I’ve been asked at shows and on socials since ‘Chosen Daughter’ came out what I’ve been reading / which books I would recommend in relation to the themes of the album (female inheritance, female empowerment, emigration, the internalisation of the patriarchy, the MeToo movement, sisters, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, transgenerational experiences…) so I thought I’d share with you a list of all the books I read between 2017 and 2019 that inspired the record in some way.

I wonder if you can hear the influence in the songs?

Here’s to stories and music, old and new.

Maz x

Women Who Run with the Wolves Clarissa Pinkola-Estes

Brooklyn Colm Toibin

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing Eimear McBride

Homegoing Yaa Gyasi

The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri

Conversations with Friends Sally Rooney

Beloved Toni Morrison

Animal Sara Pascoe

The Vegetarian Han Kang

Wild Cheryl Strayed

Of Women Shami Chakrabarti

Disgrace J.M. Coetzee

So Many Ways to Begin Jon McGregor

Purple Hibiscus Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie

Art as Therapy Alain de Botton

Delusions of Gender Cordelia Fine

The Descent of Man Grayson Perry

The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne

Alias Grace Margaret Atwood

Hunger Roxane Gay

Hot Milk Deborah Levy

The Argonauts Maggie Nelson

Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward

Why be Happy When You Could be Normal? Jeanette Winterson

The Outrun Amy Liptrot

The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing

King Lear William Shakespeare

Ways of Seeing John Berger