These are not women simply IN the workplace, these are women in CHARGE of the workplace. Sometimes the situations are funny (see the chick lit by Sophie Kinsella), sometimes deadly, mortally, serious (try Strong Medicine by Arthur Hailey), or perhaps from a time long ago (like the historical saga, The Tea Rose, by Jennifer Donnelly), or from a fantasy of the future (Adventures of the Artificial Woman). But they all have this in common: strong women who can bring home the bacon!
In this dark comedy, an animatronics technician cannot find his perfect woman, so he simply builds one. But perhaps she is too perfect: she runs off to pursue her own career, quickly evolving from a stripper to a movie star, with aspirations to the presidency of the United States.
Claire is the modern superwoman: a perfect wife, mother and head of a multimillion dollar business. But her success has come with a price. Claire's income surpassed that of her husband, and now she is served with divorce papers and may lose custody of her children. This is the story of the fight for her children and her dignity.
By Barbara Taylor Bradford
A rags to riches story spanning sixty years, featuring a determined and indomitable woman who parlays a small shop into an international business empire.
Stella Payne, a 42-year-old divorced investment analyst, takes a vacation in Jamaica where she meets a Jamaican man half her age. Through this relationship, she soon realizes that she must confront her hopes and fears about love and about life and the way she lives it.
On Film:
Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, and Whoopi Goldberg star in this 1998 film adaptation. If you can't make it to the islands yourself, check out this movie for breathtaking Jamaican scenery with some self-discovery on the side.
In a tiny French town where little has changed in the past century, newcomer Vianne Rocher arrives with her exquisite chocolate shop which immediately begins to play havoc with the villagers' Lenten vows. Each box of the bonbons comes with a free gift - Vianne's uncanny perceptions of its buyer's discontents and a clever cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parishioners no longer care as they abandon themselves to temptation with unforeseen results.
Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, and Johnny Depp star in this box office hit, released in 2000.
By Alexander McCall Smith
This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to help people with problems in their lives. Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.
