A government report comments that pupils who continue to read for pleasure improve 'text comprehension and grammar, positive reading attitudes, pleasure in reading in later life, increased general knowledge'.
Frequent reading for pleasure is correlated to higher literacy scores. (Reading for information is less well correlated.)
With this is mind, here are a few reading suggestions for Easter. This time, they are themed on International Women's Day.
Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace - Jennifer Chiaverini
In 'Enchantress of Numbers', Jennifer Chiaverini unveils the passions, dreams, and insatiable thirst for knowledge of a largely unheralded pioneer in computing—a young woman who stepped out of her father’s shadow to achieve her own laurels and champion the new technology that would shape the future.
Hag-seed - Margaret Atwood
In Atwood's retelling of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', Felix is at the top of his game as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he’s staging a Tempest like no other. It will boost his reputation. It will heal emotional wounds.
Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost daughter, Miranda. Also brewing revenge.
After twelve years, revenge finally arrives in the shape of a theatre course at a nearby prison. Here, Felix and his inmate actors will put on his Tempest and snare the traitors who destroyed him. It’s magic! But will it remake Felix as his enemies fall?
The Power - Naomi Alderman
'The Power' is a work of speculative fiction novel which reimagines the world with a shocking and revolutionary premise: women develop a power within them that allows them to release electric jolts, changing the dynamics of gender and societal norms forever.
Things I've Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter - Azar Nafisi
'Things I've Been Silent About' is a powerful historical picture of a family that spans the many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. This unforgettable portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland is a new triumph from a modern master of the memoir.
Breaking Through - Katalin Karikó
For three decades she worked in obscurity, battling cockroaches in a windowless lab, enduring demotion, the derision of her colleagues, even threats of deportation. But in 2020, Karikó’s vision was spectacularly vindicated when her work produced Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way for similar vaccines against HIV, malaria and other life-threatening diseases.
As frank, wise and fearless as Karikó herself, 'Breaking Through' is a remarkable story of tenacity, friendship and loyalty, and one woman’s unshakeable commitment to her values.
The Daughters of Kobani - Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
In 2014, northeastern Syria might have been the last place you would expect to find a revolution centered on women's rights. But that year, an all-female militia faced off against ISIS in a little town few had ever heard of: Kobani. By then, the Islamic State had swept across vast swathes of the country, taking town after town and spreading terror as the civil war burned all around it. From that unlikely showdown in Kobani emerged a fighting force that would wage war against ISIS across northern Syria alongside the United States. In the process, these women would spread their own political vision, determined to make women's equality a reality by fighting - house by house, street by street, city by city - the men who bought and sold women.