Books like A Woman Is No Man — picked by fans

I read Maalouf's book many years ago and it remains one of the best books I have ever read about identity. It helps that he is a gifted writer and that Maalouf's story is so compelling.

Damascus-born Nizar Qabbani, a lawyer by training, abandoned a career in diplomacy in the late 1960s to become one of the Arab world’s most beloved poets. Both his sensual and political poems carry seeds of defiance, rebellion and a quest for liberation from autocratic institutions and rigid social norms. This edition reproduces Qabbani’s own handwritten text of the selected poems.

The Shell is a peek into both the horrors and absurdities of totalitarian regimes told in the form of a prison diary kept by the author. Khalifa, a Christian by birth and an atheist, was mistaken (or perhaps not, given what I learned about the Assad regime in the course of my work) for a radical Islamist, arrested and locked up in the notorious Tadmor desert prison, more accurately a death camp. The book reveals the horrific consequences of the logic and methods of the Assad family and other dictators in the Middle East and beyond: Anyone suspected of harboring a hint of opposition to the ruler will be labeled a terrorist and traitor, crushed and turned into an example to instill fear in the wider population.

Syria probably suffered the most from the fall-out of the Arab Spring. It is estimated that around 656,500 died through March of 2025* and around 130,000 died in government prisons**.

Wendy Pearlman, a political scientist, writes about the Syrian Civil war as Bashar al-Assad with the strong backing of the Baathist military and secret police fought to put down civil opposition to his rule as hundreds of thousands of unarmed citizens throughout the country took to the streets demonstrating for freedom, human rights, and a voice in their government. In return, the Assad forces decimated the country, bombing city after city, and holding tens of thousands prisoner in unspeakable conditions. 

Pearlman concentrates on the human scale of the conflict, writing persuasively of the opposition to the state’s forces. She relates testimonies of individuals from different occupations and backgrounds. These narratives range from a few lines to pages and express the… show more.

Few books have made me question my own life quite like Untamed.

I didn't connect with this book because my life is anything like Glennon Doyle's—it isn't. I connected with it because she puts words to something I think many of us experience: the quiet pressure to become the person everyone else expects us to be. It made me ask myself a deeply uncomfortable question: Whose life am I actually living?

I found myself thinking about all the ways expectations can slowly shape who we are, often so quietly that we don't even realise it is happening. How much of who we are is actually us—and how much of it is the version we've learned to perform for everyone else?

I kept thinking about how much courage it takes to stop performing and start listening to yourself instead.

No memoir has changed the way I think about identity quite like Educated.

I went into it expecting a story about education. What stayed with me was something much deeper—the emotional cost of questioning the beliefs, people, and world that shaped your entire life.

What I admired most about Tara Westover's story was that she didn't make things simple. There were no easy heroes or villains. Just people, complicated relationships, and the uncomfortable reality that sometimes growth means questioning everything you once accepted as truth.

I kept thinking about how difficult it can be to become yourself when doing so means letting go of parts of the person you were taught to be.

I've always been drawn to writers who can say something deeply emotional without using a hundred words to say it. That's probably why Milk and Honey stayed with me.

I found myself returning to its pages because the poems never felt like they were trying too hard to impress me. They were simple, vulnerable, and honest. And sometimes, that's exactly what makes writing powerful.

As someone who writes both poetry and reflective essays, I especially appreciated the way Rupi Kaur moves between vulnerability and strength. The book reminded me that you don't always need elaborate language to make someone feel something.

Sometimes, a few carefully chosen words can stay with you far longer than an entire chapter.

I love The Forty Rules of Love because it left me with more questions than answers—and that's probably exactly why it stayed with me.

I've always been drawn to books that don't try to wrap everything up neatly or tell you exactly what to believe. What stayed with me wasn't one particular moment or lesson, but Elif Shafak's willingness to leave room for mystery, faith, doubt, and transformation.

I loved that the book allows different perspectives to exist without insisting that one has to be completely right and the other completely wrong. As someone who is naturally drawn to questioning and reflection, I found myself slowing down while reading it and thinking more deeply about spirituality, compassion, love, and what it really means to grow.

It's one of those rare books that doesn't end when you close the last page. It quietly continues the conversation in your head.

This novel is exactly what I look for in a thriller.

It’s fast-paced, filled with twists, and full of complex female characters.

The Howell Family is forced to move from California to Brooklyn for the husband’s job. Wife and mother, Nora is tasked with setting up their new home and getting her two teen daughters settled into their new schools.

However, she discovers their new Brownstone was the site of a grisly murder of an entire family in the 1990s. Soon one of the daughters notices someone stalking her and their house causing the family to fear the killer has returned.

But Nora isn’t the helpless stay-at-home mother everyone thinks she is as she goes through great lengths including hiding a dark past to keep her family safe. 

First of all, as an author, I love that three different authors wrote about three different characters, and it all melds perfectly. That’s a feat in itself.

Secondly, I’m a fan of dual timelines, history, and family secrets, and this book has it all. Third, it has a setting of a Gilded Age mansion in New York City, and that always makes a great setting.

This novel is a wonderful mix of light romance, history, and mystery, a trifecta for my reading tastes.