WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING BY DELIA OWENS

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps. 

THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS BY LAURIE FRANKEL

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS BY JEAN RASPAIL

By the year 2000 there will on present projections be seven billion people swarming on the surface of the Earth. And only nine hundred million of them will be white. What will happen when the teeming billions of the so-called Third World - driven by unbearable hunger and despair, the inevitable consequences of insensate over-population - descend locust-like on the lush lands of the complacent white nations?

Jean Raspail has the rare imagination and courage necessary to face this terrifying question head-on. Readers of whatever color and political persuasion will find in The Camp of the Saints (already a bestseller in France & America) a hypnotically readable novel of compelling power that will disturb, provoke and horrify them by turns. And so powerful is its impact that once you have read it you will need brain surgery to forget it.

THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN BY LISA SEE

Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, forces outside their control will push their relationship to the breaking point.

This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a unique and unforgettable culture, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives. 

SMALL CHANGE BY YEHUDIT HENDEL

he title story, “Small Change,” is a truly horrifying look into the paranoid mind of an Israeli woman and her troubled relationship with her father. Hendel’s close attention to detail, the spareness of her writing, and her utter lack of sentimentality create a fantastic world of emotions which seem heightened and supressed at the same time. Small Change offers a compelling introduction to one of modern Israel’s finest women writers.

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM BY MARIE BENEDICT

Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle.

She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone -- if anyone will listen to her. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece. 

APPLES IN HONEY BY YEHUDIT HENDEL

 The main exception is “Apples in Honey,” a story set in a cemetery that features a war widow visiting her husband’s grave. This is essentially a tale about private emotions, but it has special poignancy as it takes place in Israel, where so many women have lost husbands through war.

A WOMAN IS NO MAN BY ETAF RUM

This debut novel by an Arab-American voice,takes us inside the lives of conservative Arab women living in America.

In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her community.

SHRINKING BY RUTH ALMOG

Ruth Almog's "Shrinking" portrays the loneliness and frustration of a middle-aged heroine whose longing for genuine human contact is thwarted by her stifling bond to her aged father.

INVISIBLE MENDING BY RUTH ALMOG

Invisible Mending

Ruth Almog The aching vulnerability of childhood and the ravages of exile, familiar themes in Hebrew literature, bear rewriting when the prose radiates with beauty and sensitivity as those six stories do. The children in Invisible Mending are handicapped by tragedy or by the refugee experience of their parents. They may be lonely, degraded or helpless, but they are saved by the redemptive power of art.

YANI ON THE MOUNTAIN BY DAVID GROSSMAN

In "Yani on the Mountain, " David Grossman explores the psychological impact of the 1973 Yom Kippur War on a young generation of Israelis living in a Mount Sinai army base in its final days before demolition.

A WOMAN IS NO MAN- ETAF RUM

This debut novel by an Arab-American voice,takes us inside the lives of conservative Arab women living in America.

In Brooklyn, eighteen-year-old Deya is starting to meet with suitors. Though she doesn’t want to get married, her grandparents give her no choice. History is repeating itself: Deya’s mother, Isra, also had no choice when she left Palestine as a teenager to marry Adam. Though Deya was raised to believe her parents died in a car accident, a secret note from a mysterious, yet familiar-looking woman makes Deya question everything she was told about her past. As the narrative alternates between the lives of Deya and Isra, she begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind her community.

THE GIVER OF STARS BY JOJO MOYES

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.

The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Horseback Librarians of Kentucky. 

What happens to them—and to the men they love—becomes a classic drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. Though they face all kinds of dangers, they’re committed to their job—bringing books to people who have never had any, sharing the gift of learning that will change their lives.

Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Starsis unparalleled in its scope. At times funny, at others heartbreaking, this is a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond.

THE TESTAMENTS- MARGARET ATWOOD

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." 

THE HANDMAID'S TALE BY MARGARET ATWOOD

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE BY GAIL HONEYMAN

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

The only way to survive is to open your heart. 

THERE, THERE BY TOMMY ORANGE

There There is a relentlessly paced multigenerational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. It tells the story of twelve characters, each of whom have private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle’s memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and unspeakable loss.

Here is a voice we have never heard—a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with stunning urgency and force. Tommy Orange writes of the urban Native American, the Native American in the city, in a stunning novel that grapples with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and profound spirituality, and with a plague of addiction, abuse, and suicide. An unforgettable debut, destined to become required reading in schools and universities across the country.

SUMMER OF '69 BY ELIN HILDERBRAND

Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century! It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket: but this year Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, a nursing student, is caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests, a passion which takes her to Martha's Vineyard with her best friend, Mary Jo Kopechne. Only son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. Thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother who is hiding some secrets of her own. As the summer heats up, Teddy Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, a man flies to the moon, and Jessie experiences some sinking and flying herself, as she grows into her own body and mind.

In her first "historical novel," rich with the details of an era that shaped both a country and an island thirty miles out to sea, Elin Hilderbrand once again proves her title as queen of the summer novel. 

THE SILENT PATIENT BY ALEX MICHAELIDIS

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...

THREE WOMEN BY LISA TADDEO

It thrills us and torments us. It controls our thoughts, destroys our lives, and it’s all we live for. Yet we almost never speak of it. And as a buried force in our lives, desire remains largely unexplored—until now. Over the past eight years, journalist Lisa Taddeo has driven across the country six times to embed herself with ordinary women from different regions and backgrounds. The result, Three Women, is the deepest nonfiction portrait of desire ever written and one of the most anticipated books of the year.

We begin in suburban Indiana with Lina, a homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. She passes her days cooking and cleaning for a man who refuses to kiss her on the mouth, protesting that “the sensation offends” him. To Lina’s horror, even her marriage counselor says her husband’s position is valid. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks. When she reconnects with an old flame through social media, she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming.

In North Dakota we meet Maggie, a seventeen-year-old high school student who finds a confidant in her handsome, married English teacher. By Maggie’s account, supportive nightly texts and phone calls evolve into a clandestine physical relationship, with plans to skip school on her eighteenth birthday and make love all day; instead, he breaks up with her on the morning he turns thirty. A few years later, Maggie has no degree, no career, and no dreams to live for. When she learns that this man has been named North Dakota’s Teacher of the Year, she steps forward with her story—and is met with disbelief by former schoolmates and the jury that hears her case. The trial will turn their quiet community upside down.

Finally, in an exclusive enclave of the Northeast, we meet Sloane—a gorgeous, successful, and refined restaurant owner—who is happily married to a man who likes to watch her have sex with other men and women. He picks out partners for her alone or for a threesome, and she ensures that everyone’s needs are satisfied. For years, Sloane has been asking herself where her husband’s desire ends and hers begins. One day, they invite a new man into their bed—but he brings a secret with him that will finally force Sloane to confront the uneven power dynamics that fuel their lifestyle.

Based on years of immersive reporting, and told with astonishing frankness and immediacy, Three Women is a groundbreaking portrait of erotic longing in today’s America, exposing the fragility, complexity, and inequality of female desire with unprecedented depth and emotional power. It is both a feat of journalism and a triumph of storytelling, brimming with nuance and empathy, that introduces us to three unforgettable women—and one remarkable writer—whose experiences remind us that we are not alone. (less)

GET A COPY

• Kindle Store $13.99
• Amazon
• Stores ▾
• Libraries

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published July 9th 2019 by Avid Reader Press / Simon Schuster

More Details...Edit Details

SPONSORED BOOKS

Darkness

A new author brings us a BDSM suspense romance.

"This book will keep you on the edge of your seat with your heart pumping until the end!"

www.goodreads.com

Oksana, Behave!

An irresistible debut that follows a Russian-American girl's bumpy path to adulthood. Add it to your shelf today!

www.goodreads.com

view 108 reviews »

more books...

FRIEND REVIEWS

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

READER Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Three Women, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Was the relationship between the high school student and her teacher romanticized? Was the girl portrayed as "asking for it"? Is female masochism normalized in this book? It sounds a little creepy, and extremely misogynistic. Not all women "desire" suffering & exploitation.

• 1 Like · Like 
 
• 2 Months Ago 
 
• See All 5 Answers

Cydney Cort This is not about suffering and exploitation. It is more about passion and power. I think it goes for both men and women. We are all fools for love at…more

flag

Are these three "real american women" all white?

• 5 Likes · Like 
 
• 29 Days Ago 
 
• Add Your Answer

Kate Yes, they are. And that is only one of my many issues with it.

flag

See all 6 questions about Three Women…

LISTS WITH THIS BOOK

The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2019 Book Preview (July - September)

82 books — 9 voters

All Belletrist Book Club Picks

33 books — 2 voters

More lists with this book...

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Showing 1-30

 3.97  · 

 Rating details

 ·  6,192 ratings  ·  914 reviews

All LanguagesEnglish ‎(885) Nederlands ‎(4) Svenska ‎(1)

More filters

 | 

Sort order

Aug 06, 2019Roxane rated it it was ok

What even is this book? Broadly, it follows the desires and sex lives of three women but... it feels like a novelization more than reportage. Ten years of following these women went into this book but the author seems more concerned with transcription than any sort of thoughtful analysis. She draws no significant conclusions on the nature of women’s desires. Also, the title could be “Three White Women,” as all three women chronicled here are white. There is nothing wrong with that but it is such ...more

flag431 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 10, 2019Elyse Walters rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook

Audiobook... read by Tara Lynne Barr, Marin Ireland, Mena Suvari, and Lisa Taddeo

I’ve listened to 3 hours so far - of the 11 hours and 24 minutes.

Dave Eggers said:
“I can’t imagine a scenario where this isn’t one of the more important - and breathlessly debated - books of the year”. 🤔

Well... let the debates begin!!! I don’t feel this book is worth the praise it’s getting - at all.

My thoughts so far....
Honest thoughts?
I think very little of it!!
The concept might have been a great idea....
But ...more

flag172 likes · Like  · see review

May 24, 2019Roman Clodia rated it liked it  ·  review of another edition

This is quite a perplexing book as I'm not sure what Taddeo's intentions were. She takes three American women and tells their stories of failed love, disappointing marriages, unmet or unfulfilled sexual and emotional needs.

In some ways the stories are different and, almost deliberately (?) echo themes covered in recent fiction: Lina, in a sexless marriage, falls into an affair with her high-school boyfriend; Maggie is 'groomed' into a sexual relationship with her high-school teacher; Sloane fin ...more

flag138 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 29, 2019Matt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sexuality

“If you have a husband who barely touches you. If you have a husband who touches you too much, who grabs your hand and puts it on his penis when you’re trying to read about electric fences for golden retrievers. If you have a husband who plays video games more than he touches your arm. If you have a husband who eats the bun off your plate when you’ve left it but you aren’t one hundred percent done with it. If you don’t have a husband at all. If your husband died. If your wife died. If your wife ...more

flag85 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 11, 2019Lisa rated it it was ok

Yawn. This book about three damaged women and their sad sex lives was not for me. I feel sorry for all of them - especially Maggie who was totally screwed - but I found the book tedious and pointless. Eight years of research for this? 

flag53 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 07, 2019Jessica Lafferty rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

flag51 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 20, 2019Amanda rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

“Three Women” is an intense look at the lives of 3 women, delving into their lives over an 8 year period, where they have been interviewed in their home towns. It intrigued me as it was an intimate look at their thoughts and desires, rather like reading someone’s diary.

The 3 women live in different areas, are different ages and social classes, yet they still have the same desires and hopes for the future.

I couldn’t help love Maggie, Sloanne and Lina and even though they chose paths that I would ...more

flag47 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 15, 2019Claire Reads Books rated it liked it

This was an interesting one... The product of more than a decade of research and interviews, this book tells the stories of three women: Maggie, a North Dakota woman who, as a teenager, had an affair with her high school English teacher; Lina, a Midwestern housewife stuck in a sexless marriage; and Sloane, a glamorous Newport restaurateur whose husband likes to watch her sleep with other people. Provocative, explicit, and refreshingly frank, Three Women seems to be perfectly timed for our curren ...more

flag45 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 28, 2019Thomas rated it liked it

Shelves: feminism, nonfiction

I appreciate how this book tackles the topic of female desire explicitly, given how female sexuality is so often stigmatized in contemporary culture. However, several issues got in the way of me enjoying the book or connecting with it more. As my friend Caroline writes in her astute review, I found aspects of the book gender essentialist, such that Lisa Taddeo would make comments about women’s desires broadly, without really analyzing how those desires may stem from socialization or how they may ...more

flag42 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 01, 2019Book of the Month added it

"Why I love it"
by Lisa Taddeo

Recently over drinks I asked a friend, “What’s the last book you read that you just couldn’t put down?” Without hesitation, she answered, Three Women. Now, I’m not usually a nonfiction reader—and I have a stack of half-read memoirs to prove it—but with this book, I have to agree with my friend: Three Women sucks you in from the very first page. After all, who would pass up a voyeuristic glimpse behind the bedroom doors (or in some cases, the classroom or car doors) o ...more

flag42 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 10, 2019Catherine rated it did not like it

Shelves: nonfiction

I did find the stories interesting to read, but I have a myriad of issues with the book.

1. This book is marketed as a book about women's sexual desires, but of the three women's stories, only Lina's is about her "sexual desire." Maggie's story is about how she was groomed by her male teacher, and Sloane's is about how she has sex with other men because her husband likes it, even if she doesn't like or find those men attractive. Those two stories aren't about women's sexual desires; they're about ...more

flag38 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 17, 2019Britta Böhler rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2019new-release, 2019, 01secondshelf-read, debuts, femlit, kindle-scribd, non-fiction

Intriguing idea, a book about female desire, but this book is not about that. At all. 

flag32 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 13, 2019Renee (itsbooktalk) rated it liked it

It's taken me a few days to get my thoughts together to write what I hope is a usual review. I want to start by saying I think this book is worth reading. It’s bringing about important discussions, I’ve had some really great ones with a few bookstagram friends but I also think it’s important to have the right expectations going in. ⠀⠀
~
I was excited to read what had been buzzed about as a juicy expose on female desire. This book has been marketed as the next great feminist book based on 8 years o ...more

flag30 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 28, 2019Bryn Greenwood added it

Reviewed for The Washington Post, to be published July 9, 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

flag28 likes · Like  · see review

Feb 18, 2019Tyler Goodson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arcs

Three Women tells the story of female desire, not as experienced by all women, but by Lina, Maggie, and Sloane. The stories of these women are surprising and thought-provoking, and Lisa Taddeo relates them in a book that is as insightful as it is impossible to put down. It isn't that these three women speak for all women, but that they speak so clearly, honestly, and powerfully for themselves.

flag29 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 17, 2019Scott S. rated it it was amazing

"Sex is everybody's home, but nobody's address." -- Manisha Charak

I'm not sure what initially drew me to select Lisa Taddeo's Three Womenfrom the library's new release shelf, but I think that this book has similarities to Gay Talese's earlier groundbreaking 1981 non-fiction hit Thy Neighbor's Wife (which has long been on my GR 'favorites' list). Taddeo and Talese both obviously have investigative journalism experience pulsing strongly through their veins.

Taddeo's voyeuristic work focuses on thr ...more

flag23 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 02, 2019Eleanor rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: 20-books-of-summer-2019, bang-bang-bangity-bang, work-heywood-hill

Oof. This BOOK. Three women; eight years; their love and sex and desires meticulously recorded, celebrated, foregrounded. It is, almost unbelievably, nonfiction that – in the very truest sense – reads like a novel; Lisa Taddeo gives her subjects the care and complete focus that we often only give to the people we’ve made up.

The three women she chooses are Maggie, who has an affair with her high school English teacher at fifteen, and at twenty-three decides to seek justice; Lina, who marries the ...more

flag24 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 15, 2019Claire Gibson rated it it was ok

I have no idea how to rate this book. On one hand, "Three Women" is a fascinating tale — but I wouldn't call it an accurate depiction of female desire, as it's being billed. To me, it is a sad tragedy about sexual dysfunction — not about sex as it should be. It is pornographic — at times, even more pornographic than I thought necessary. However that didn't surprise me, considering the fact that the book sought to lift the veil on "desire." I would love to read a book about healthy sexuality. Sad ...more

flag22 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 21, 2019Jaclyn Crupi rated it it was amazing

If you read narrative non-fiction you simply have to read this. You’re going to want to put down whatever you’re reading and get this instead. Lina, Maggie and Sloane and all their desires, obsessions, contradictions, hopes and disappointments are rendered with such compassion and dignity. The achievements of this book will floor you. To Lina, Maggie and Sloane, I see you, I understand you, I believe you. To Lisa Taddeo, I am in awe of you. 

flag23 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 26, 2019Krista rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019, nonfiction, arc

It's the nuances of desire that hold the truth of who we are at our rawest moments. I set out to register the heat and sting of female want so that men and other women might more easily comprehend before they condemn. Because it's the quotidian moments of our lives that will go on forever, that will tell us who we were, who our neighbors and our mothers were, when we were too diligent in thinking they were nothing like us. This is the story of three women.

Three Women is an odd little book: Aut ...more

flag20 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 27, 2019Lee rated it really liked it

4.5

'People in towns like Lina's think people are good people if they're not cheating, if they are not leaving home. Lina is having a mental breakdown because nobody cares. Nobody died, so nobody cares. She feels that she's suffocating. She has these three children she has to keep alive day in, day out, and if anything happened to them she would die, but at the same time, they are weights. She feels alone in caring for them. She feels alone in caring for herself. She wishes she could stop caring ...more

flag20 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 31, 2019Nefeli rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction

DNF-ing at 34% because this book is making me feel incredibly angry. The fact that I wasn't going to like it was pretty apparent from the beginning, as the prologue reeks of victim-blaming: Lisa Taddeo describes how her mother was followed to work for a long time by a man who masturbated in plain sight while looking at her, and wonders why her mother "let that happen". She goes on to ask herself if maybe her mother secretly enjoyed the experience. If you need an explanation of why this is fucked ...more

flag20 likes · Like  · see review

Mar 30, 2019Sarah rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars, netgalley, non-fiction

Three Women follows - somewhat unsurprisingly - three women in contemporary America: Maggie had a relationship with her teacher when at school and is now at the trial to see whether he will be convicted, Lina is in an unhappy marriage and turns back to the one man in her life who ever satisfied her sexually, Sloane lives to fulfil the sexual whims of her husband who likes to watch her sleep with other men. The reader gets to know these women over the course of the book, which I took to be anythi ...more

flag31 likes · Like  · see review

May 14, 2019G L rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: faves

Would give this 700000 stars if I could. A highly nuanced, beautifully written, intelligent and original exploration of womanhood and female desire. 

flag14 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 23, 2019Samantha rated it it was ok

Unpopular opinion time!

This has been one of the most hyped, talked about books of the summer. The topic was one outside of my general area of interest, but so much advance praise has been heaped on this book that I felt compelled to try it. Unfortunately, the book fell far short of the hype for me.

I’ll start by saying that I was impressed by Taddeo’s writing and the ambitious scope of the project. I also applaud the women profiled for their courage in sharing their stories. But none of that ta ...more

flag13 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 18, 2019Jaclyn (sixminutesforme) rated it did not like it

Before I share my thoughts on this, please know I don’t do so lightly and my comments in no way pass judgment on the experiences shared by the women.

I had two key issues with this book - firstly the writing, specifically the use of imagery and metaphor, is some of the most jarringly awkward I have come across. More importantly though, I think there are some major issues with the way that this book is pitched as being about “desire” more broadly. The majority of the experiences shared in this foc ...more

flag26 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 02, 2019Kathleen rated it did not like it

This was a hard read for me, because I am an ordinary woman and I only know ordinary women. Lisa Taddeo talks a lot about how hard she had to look to find these women. “Lisa Taddeo crisscrossed the United States countless times, moved to six different places, and talked to hundreds of men and women to ultimately find three women whose lives tell the story of desire in America”. Her quote says it all. “This is about the extraordinary”. That’s true it’s not about real women like us. But a great fa ...more

flag13 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 20, 2019Nadine rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs

Three Women is a true story based on the sex lives of three American women gained through a decade of vigilant reporting. Readers follows three women as they are faced with different challenges and issues within their sex lives. It is an intimate look at female desire in all its complexities.

Taddeo’s writing style mirrors that of a stream of consciousness technique. This style allows for Three Women to read as fiction as readers explore almost all aspects of these women’s lives. I enjoyed the n ...more

flag12 likes · Like  · see review

Jun 03, 2019Evie Braithwaite rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-5-stars, arc, non-fiction

4.5 stars 

I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to read this book. It received high praise from Dolly Alderton and that woman never disappoints with her recommendations. So, I requested it on a whim and oh my god, what a book.

Three Women comprises unrelated stories about the lives of well, 3 women. Having written this over the course of eight years, flying across the country to interview the women in their hometowns, Taddeo zooms in on the chaotic truths of their sexual desires with unflinching ...more

flag12 likes · Like  · see review

Jul 07, 2019Adrienne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-that-changed-my-life

As I finished this book, I began plotting a murder. A murder of a rapist who pursued, manipulated and sexually assaulted a teenage (minor) girl during her senior year of high school--and got away with it. Reading Maggie Wilken's story through the words of Lisa Taddeo was maybe the best, most clear-cut case of gaslighting I've ever seen splayed out in print. It made me so angry that even though I finished reading the book around 11pm last night, I didn't (and couldn't) fall asleep until 1am. Can ...more

flag10 likes · Like  · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic

DISCUSS THIS BOOK

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: Combine Editions - "Three Women" by Lisa Taddeo	2	18	Jul 16, 2019 02:32AM
Book of The Month: Three Women	2	37	Jul 02, 2019 05:23PM

More topics...

Recommend It  |  Stats  |  Recent Status Updates

GENRES

Nonfiction

378 users

Feminism

92 users

See top shelves…

ABOUT LISA TADDEO

 

Lisa Taddeo

 

282 followers

BOOKS BY LISA TADDEO

 

 

More…

TRIVIA ABOUT THREE WOMEN

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

QUOTES FROM THREE WOMEN

“We pretend to want things we don't want so nobody can see us not getting what we need.” — 15 likes

“Look at me. I put this war paint on, but underneath I’m scarred and scared and horny and tired and love you.” — 11 likes

More quotes…