, thought-provoking.
Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt's throne without status as a king's son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father's family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Just as…
This book fueled my feminist rage and left me thinking about it for months after I put it down.
Unapologetically pro-women, Marmery challenges some of the patriarchy’s most sacred foundations. I love the courage of this book. It’s an intimate read but somehow also feels large and distant. For me, this one is a ca n’t-miss read that makes you think, wonder, and fume.
A triumphantly feminist retelling of ancient creation myths in the tradition of Madeline Miller and Claire North.
Lyrically rendered, this epic U.S. debut tells the story of the woman known as Adam's first wife and her fall from Paradise and quest for revenge.
Before Eve, there was Lilith.
Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses—and is banished forever from Paradise.
Demonized and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has…
I’m a sucker for a first-person narrative that pulls you close. And, of course, it’s hard to find a more fascinating protagonist than Cleopatra. But I suppose the real reason this one makes my top five list is that when I read it years ago, it left a mark on my mind—a mark that convinced me maybe I, too, could write historical fiction about badass women in the ancient world.
Written long before the many brilliant feminist retellings of recent years, this is an oldie but a goodie and a book that influenced my own trajectory.
The mesmerizing story of Queen Cleopatra in her own words - by bestselling novelist Margaret George, author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII and Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles.
Told in the first person - from the young queen's earliest memories of her father's tenuous rule to her own reign over one of the most glittering kingdoms in the world - this is an enthralling saga of ambition and power.
It is also a tale of passion that begins when the twenty-one-year-old Cleopatra, desperate to return from exile, seeks out the one man who can help her: Julius…
This one hooked me from the first words: “Sing, Muse.”
I always enjoy the wit Haynes brings to her work. And I love how this book pulls the reader into so many different points of view, creating a sweeping narrative. The craft of this one left me a bit stunned.
Plus, war is so often told as a man’s adventure. Here, Haynes shows the cost to women who are abandoned, enslaved, and widowed. As retellings go, this is a unique and clever reimagining.
In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker.
This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands…
I love how Lynn shows you the story first through Demeter’s eyes, then Persephone’s. The vastly different perspectives of mother and daughter resonated.
But my favorite thing about this book was the unique and empathetic picture it drew of Hades. Lynn managed not only to challenge my idea of the goddesses but of the god at the heart of the story as well. Unexpected but appreciated.
A daughter pulled between two worlds and a mother willing destroy both to protect her... Demeter: a goddess of life, living half of one. Demeter did not always live in fear. Once, she loved the world and the humans who inhabited it. After an act of devastating violence, though, she hides herself away among the grasses and wildflowers. Her only solace is her daughter... Before she was Persephone, she was Core. Core is as bright as summer and devoted to her mother, even during their millennia in exile from Olympus. But she craves freedom. Naive and determined, she secretly builds…
When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.
Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not a criminal, she stumbles into other secrets that will challenge what she thought she knew about her own family, her friend, Russ—and herself.
When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.
Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not…
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