Some of the best books by women for International Women's Day
Acquaint yourself with these female writers, and you'll make a friend for life in their books
Katherine Dunn died in 2016, leaving a curious legacy: a book that appalled thousands and yet forced thousands more to read it utterly compulsively. Written in 1989, Geek Love is about a mother who deliberately poisons her pregnancies so she can birth to her own freak show for her circus.
Let this book remind you that being shocked is part of reading, just as much as being comforted is. Katherine Dunn was a fascinating figure, and wrote poetry as well as sports journalism on her favourite sport: boxing.
You might want to read a few cossetting chapters of Jane Austen immediately afterwards, though.
