6. Shani Boianjiu • The People of Forever Are Not Afraid
Shani Boianjiu, a young female veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, tells the story of three female friends drafted to join the Israeli army, despite their lack of interest (or even boredom) with military service. It is an honest look at what it’s like to be a female in the military.
7. Veronica Roth • Divergent
Long before this story became a major motion picture, Divergent was a dystopian trilogy about a world where people are divided up into factions based on their virtues and those who are divergent (and don’t fit into a group) are targeted for destruction. The brain behind the brilliant tale is 25-year-old Veronica Roth, who wrote the first book of the series during her senior year at Northwestern University. We can promise you we were far less successful (and far more intoxicated) during college.
