March is Women’s History Month and is a great time to fill your ‘To Be Read’ lists and read books written by women, especially ones that focus on women’s stories.
Fiction
“Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernardine Evaristo
This Booker Prize winning novel tells the story of 12 very different characters across the United Kingdom and several decades. Evaristo wrote a dynamic and contemporary love letter to Black womanhood.
“Queenie” by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, spirals after a messy breakup with her long-term boyfriend. A coming of age story where she is trying to find who she is and what she wants.
“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
One of the biggest books of 2022, Zevin looks at identity, disability, failure and friendship. A type of love story you have not read yet.
“Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata
The heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. “Convenience Store Woman” is a weird and captivating look at work culture and the pressures to fit in. It is also a charming and new take on an intriguing heroine.
“Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
As the new show, starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin, is reminding everyone how great this book is, it’s a great time to read, or re-read, it. Written in an interview style it details the rise and fall of an iconic fictional 70s band, Taylor Jenkins Reid brings every single character to life.
Non-fiction
“Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race” by Margot Lee Shetterly
Set during the civil rights movement, the true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians “Hidden Figures” interweaves the history of space adventure with the intimate stories of five brave women whose work changed the world.
“Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life” by Emily Nagoski
Based on groundbreaking research and brain science, “Come As You Are” is an essential exploration of why and how women’s sexuality works. Written to radically transform women’s sex lives in a world built for men.
“Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
Kendall provides a narrative for everyone mainstream feminism left behind; an intersectional look at the way feminism functions in the United States and what must be done to support everyone.
“Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women” by Kate Moore
The story of the inspiring young women who were exposed to radium and their strength against impossible circumstances. These women influenced life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
“Women, Race and Class” by Angela Davis
From the famous American academic, activist and author Angela Davis. Women, Race and Class contains historical and feminist analysis of the intersections between gender, race and class.
“Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution” by Sara Marcus
The history of the radical feminist uprising Riot Grrrl. The story of an era of women who had no time for sexism or staying quiet.
Memoir
“Educated” by Tara Westover
Westover was born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho and was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her quest for education and herself took her around the world and culminated in this memoir.
“Everything I Know About Love” by Dolly Alderton
Full of wit, insight, heart and humor, Alderton brings together personal stories, observations, lists and recipes that will resonate with women of every age. Celebrating the power of female friendship and shedding light on the terror and hope of early adulthood, it will leave you wanting to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it.
“Token Black Girl” by Danielle Prescod
“Token Black Girl” unpacks the effects of unconscious and deliberate white supremacy in the media with wit and candor. Prescod tells a personal story about overcoming the damaging concepts of perfection and social conditioning, and celebrates identity.
“Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body” by Roxane Gay
Bestselling author Roxane Gay shares an honest memoir of food, weight, self-image and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.
“Know My Name” by Chanel Miller
Before she was the author Chanel Miller she was Emily Doe. Her victim impact statement went viral after being posted on Buzzfeed. In her transformative memoir “Know My Name” Miller reclaims her story and her power.
“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner
Zauner, of the band Japanese Breakfast, shares the heartbreaking story of losing her mother in her memoir “Crying in H Mart.” She tells stories of growing up in Oregon, adolescent growing pains and her connections with different foods.
Classics
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is an innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, and yet eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe tries to escape her past but when a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.
“Emma” by Jane Austen
One of Austen’s most captivating and vivid characters is Emma Woodhouse, beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty. She organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her village and plays matchmaker with ruinous effect.
“Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott
Exploring timeless themes of love and death, war and peace, the March sisters Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth have resonated with generations of women.
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
Pulitzer Prize winning novel depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence.
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person, not easy for a black woman in the ’30s. Janie’s quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.
“Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Navigating between traditions they’ve inherited and the new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations.
Support women authors and independent bookstores this March as you continue to diversify your reads and discover important stories.