Why am I passionate about this?

My family moved around a lot when I was younger, which may explain why Iā€™m fascinated by the experience of being an outsider. To me, itā€™s not a bad thing; being on the outside can sometimes help a person to see things more clearly, to think more critically and creatively. The year I spent living in a country where English wasnā€™t the main language was one of the most stimulating periods of my life, because I was so attuned to all the tiny details that other people took for granted. Plus, as teenagers, everyone feels like theyā€™re on the outside looking in ā€“ which is probably why all of my books have contained some coming-of-age element. 


I wrote

Once, in a Town Called Moth

By Trilby Kent,

Book cover of Once, in a Town Called Moth

What is my book about?

Anneli has lived in a small Mennonite colony in Bolivia her whole lifeā€”until now. She and her father have packedā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Lying Days

Trilby Kent Why did I love this book?

I stumbled across this coming-of-age story by one of my favourite South African writers in a second-hand bookshop in Oxford when I was an undergraduate. I hadnā€™t been able to lose myself in fiction for a couple of years because I was so immersed in academic reading (history, mostly) ā€“ but this novel got me back on the wagon. It was the first novel Iā€™d read in a long time that really made me want to write, to tell a story that could move a reader in the same way. In it, a white, middle-class girl growing up in a small colonial town in 1940s South Africa starts to see the world around her as it really is. Definitely one of those books that deserves a much wider audience.

By Nadine Gordimer,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Nadine Gordimer's first novel, published in 1953, tells the story of Helen Shaw, daughter of white middle-class parents in a small gold-mining town in South Africa. As Helen comes of age, so does her awareness grow of the African life around her. Her involvement, as a bohemian student, with young blacks leads her into complex relationships of emotion and action in a culture of dissension.


Book cover of Skim

Trilby Kent Why did I love this book?

Full disclosure: Marikoā€™s cousin, Gillian, attended my old high school, and part of the appeal of this book for me initially was the fact that I recognised so many details from that world. Kimberley ā€œSkimā€ Cameron is a would-be Wiccan goth attending an all-girls private school thatā€™s gone into high-gear mourning over the death of the boyfriend of one of its students. Itā€™s poignant and perceptive and darkly funny, if somewhat angst-heavy. This was one of my earliest introductions to graphic novels and what the form can uniquely offer.

By Mariko Tamaki,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Skim" is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth who goes to a private girls' school in the early '90s. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself possibly because he's (maybe) gay the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird time to fall in love, but that's what happens to Skim when she starts meeting secretly with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. But then Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, and Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation while her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull herā€¦


Ad

Book cover of A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France

A Long Way from Iowa by Janet Hulstrand,

This memoir chronicles the lives of three generations of women with a passion for reading, writing, and travel. The story begins in 1992 in an unfinished attic in Brooklyn as the author reads a notebook written by her grandmother nearly 100 years earlier. This sets her on a 30-year searchā€¦

Book cover of Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Trilby Kent Why did I love this book?

Like many people, I was really impressed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichieā€™s TED Talk on the problem of a single story. So when I saw that sheā€™d written a short chapbook of feminist advice for a friend whoā€™d recently become a mother to a baby girl, I had to get my hands on a copy. My own daughter was still a preschooler when it came out, so I figured I had just enough time to make good on the fifteen pieces of advice she offers. Witty, wise, and supremely accessible, this is a book for mothers and daughters equally ā€“ as well as anyone with an interest in building a more just and equitable world for all.

By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER ā€¢ The award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Americanah gives us this powerful statement about feminism todayā€”written as a letter to a friend.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend, a new mother who wanted to know how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichieā€™s letter of response: fifteen invaluable suggestionsā€”direct, wryly funny, and perceptiveā€”for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Filled with compassionate guidance and advice, it gets right to the heart of sexual politics inā€¦


Book cover of The Wall

Trilby Kent Why did I love this book?

Ok, so the protagonist of this book isnā€™t really a ā€œgirlā€ ā€“ sheā€™s a grown woman ā€“ but I still think this is a great book for anyone in their mid-teens and up. Iā€™m fairly sure it was another second-hand bookshop find, because how else would I have come across a 1963 post-apocalyptic novel by an Austrian author that didnā€™t have an English translation until 1990? An unnamed woman finds herself stuck behind an invisible wall in the Austrian mountains after a possible nuclear event; a dog, a cow, and a cat are the only other apparent survivors. Itā€™s eerie and completely gripping, and the ending really shook me up. 

By Marlen Haushofer,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Wall as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œI can allow myself to write the truth; all the people for whom I have lied throughout my life are deadā€¦ā€ writes the heroine of Marlen Haushoferā€™s The Wall, a quite ordinary, unnamed middle-aged woman who awakens to find she is the last living human being. Surmising her solitude is the result of a too successful military experiment, she begins the terrifying work of not only survival, but self-renewal. The Wall is at once a simple and moving talk ā€” of potatoes and beans, of hoping for a calf, of counting matches, of forgetting the taste of sugar and theā€¦


Ad

Book cover of Shortcake

Shortcake by Christopher Gorham Calvin,

Enter a captivating world where science fiction and thrilling suspense converge. After plummeting from the roof of Helix Unbound, Amanda awakens to a life devoid of memories. Desperately longing to fit in, yet sensing she harbors an extraordinary secret beneath her seemingly ordinary facade, she explores the unfamiliar world inā€¦

Book cover of The Girl Within

Trilby Kent Why did I love this book?

Iā€™m just realising now that some of my favourite books were accidental finds ā€“ I think that this one turned up at a sidewalk sale. The author is a psychologist who uses the life stories of twenty women to illustrate her theory that girls are their most powerful, authentic selves up to the age of about twelve; that after that, their sense of personhood comes under attack from a whole range of sources, so that much of adulthood is spent trying to piece that pre-teen girl and her distinct sense of self back together. Itā€™s extremely convincing and something Iā€™ve found really interesting to discuss with my now tween-age daughter.

By Emily Hancock,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Using the life stories of twenty women, psychologist Emily Hancock has identified a turning point in a women's life when a girl crystallizes a distinct and vital sense of self, which she then loses in the process of growing up, and tries to regain as an adult. A breakthrough book, this will change the way society views girls and women.


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Once, in a Town Called Moth

By Trilby Kent,

Book cover of Once, in a Town Called Moth

What is my book about?

Anneli has lived in a small Mennonite colony in Bolivia her whole lifeā€”until now. She and her father have packed their bags, changed their names, and fled in search of her mother, who disappeared when Anneli was five. Arriving in Toronto, Anneli has to fend for herself in an alien environment, isolated in a big city with no idea how to navigate the unspoken codes that come with being fourteen and in high school. Torn between two worlds, she is troubled by the things she and her father have left behindā€”a vanished town, a long-ago crimeā€”but determined to find her mother: the one person who might be able to tell her just what it is theyā€™re running from.

Book cover of The Lying Days
Book cover of Skim
Book cover of Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,720

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

šŸ“š You might also likeā€¦

Book cover of ReInception

ReInception by Sarena Straus,

In 2126, society finally has its quick fix. ReInception is a machine used for modifying human behaviors, everything from taming unruly children to reprogramming terrorists.

Columbia student Leandrea Justus is passively anti-ReInception. But when she and her boyfriend are separated during a bombing at an anti-ReInception rally, Ward ā€” notā€¦

Book cover of Too Good

Too Good by Carol Moreira,

This is a steamy tale of vulnerability and betrayal. Struggling in her marriage, her new life in England, and her work in a hospice, Canadian-born Lindsey is drawn to her best friend's attractive husband, David.

Guilt about her fascination with David is complicated by her admiration for his wife, Grace,ā€¦

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in apartheid, parenting, and teenagers?

Apartheid 46 books
Parenting 390 books
Teenagers 133 books