Five titles featuring women who use beauty as currency

Celine Saintclare, described as "one to watch" by Publishers Weekly, is a Buckinghamshire based author of English and Caribbean descent. She is motivated to write as a way of exploring the complexities of her own identity and to tell stories about society’s transgressors.

Her debut novel is Sugar, Baby.

At Lit Hub Saintclare tagged five titles featuring "women who paint and polish their beauty into a gleaming currency of its own. These women are aware of the way the world works and use their looks to their advantage in a patriarchal system." One title on the list:

Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

Another much-loved and frequently read favorite of mine. A detailed and gorgeously painted work of historical fiction that recounts the life story of Nitta Sayuri, who is sold by her family from a poor fishing village to a Geisha House in Kyoto where she learns the intricate customs of the competitive world of the Geishas, going on to become the most celebrated of them all. Sayuri experiences loss, friendship, fear, and love along her transformative journey which spans World War II.

The poignant images of the novel leave a mark on the reader as Sayuri learns the trade of feminine allure, of dance and music, of eroticism and ultimately how to hide her true feelings beneath the Geisha mask in order to become successful, though through it all, hope remains. A must-read!

Read about the other entries on the list.

Memoirs of a Geisha is one of Jojo Moyes's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue