"What does it mean to be haunted, to have ghosts in your life? Most of them are not the supernatural kind, most of them are the ghosts of yourself, of your younger self"
Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
"This is like volunteering my literary services to help people have a better understanding of the Muslim world; a bit of light relief in the fact of chronic darkness."
Gone. A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym
My violin was born in 1696, the year Peter the Great became Tsar of Russia. It’s seen off Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, two world wars, and, so far, the atomic bomb. People come, people go, violinists live, violinists die, empires rise and fall, and the violin lives on, washed from shore to shore on the tides of wealth, fortune and history. This is but a speck of time for my Strad.
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
Her life may not be picture perfect yet, with the crushingly long commute, the box room of a bedroom in a flat-share and the oh so tight budget. But the world doesn’t need to know that. Lucky for her, instagram has afforded her the ability to portray a life that she wants people to believe she is living. In London she is Cat, not country girl Katie, brought up by a single dad in the dull hinterlands.
Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“The idea of ‘gender roles’ is absolute nonsense.” Here lies a universal message to push back against societies straightjacket for our girls, from the tyranny of pink versus blue, to gendered toys to who does the cooking.
13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl
“Ruth’s only a hair thinner than I am, she’s way on the other side of the fat girl spectrum, looking at me from the safe, slight smug distance of her own control and conviction.”