Today is International Women’s Day! This awesome day has been celebrated for over 100 years and has developed into a worldwide event to celebrate the achievements and successes of women all over. In honor of this fantastic day, Jennifer at Bookalicious Mama and I have teamed up to bring you the best books by, for, and about women. Here, you’ll find the top 30 non-fiction reads, but if you head over to Jennifer’s site you’ll find the best fiction reads. I hope you browse the list, buy a book (or two), and get inspired!
For more information or to find an event near you, please check out the International Women’s Day website.
Biographies and Memoirs
- Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island by Regina Calcaterra (review)
- Joan of Arc: In her own words by Willard Trask
- Out of Order: Stories From the History of the Supreme Court by Sandra Day O’Connor (review)
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Helen Keller: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
- I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks
- Mother Teresa: In My Own Words by Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado
- Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley
- This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett (review)
- Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
- The Woman At The Washington Zoo: Writings On Politics, Family, And Fate by Marjorie Williams
Inspirational Non-Fiction
- Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (review)
- Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem (review)
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship That Changed the World by Penny Colman
- The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women’s True Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out or Faded Away by Jenny Offill (review)
- The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf
- The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
- Her Story: A Timeline of Women Who Changed America by Charlotte S. Waisman
- Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
- Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof (this book was too great to leave off of the list)
- Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies by Cokie Roberts
Great Non-Fiction Books by Women
- Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink (review)
- Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (review)
- The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks by Susan Casey (review)
- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand