Top ten books about hair

Bea Davenport drew on her experiences as a journalist for her first novel, In Too Deep, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Luke Bitmead Bursary. Her children’s novel, The Serpent House, was shortlisted for the 2010 Times/Chicken House Award.

One of Davenport's top ten books about hair, as shared at the Guardian:

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Any girl with anything about them wanted to be Jo, the only one of the March sisters with the guts to challenge convention. None of the others would have had the nerve to sell her chestnut hair for $25, to raise money for her ill father. What's more, she told her sisters that she had realised: "It will do my brains good to have that mop taken off."

Read about the other entries on the list.

Little Women also appears among nine notable unsung literary heroines, Sophie McKenzie's top ten mothers in children's books, John Dugdale's ten notable fictional works on winter sports, Melissa Albert's five favorite YA books that might make one cry, Anjelica Huston's seven favorite coming-of-age books, Bidisha's ten top books about women, Katherine Rundell's top ten descriptions of food in fiction, Gwyneth Rees's ten top books about siblings, Maya Angelou's 6 favorite books, Tim Lewis's ten best Christmas lunches in literature, and on the Observer's list of the ten best fictional mothers, Eleanor Birne's top ten list of books on motherhood, Erin Blakemore's list of five gutsy heroines to channel on an off day, Kate Saunders' critic's chart of mothers and daughters in literature, and Zoë Heller's list of five memorable portraits of sisters. It is a book that disappointed Geraldine Brooks on re-reading.

--Marshal Zeringue