The most recommended sexual harassment books

I loved the quirky premise of Diary of a Void, which tells the story of Ms. Shibata, a Japanese single woman who fakes a pregnancy to take a leave of absence from her dull office job—a role in which she makes many cups of tea but finds her intelligence consistently overlooked.

Emi Yagi’s witty prose, translated by David Boyd and Lucy North, brilliantly captures Japan’s workplace culture, expectations of men and women, and the seemingly inescapable loneliness of modern-day society.

Since Ms. Shibata’s ruse hardly seemed to be one she could keep up forever, I wondered as I turned the pages about how her increasingly complicated deception would end. I was very interested to discover how things worked out for her.

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Margo Price is the real deal.

Her beginnings were humble, and her struggles have been many. Her memoir takes you on the road with her through bad low-paying, low-attended early gigs, drinking, and drugs. Price's marriage/creative partnership is tender and beautiful, yet becomes fragile as it shoulders the unbearable loss of a newborn son.

Through it all, you can feel Price’s grit and determination to survive with her soul intact, making it in an industry that pressures artists to conform to its priorities and sets them up to fail when they resist- or simply try to be themselves.

Price’s music is the soundtrack to her courageous story in progress. In the best possible way, this book reads like the liner notes: honest, heartfelt, and profound.   

This heartbreaking and powerful novel tells the story of fifth-grader Rowan, who isn’t a girl even though everyone thinks he is, but also isn’t the “right kind” of boy. At night, his dad comes into his room and does things Rowan can’t talk about with anyone. Silenced or ignored by everyone around him, Rowan writes letters expressing his thoughts, feelings, and dreams; he attaches them to balloons and sends them out into the universe. When he befriends a classmate who is as much of an outsider as he is, Rowan slowly begins to open his heart, and to speak up. I loved this novel both because of Rowan’s determination to be who he knows he is and because of the unexpected support he finds on his journey.

While The Swallows deals with an unsettling subject matter, Lutz tells the story with a light-hearted voice and bits of humor which made reading this book an enjoyable experience for me.

The novel follows the teachers and students at an elite boarding school where a secret club of male students subject the girls to an upsetting sexual contest.

Previous attempts to disband or expose this club in the school’s past have been unsuccessful which makes our two main characters, rebellious student, Gemma and creative writing teacher, Alex even more determined to stop the sexual harassment and coercion of female students.

Both Gemma and Alex make some mistakes and morally questionable choices in their pursuit of the truth but they show relentless grit and determination in the name of justice. 

As the title suggests, this book asks readers to think about how to tell when action is required to bring justice to a situation. Mila finds herself on the receiving end of unwanted attention from boys in her class, but her friends tell her she’s overreacting. What’s a hug or a touch from a boy? It’s all just playful flirting, right? But it doesn’t feel playful or fun to Mila. In the end, Mila sets the record straight and makes her feelings heard. The ending features a restorative circle, which is an in-school version of the restorative justice process Gabe goes through in my own book.

I can’t get enough of this novel about a group of young women making their way into the world of publishing in New York City. A window into what it was like to find a career, fall in love, and negotiate life as a single woman in the big city in the 1950s, Rona Jaffe’s book was a watershed when it was published in 1958. I think it should be required reading for all women, regardless of whether they work in publishing, or have ever lived in New York. 

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Who doesn’t enjoy an escape room experience? I’m a sucker for games where you have to solve clues under pressure – but only a time pressure – not the life-or-death kind!

This story delves into the dark and twisted world of corporate greed and through a supposed team-building escape room challenge we are taken on a suspenseful journey with the trapped investment bankers as they realise it’s not your standard game. The stakes are high, and the tension is almost unbearable!

This novel features some truly unlikeable characters, but as they are forced to confront their own secrets and inner demons, I was completely entertained and enthralled by them.

A book that zips with energy and sharp writing. The narrator's husband has been asked to relinquish his post as professor at the college where they both teach, after 7 former students claim he 'abused his power.'

I suspect the author belongs to my generation of undergraduates. Like her central character, I revered my professors – male & female – they knew more than I did and I wanted as much of them and their knowledge as I could get. Like her, I recognised that lust was what united most of them but like her I never felt diminished by the exchange.

I wouldn't have dreamt of carping years later that I'd been the victim of an abuse of power when, as the narrator says, 'power is the reason they (the women) desired him in the first place.'

I’m not in HR, but if I were, and if I worked in HR at Charmed Elite, the matchmaking firm featured in this book by Kyra Parsi, I’d have some serious concerns with a young matchmaker spending 30 days and nights with her outrageously rich, hot, and single client. “Think of propriety!” I’d yell, clutching my pearls. “You’re crossing professional boundaries! Remember your HIPAA guidelines or wait, that’s not right… I mean sexual harassment training!” (Even in my imagination, I do not know HR terms).

Due to the juicy plot and the fiery dynamic between Jamie and Jackson, this book was an addictive read, and I found myself sneaking pages on my commute, between meetings, or whenever my boss was talking. It was probably too spicy to be reading in public, but luckily, my HR rep never read over my shoulder in the office.

This book is full of banter,… show more.

I really have no idea how Corporate Crush ever ended up in my hands.

The set up was all wrong for me—the boss and admin trope (power disparity concerns), the female villain defined only by her money-grubbing ways (eyeroll), the romantic relationship controlled by a formal contract (both ew and legally unenforceable). But I quickly discovered that I, as the judgmental reader, was the only one-dimensional villain in this story. 

After I put down my ego, I discovered a hilarious book about strong, smart, potty-mouthed women fighting for power in an ever-antiquated corporate America. It promotes body positivity, shifts traditional sexual power dynamics, and is sexy as hell both inside and outside the bedroom.