New and Recommended Adult Nonfiction to Read During Women's History Month and Beyond

Updated March 2, 2026
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New and Recommended Adult Nonfiction to Read During Women's History Month and Beyond

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107 Days
Harris, Kamala
Paper Book
For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history. Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer. You are the first woman...
All the Way to the River : Love, Loss, and Liberation
Gilbert, Elizabeth
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK "A delicious mashup of narrative that's by turns harrowing and healing." -People "Entertaining, insightful, wrenching ... punch-to-the-gut powerful." -The Washington Post
Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice
Kolb, Rachel
Paper Book
A deaf writer's exploration of language, communication, and what it means to be articulate--and her journey to reclaim her voice Rachel Kolb was born profoundly deaf the same year that the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, and she grew up as part of the first...
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon
Shapiro, Laurie Gwen
Paper Book
In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership - professional and soon otherwise - was born. The...
Awake: A Memoir
Hatmaker, Jen
Paper Book
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, OPRAH DAILY, GOODREADS, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND MORE A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "I can't imagine any woman reading this without feeling seen, inspired, and totally empowered." -...
A Black women's history of the United States
Berry, Daina Ramey
Paper Book
The award-winning Revisioning American History series continues with this "groundbreaking new history of Black women in the United States" (Ibram X. Kendi)-the perfect companion to An Indigenous People's History of the United States and An African American and Latinx History of the...
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
Atwood, Margaret.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD * NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE WASHINGTON POST * How does the greatest writer of our time tell her own story? "The most spectacular,...
Bread of Angels: A Memoir
Smith, Patti
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A radiant new memoir from artist and writer Patti Smith, author of the National Book Award winner Just Kids A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NPR, THE NEW YORKER "God whispers through a crease in the...
Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old : Thoughts on Aging As a Woman
Shields, Brooke/ Bertsche, Rachel (CON)
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From generational icon Brooke Shields comes an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older Brooke Shields has spent a lifetime in the public eye....
Care and Feeding: A Memoir
Woolever, Laurie
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! A candid, funny, and occasionally devastating culinary memoir of a woman making her way through the food world, navigating addiction, a cultural reckoning, and an unexpected tragedy In this moving, hilarious, and insightful...
A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun
Sister Monica Clare
Paper Book
The soulful, hilarious memoir of a chronic people pleaser who surprised everyone in her life by abandoning an unfulfilling career and marriage to join a convent-and learned how much we stand to gain when we fully embrace our authentic selves "A Change of Habit follows...
Cher : The Memoir, Part One
Cher
Paper Book
***The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller*** ***The Global #1 Bestseller*** The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person . . . Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own...
The Conjuring of America : Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic
Stewart, Lindsey
Paper Book
Kirkus Best Books of 2025 | BookRiot's Best Books of 2025 | NPR's New Books to Read | Ms. Magazine's Most Anticipated Feminist Book  A crucial telling of U.S. history centering the Black women whose magic gave rise to the rich tapestry of American...
Daughter of Daring: The Trick-Riding, Train-Leaping, Road-Racing Life of Helen Gibson, Hollywood's First Stuntwoman (Original)
O'Meara, Mallory
Paper Book
From LA Times bestselling author Mallory O'Meara, the story of America's first professional stuntwoman, Helen Gibson, who rose to fame during a time when women ruled Hollywood. Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as "The...
A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir
Ardern, Jacinda
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world's youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to a new generation of...
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It (Original)
Ramirez, Janina
Ebook
THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 CUNDIL HISTORY PRIZE A "Next Big Idea Book Club" Must Read A groundbreaking reappraisal of medieval femininity, revealing why women have been written out of history and why it matters ...
Finding My Way: A Memoir
Yousafzai, Malala
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! | A USA TODAY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "A remarkably intimate and insistently human chronicle of a moral authority's coming of age." --The New York Times This is not the story you think you know...
A flower traveled in my blood : the incredible true story of the grandmothers who fought to find a stolen generation of children
Cohen Gilliland, Haley
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 * THE WASHINGTON POST'S 5 BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2025 * THE ATLANTIC'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2025 * THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 * TIME MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 * NPR'S BEST BOOKS...
Fly, Wild Swans: My Mother, Myself and China
Chang, Jung
Paper Book
The magnificent follow-up to Wild Swans, the multimillion copy, internationally bestselling sensation that traces the history of modern China through the true stories of three generations of courageous women in one family. "AT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN MY GRANDMOTHER became the concubine of a...
The harder I fight, the more I love you : a memoir
Case, Neko
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN APPLE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH Singer-songwriter Neko Case paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary life--one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desire, bursts of comedy, and...
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
Pelicot, Gisele
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A rousing feminist manifesto." - The New York Times Book Review "Staggering . . . a lyrical book about monstrous events, a compelling exploration of what it feels like to hold two existences in your brain at once." -...
Joan of Arc : a life transfigured
Harrison, Kathryn.
Paper Book
The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George...
Joyride : A Memoir
Orlean, Susan
Ebook
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
Minnelli, Liza
Paper Book
"A bombshell, jaw-dropping memoir" --People Magazine Global icon Liza Minnelli shares her inspiring story: stepping out from the long shadow of a mega-star mother and legendary film director father, fighting a lifetime...
Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Beloved Toni Morrison investigates Black characters in the American literary canon and the way they shaped the nation's collective unconscious. In a dazzling series of lectures from her tenure as a professor at Princeton...
Listening to the law : reflections on the court and constitution
Barrett, Amy Coney
Paper Book
From Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a glimpse of her journey to the Court and an account of her approach to the Constitution Since her confirmation hearing, Americans have peppered Justice Amy Coney Barrett with questions. How has she adjusted to the Court? What is it...
The Look
Obama, Michelle
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD * Beautifully illustrated with more than 200 photographs, including never-before-seen images, The Look is a stunning journey through Michelle Obama's style evolution, in her own words for the first time. ...
La Lucci
Lucci, Susan
The moving follow-up to Susan Lucci's New York Times bestseller, All My Life, this stunning new memoir includes nearly one hundred never-before-seen photos. The long-running Queen of Daytime television, Susan Lucci--who has gone by the endearment, La Lucci, since her earliest days on the...
A marriage at sea : a true story of love, obsession, and shipwreck
Elmhirst, Sophie
Paper Book
THE RUNAWAY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER & ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2025 ALSO NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2025 BY NPR, VOGUE, TIME MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORKER, AND MORE "This is nonfiction that...
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson
Tourmaline
Ebook
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER Featured in The New York Times's Nonfiction to Read This Spring Black transgender luminary Tourmaline brings to life the first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Marsha P. Johnson, one of the most important and remarkable...
Matriarch: A Memoir
Knowles, Tina
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A glorious chronicle of a life like none other--enlightening, entertaining, surprising, empowering--and a testament to the world-changing power of Black motherhood "A beautiful and brave story of strong women, fierce mothering, and the...
Memorial days
Brooks, Geraldine
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 · A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2025 · A Time Best Memoir of 2025 · Named a Best Book of 2025 by NPR,...
The missing thread : a women's history of the ancient world
Dunn, Daisy
Paper Book
One of The Smithsonian's 10 best history books of 2024 One of BBC History Magazine's best books of 2024 "Thoroughly researched and sprightly.... a complete history of the [Mediterranean world] with the women added back in, as they always should have been."<...
Mother Mary Comes to Me
Roy, Arundhati.
Paper Book
Named One of The New York Times Book Review's Top Ten Books of the Year Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize One of the best-reviewed books of the year, a raw and deeply moving memoir that "pulses with...
Mutinous women : how French convicts became founding mothers of the Gulf Coast
DeJean, Joan E.
Paper Book
The secret history of the rebellious Frenchwomen who were exiled to colonial Louisiana and found power in the Mississippi Valley In 1719, a ship named La Mutine (the mutinous woman), sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the Mississippi. It was loaded with...
Nobody's Girl : A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The unforgettable memoir by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell "Make no mistake: this is a book about power, corruption, industrial-scale sex abuse and the way in which...
Notes to John
Didion, Joan
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An extraordinary work from the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had "a rough few years....
On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports
Brennan, Christine
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller! A news-making and electrifying portrait of sports phenomenon Caitlin Clark, whose dramatic ascendance in college basketball and now in the WNBA has captured the attention of media and fans unlike any other female team-sport athlete in...
The Other Side of Change: Who We Become When Life Makes Other Plans
Shankar, Maya
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, AS FEATURED ON NBC TODAY SHOW, CBS MORNINGS, ON PURPOSE WITH JAY SHETTY, AND MORE! "A rare combination of beautiful storytelling, cognitive science, and wholehearted wisdom. --Brené Brown A revelatory exploration...
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America
Macy, Beth
Paper Book
Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the '70s and '80s-certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her...
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler
Morris, Susana M
Paper Book
A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work.  As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science fiction, Octavia...
The radium girls : the dark story of America's shining women
Moore, Kate (Writer and editor)
Paper Book
A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller! "The glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still." --NPR Books  Discover the gripping and inspiring true story of The Radium Girls, a groundbreaking work by acclaimed author Kate Moore....
The ride of her life : the true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America
Letts, Elizabeth
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER .The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Horse and The Eighty-Dollar Champion presents a "heartwarming and engaging folk-hero biography" (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman who fulfilled her lifelong wish to see the Pacific Ocean by riding...
Saving five : a memoir of hope
Nguyen, Amanda
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Natalie Portman's Book Club Pick for March. "Amanda's story--innovatively told by versions of herself at different ages--underscores the lasting power of speaking...
Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They're Too Much
Erivo, Cynthia
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this vulnerable and enlightening book of life lessons, globally renowned performer Cynthia Erivo draws from her singular experience to show us how to embrace being "too much" and to live up to the fullest iteration of...
Sister wife : a memoir of faith, family, and finding freedom
Woolley, Christine Brown
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From TLC's Sister Wives star Christine Brown Woolley, a groundbreaking and heartfelt memoir about living in a family like no other and finding the strength to leave polygamy--and the only life she's known--behind.
The sisterhood / The Secret History of Women at the CIA
Mundy, Liza
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "rip-roaring" (Steve Coll), "staggeringly well-researched" (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, "electric with revelations" (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin...
The Sisterhood of Ravensbruck: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp
Olson, Lynne
Paper Book
The extraordinary true story of a small group of Frenchwomen, all Resistance members, who banded together in a notorious concentration camp to defy the Nazis--from the New York Times bestselling author of Madame Fourcade's Secret War "At once heartbreaking and...
The Six : The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts
Grush, Loren
Audiobook
Spitfires : The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II
Aikman, Becky
Paper Book
"Lively and entertaining . . . Those fearlessly determined female pilots are the professional forebears of the women who would slowly break down barriers in the U.S. military in the decades that followed . . . And what forebears those women were." -The Washington Post
Star of the Show: My Life on Stage
Parton, Dolly
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A stunning celebration of Dolly Parton's iconic career as a performer, featuring entertaining personal stories alongside more than 500 full-color photographs, including exclusive images and ephemera from her archive, and an eight-page gatefold listing her...
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
Burden, Belle
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Burden's searing, probing memoir explores . . . what she learned about intimacy and her own spirit."--People​​ "A beautifully written instant classic. Strangers is gripping and heartbreaking and a must...
That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You
Myers, Elyse
Paper Book
Writer, comedian, and content creator Elyse Myers gets real about life's awkward moments in her bold, funny, and unfiltered debut book Elyse Myers is known to her twelve million followers as "The Internet's Best Friend," sharing her relatable stories and comedic sketches and...
This Happened to Me: A Reckoning
Price, Kate
Paper Book
A Washington Post Noteworthy Book (of July and August); a Book Riot Best Nonfiction Book of Summer; WBUR (Boston Public Radio) Twelve Books to Read This Summer "Price not only rises above the hurt and hate, she uses her hard-won insights to shine a light for...
We should all be feminists
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics--from the award-winning author of Americanah "A call to action, for all people in the world, to undo the gender hierarchy." --Medium<...
WE THE WOMEN : the hidden heroes who shaped america
O'DONNELL, NORAH.
Paper Book
A vivid portrait of the unsung American women from 1776 to today who changed the course of history in their fight for freedom and helped shape a more perfect union "This terrific book reveals the central, though often hidden role that women have played at every stage of our...
When women ruled the world : six queens of Egypt
Cooney, Kara
Ebook
This riveting narrative explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshepsut to Cleopatra--women who ruled with real power--and shines a piercing light on our own perceptions of women in power today. Female rulers are a rare phenomenon--but thousands of years ago in...
A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator...
Women in white coats : how the first women doctors changed the world of medicine
Campbell, Olivia
Audiobook
Writing Creativity and Soul
Kidd, Sue Monk.
Paper Book
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Book of Longings: an intimate work on the mysteries, frustrations, and triumphs of being a writer, and an instructive guide to awakening the soul. When Sue Monk Kidd...
You with the sad eyes : a memoir
Applegate, Christina
Paper Book
"Not your typical celebrity memoir." --Jimmy Kimmel Unflinchingly honest and darkly funny, You with the Sad Eyes unveils a side of Christina Applegate we've never seen, forever cementing her formidable and iconoclastic legacy.  ...
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