2019-10-01 Cosmopolitan

The woman is wise.

The woman has lived,

dammit. The woman

has stuff to teach you.

Let these “Woman”

books lead.

NEW MUST-READ

Three Women, by Lisa

Taddeo (July 2019)

The powerful titular

chick you’ll soon be

noticing a lot more of.

No proximity to a

man necessary.

NEW MUST-READ

She Said: Breaking the

Sexual Harassment

Story That Helped

Ignite a Movement,

b y J o d i Ka n t o r a n d

Megan Twohey

(September 2019)

With the Dragon

Tattoo became a best-

selling series (Lisbeth

Salander vibes =

goals), publishers

raced to replicate its

formula. The message:

If you liked that “Girl”

story, you’ll probably

love this one too.

Gillian Flynn’s 2012

Gone Girl kept the

snowball effect going,

says Hunter, “until it

got to the point where

it was almost a joke

to suggest ‘Girl’ in a

title.” And not every-

one was happy with

the trend, especially

when it hit its fever

pitch at the same time

as the 2016 election.

“There was a back-

lash, like, why are

we referring to adult

females as girls?”

explains Rose.

Considering the tim-

ing—and the fact that

the #MeToo movement

soon exploded—it’s

no coincidence that

“Woman” took over

as a woker title go-to.

(Although it’s worth

noting that this ver-

sion wasn’t entirely

unproblematic either,

says Carina Chocano,

author of You Play the

Girl: On Playboy Bun-

nies, Princesses, Train-

wrecks, and Other

Man-Made Women.

“These books—The

Woman Upstairs,

The Woman in the

Window—are all

narratives of the lost

and forgotten woman,

the lonely woman,

who is drunk or unreli-

able in some way.”)

But with “Girl” and

“Woman” starting to

feel a little overdone,

the book biz wasn’t

ready to give up on

its cash cow just yet.

And so came the slew

of “Wife” books.

“Publishing is so trend-

focused—until the

trends play out,” says

Hunter. “Maybe there

are too many ‘Wife’

books now!”

Which brings us

to today. We aren’t

ready to see ourselves

disappear from book

covers—we just want

something a little

more sophisticated,

sexy, and powerful,

something that has

nothing to do with our

relationship to men.

Author Lauren

Mechling thinks she

has it. Her latest

novel is called How

Could She. “It

feels right for the

moment,” says

Mechling. It’s still

clear that the story

is about a woman,

but “‘She’ is more

evolved.”

Pulitzer Prize

winners Megan

Twohey and Jodi

Kantor obviously

agree. Their new

book about seriously

badass women

has a long, impor-

tant title—that

starts with “She.”

WOMAN

SHE

October 2019 Cosmopolitan 35

DA

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