The Bookish Mindset

Books for the girls is an ode to the incredible women I’ve met in this space. It’s inspired by Monika Radojevic’s A beautiful lack of consequence, which looks at the experience of womanhood through many lenses and was just brilliant.

I love finding themes that spread across genres and authors and this short series will explore some of my favourites. First we had Books That will Break You, then some Feminine Rage and now we have a gorgeous theme of love and friendships.

Today we’re talking about one of the most beautiful themes: the joy, love and support we find in friendships and family. These are books with some of the strongest relationships, friendship or family. There might be some rocky points but there is strength and beauty in them and they’re brilliant to read.

Here I’ve split them per genre so you pick something you fancy but I definitely recommend reading around your genres here.

Dystopian

• Chain-Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Fantasy

• A Tempest of Tea – Hafsah Faizal
• Her Majesty’s Royal Coven – Juno Dawson
• The Poisons We Drink – Bethany Baptiste

Literary

• All That We’ve Got – Jendella Benson
• All the Truths Between Us – Liz Amos
• Disappoint Me – Nicola Dinan
• Nightbloom – Peace Adzo Medie
• That Self-Same Metal – Brittany N. Williams
• The Things That We Lost – Jyoti Patel
• This Motherless Land – Nikki May
• Wahala – Nikki May
• Wandering Souls – Cecile Pin

Magical Realism

• Family Lore – Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Moon Represents My Heart – Pim Wangtechwat

Romance

• Chaos Theory – Nic Stone

Sci-Fi

• The Principle of Moments – Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

Short Stories

• For Such a Time As This
• Wash Day Diaries – Jamila Rowser & Robyn Smith

If you’d like to get yourself a copy of any of the above, you can support local bookshops while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this blog. If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, I’d love if you could take a look at my patreon and consider supporting my content on there too. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.

If reading more is something that you’re looking at doing this year then should check my reading challenge out here! Read nine books from nine prompts over the first six months of the year and be entered into a draw to win a bundle of bookish goodies.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 04/04/2025