“I had absolutely no interest in being somebody else’s muse. I am not a muse. I am the somebody. End of f*%king story,” says Daisy Jones, singer of the renowned 1970s rock band Daisy Jones & The Six, in the opening pages of the novel based on her rise to fame and the band’s infamous split. The page-turner hasn’t even hit the shelves yet and it has already been picked up by Amazon for a series deal with Reese Witherspoon producing. And no wonder – it reads like a he-says-she-says oral history, searching for truth while revealing the lies between.
Daisy Jones & The Six, Book Depository, $23.41

What does it mean to call Australia home as a non-Indigenous person? In 2016 Monica Tan left her plum job in Sydney and travelled for some 30,000 kilometers to answer this elusive question. She knew she was a Chinese-Australian woman in search of something, but what exactly was it? And could this mystery sense of belonging really be found in the outback or with a greater understanding of Indigenous culture? We can all relate, in some way, to Tan’s search for meaning and connection. To this point, her exploration of identity serves as a conduit for our own.
Stranger Country, Book Depository, $29.51

If you do nothing else, read Tanya Plibersek’s introduction in this essay collection to educate yourself about the abortion rights in your state. Last year, before Queensland made abortion legal in October of 2018, half of Queenslanders did not even know that it was a criminal act in their state. It is still illegal in New South Wales. Though it’s not impossible to get an abortion in NSW, Plibersek reiterates that the legal risk can make it far more difficult and costly. So despite living in what we think is a reasonably progressive country our laws still do not protect women who want to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Editor Louise Swinn has gathered notable Australian women (and one man) like Claudia Karvan, Michelle Law, Jane Caro and Tony Birch to share their experiences and insights on the topic. 
Choice Words, Book Depository, $26.07

This is the sixth novel from renowned British writer Helen Oyeyemi celebrated for her haunting magical realist tales. In Gingerbread, she casts her imagination toward the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children’s stories. Mother and daughter, Harriet Lee and Perdita Lee, have inherited a gingerbread recipe that isn’t so popular in London circles – like with the parents and students at Perdita’s posh school – but their golden biscuits are apparently very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee’s early youth. Perdita sets out to find this mythical place and discovers who her mother really is along the way.
Gingerbread, Book Depository, $26.83

Fans of Hempel’s visceral storytelling have been waiting over ten years for this masterful collection of stories set across the globe from Lisbon, Portugal, to Spanish Harlem, in New York, and the many places in between. In one story, a woman receives a phone call from the wife of the stranger who attacked her in her home, bizarrely asking for advice about their marriage. In another, a volunteer at a dog shelter cares for dogs on a list to be euthanized by placing treats on their pillows on the assigned d-day. Whether Hempel’s unusual stories are a paragraph or many pages long, they are so specifically rendered that the peculiar scenes and situations lodge in your mind and return long after reading.
Sing To It, Book Depository, $18.73

According to Oprah, “Your real job in life is to figure out as soon as possible what that is, who you are meant to be, and begin to honor your calling in the best way possible.” When it comes to finding your purpose, is there a women we would trust more than Oprah? This book is meant to help you identify your true calling and then map out the best way to tweak your life so it reflects what’s important and significant to you. Oprah also calls on her famous friends to share their insights on how they’ve created meaning in their lives. Cue the vision board provisions and the wine.
The Path Made Clear, Book Depository, $36.98