Read a Girl #48: “She Must Be Mad”, Charly Cox

Hey you,

How’s 2023 treating you so far? I can’t believe we’re already in February! So much has happened and yet it feels like yesterday we were ringing in the new year.

I am trying to focus more on myself and my health and am surprised I’m actually keeping some of the resolutions I set — one of them being I started a boxing class and can’t believe how fun it actually is. 

I know this has little to do with books, but I’m getting there, I promise! Strong women taking their grief and turning it into art have been a source of inspiration to me in the first weeks of this new year — from the amazing new music we’ve seen released celebrating female empowerment to rediscovering old books that capture what it’s like to be a woman today. “She Must Be Mad”, by Charly Cox, is one of them.

I read this collection of poetry and prose back when it was published, in 2018, and was awestruck by it. Her writing is wry yet heartfelt and it’s a good companion for days when you’re just not sure of anything.

Charly writes to people who feel too much and I guess I’m just one of those people so it became an instant favourite. I hope this book is as helpful to you as it was to me.

Find the books featured in our newsletter in our shop at Bookshop.org. 

My first book, “a spectacularly sad ending”, is a collection of poetry and prose about heartbreak, loss and survival. It chronicles experiences of love, loss, abuse and grief, and is for anyone who is or ever had to mend a broken heart. It’s available as a paperback and also on Kindle. You can get it here.

🎵 This newsletter was written to the sounds of “Emily I'm Sorry”, by boygenius.

We have a playlist with all the music featured in our newsletters. You can listen to it on Spotify.

My name is Renata and I am the Founder and Editor of Read a Girl, a platform aimed at promoting the work of women writers. My background is in journalism and I spent most of my career covering foreign affairs and travelling around looking for good stories to tell. I love reading and my favourite authors are Elena Ferrante, J.D. Salinger, Julian Barnes and Sylvia Plath.

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