Why am I passionate about this?

As a queer/bi girl labeled as a tomboy from early on, I ached for a sense of belonging in my life that I only found in books. The adventurous women and girls that I looked for in the pages of books that were like friends to me spanned from Anne of Green Gables to Harriet the Spy. As I got older, I realized that important and awesome adventurous women had been left out of my history books, and only now are we starting to find out who they were, and how many women like myself were erased, and are now being redeemed through these wonderful stories.


I wrote

Written in the Ashes

By Kaia Alexander,

Book cover of Written in the Ashes

What is my book about?

Who burned the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt?

In the bloody clash between Christians and pagans in 5th-century Alexandria, a…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Swell: A Sailing Surfer's Voyage of Awakening

Kaia Alexander Why did I love this book?

Captain Liz Clark is who I would have wanted to be when I grew up, had I found her story in my teens.

There were almost no strong female role models that I could point to as a girl who inspired me, and illuminated a path of an adventurous woman. Captain Liz Clark built her own sailboat and decided to take on the entire Pacific Ocean on her adventures to find love, connection, and a relationship to nature and her own pure heart.

I clutched this book to my heart and took it with me everywhere for a month. Then I wrote Captain Liz to option it, so we can make a TV show about her life, because we need her story on screen!

By Liz Clark, Daniella Manini (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Swell as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Chasing a dream is never easy, but if you go far enough, it will set you free.

Captain Liz Clark spent her youth dreaming of traveling the world by sailboat and surfing remote waves. When she was 22, she met a mentor who helped turn her desire into reality. Embarking on an adventure that most only fantasize about, she set sail from Santa Barbara, California, as captain of her 40-foot sailboat, Swell, headed south in search of surf, self, and the wonder and learning that lies beyond the unbroken horizon.

In true stories overflowing with wild waves and constant challenges,…


Book cover of The Twentieth Wife

Kaia Alexander Why did I love this book?

Nur Jahan was one of the great queens of India, but I had never learned about her even in my studies at university.

I felt absolutely transported into her life, ambitions, and loves through this riveting novel that is so poetic you’ll want to read it in your bath with the door locked and a candle lit. This book feels like a window into the life of a woman you wish was your mother, your sister, your best friend.

It’s the first of the trilogy, and a magnificent journey into ancient India and the history of the Taj Mahal.

By Indu Sundaresan,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Twentieth Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An enchanting seventeenth-century epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses -- a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal empire.
She came into the world in the year 1577, to the howling accompaniment of a ferocious winter storm. As the daughter of starving refugees fleeing violent persecution in Persia, her fateful birth in a roadside tent sparked a miraculous reversal of family fortune, culminating in her father's introduction to the court of Emperor Akbar. She…


Book cover of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Kaia Alexander Why did I love this book?

Yes, Oprah loved it and Reese Witherspoon starred in the movie, but in case you haven’t read Wild, you’ve got to get a paperback copy that you can cherish and bend and fold and underline, because Cheryl’s language and her mastery of translating her emotional and tragic journey into the wilderness to redeem her own soul will fascinate you on every page.

By Cheryl Strayed,

Why should I read it?

30 authors picked Wild as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the…


Book cover of H is for Hawk

Kaia Alexander Why did I love this book?

In my top five books, of all time, why in the world Helen Macdonald decides after the death of her father to tame the most difficult hawk that falconers attempt to tame, is a lesson in endurance and a very human portrait of a woman grieving a great loss.

The fascinating tie between Helen, who works at Cambridge, and to TH White, who was also living at Cambridge while writing the Once and Future King and grappling with his homosexuality and his foibles as a falconer, opens a window into the souls of these deep and tormented thinkers as they grapple with the hardest challenges human beings face.

All while loving a difficult hawk named Mabel.

By Helen Macdonald,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked H is for Hawk as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year

ON MORE THAN 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR LISTS: including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Miami Herald, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top 10), Library Journal (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Slate, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, Amazon (Top 20)

The instant New York Times bestseller and award-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald's story of adopting and raising one of…


Book cover of All the Light We Cannot See

Kaia Alexander Why did I love this book?

Doerr is a lyrical poet and his economical style and imaginative language that carves new pathways into the page will sweep you away to another time, where his protagonist is a young blind girl trying to survive the air raids against her small French village in WWII.

The storytelling weaves the connections between the characters who try to save themselves and each other, finding themselves in desperate need of the one piece of equipment that they each rely on for life: a radio.

It’s far more than a book, it’s a window into the heart of a fierce girl unlikely to survive. Keep your tissues nearby.

By Anthony Doerr,

Why should I read it?

43 authors picked All the Light We Cannot See as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel 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

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.'

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic…


Explore my book 😀

Written in the Ashes

By Kaia Alexander,

Book cover of Written in the Ashes

What is my book about?

Who burned the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt?

In the bloody clash between Christians and pagans in 5th-century Alexandria, a fierce young woman becomes the last hope for saving the world’s knowledge in this evocative and thrilling tale. Revered for her beautiful singing voice, Hannah, the young Jewish slave is invited to perform at the renowned Great Library, where she becomes friends with the revered philosopher, Hypatia, as well as other scholars who curate its magnificent collections. Meanwhile, the city’s bishop decides to outlaw all religious worship, especially Judaism. Determined to save her friends, Hannah becomes initiated as a priestess of Isis and embarks on a dangerous quest to unite the fractured pieces of the Emerald Tablet—their last hope.

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The Mazatlan Showdown

By Patrick Weill,

Book cover of The Mazatlan Showdown

Patrick Weill Author Of The Mazatlan Showdown

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Artist Editor Father Husband Fighter

Patrick's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Jeff Walker is a champion surfer haunted by the mystery of his father’s murder and his mother’s broken heart. After finding a job as a lifeguard, a rescue mission at sea plunges him into a far-reaching criminal conspiracy.

Walker and his closest friends aid the police in their investigation, through which it is revealed that the leader of the crooks is his father’s killer! The tension builds from that point on until he finally faces his nemesis in a confrontation that will leave only one man standing. 

This first episode of The Park and Walker Action Thriller Series will whisk…

The Mazatlan Showdown

By Patrick Weill,

What is this book about?

Meet Jeff Walker, a champion surfer haunted by the unsolved mystery of his father’s murder and his mother’s broken heart. When he relocates to sunny San Diego and secures a job as a beach lifeguard, a rescue mission at sea plunges him into the dark underworld of international crime.

Along with his closest friends, Walker supports the police in their investigation, and in doing so discovers that the leader of the smugglers is his father’s killer, the man he’s been looking for since he was a teenager! From that moment on, the tension builds, until Walker finally faces his nemesis…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in grief, empresses, and sailboats?

Grief 89 books
Empresses 19 books
Sailboats 12 books