The Best Books To Read This September

marie claire's resident book-worm shares the page-turners she can't (and won't) put down this month.

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Oh my goop! RePosted ❤️❤️❤️ * @goop "I felt a wash of relief when I read Three Women by @lisadtaddeo. Observing the lives of Lena, Maggie and Sloane answered so many questions about my own past, and the desires that were born from them. Their stories are heartbreaking at times, infuriating in others-but mostly they are real. Raw and truthful-we are able to see how a young woman's experience has the power to shape the rest of her life. Thank you, Lisa, for shining a light on what we as women are often too afraid to say out loud. I hope from this book, we make even a little more space for the women around us." - goop staffer, Justine Baldwin Have you read it & love it? #goopbookclub

THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $32.99)

If you only read one book this year, make it this. Author Lisa Taddeo spent eight years and thousands of hours tracking and interviewing three women: the unhappily married mum-of-two Lina, the teenager Maggie in a relationship with her teacher and the sexually adventurous Sloane. The result? An intense, extraordinary an oh-so-relatable look at female desire.

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This book was totally different to what I expected, but I still loved it all the same. The Bad Mother's book club are kind of the outcasts of the school. Their kids are often rushing through the school gates at the last minute, their hair and makeup certainly isn't gala ready on school pick up, the most reading they do is reading wine labels and cooking instructions and they don't have a gaggle of nannies and cleaners to help them out of their mess. But all of a sudden, the "perfect" Mums at all don't seem so perfect, and the Bad Mothers Book Club seems to have a new member.

THE BAD MOTHERS’ BOOK CLUB by Keris Stainton (Hachette, $29.99)

This is a book club with a difference: polite small talk is banned, gossip and swearing are welcome and they only read wine labels. You’ll want to join – and become mates with Emma, who founded the Bad Mothers’ Book Club after moving to Liverpool and being kicked out of the exclusive school-mums’ book club. Rude.

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THE SUBJECTS by Sarah Hopkins (Text Publishing, $29.99)

Meet Daniel, a 16-year-old drug dealer on his way to jail, who instead ends up in a facility for “gifted delinquents” in the middle of nowhere. Written by criminal lawyer Sarah Hopkins, the story of Daniel will get under your skin and stay with you long after it ends.

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REGRAM: @katestreader "We talk a lot about the danger of dark alleys, but the truth is that in every country around the world the home is the most dangerous place for a woman. Of the 87,000 women killed globally in 2017, more than a third (30,000) were killed by an intimate partner, and another 20,000 by a family member. In Australia, a country of almost 25 million, one woman a week is killed by a man she's been intimate with. These statistics tell us something that's almost impossible to grapple with: it's not the monster lurking in the dark women should fear, but the men they fall in love with." #seewhatyoumademedo #vam #domesticabuse #dv #nonfiction

SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO by Jess Hill (Black Inc., $32.99)

Australia is in the midst of a domestic violence epidemic: one woman a week is dying as a result of abuse. Instead of asking, “Why didn’t she leave?” We should be asking, “Why did he do it?” Investigative journalist Jess Hill dives deep into the national crisis of fear and abuse in our homes.

This article originally appeared in the September issue of marie claire.

Alley Pascoe

Alley Pascoe is marie claire’s Acting Features Editor and resident country music fan. She spends her days interviewing inspirational women, including career highlights Kasey Chambers, Serena Williams and Julia Roberts (for seven minutes on the phone).

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