“The Bastard of Istanbul,” Elif Shafak
Set in modern day Istanbul, this novel by Shafak explores how the past can never truly be forgotten, and how it intricately weaves with the present by following two families: one a family of Turks in Istanbul, and the other a family of Armenians living in San Francisco, part of the Armenian diaspora. When members of the families meet, they find out they are more connected than hey could have ever thought, and the interactions sparks a death, the exposure of a rape, and the idea that the future will be better when there is solidarity and hope. Shafak uses these two families as a means to explore the past and what it can mean for the future.
“Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit
Solnit has recently been thrown into the spotlight for her supposed creation of the term “mansplaining”, and even though she denies being the creator, her essay about a man explaining the premise of her own book to her, only to ignore her when she tried to tell him she had in fact written the book, has indeed launched the term so infamous–and so necessary–that we all use today. Unfortunately most women still experience this, and worse evils, on a daily basis, and Solnit does not hesitate to propose that mansplaining can and should be linked to all the other hateful things women experience at the hands of men, including violence, rape and death. She says that when these incidents that affect all women in every part of the globe are explained on a sliding scale instead of as single incidents, feminism and women’s rights will be able to take a big step forward.