Historical Fiction or Nonfiction about Women's History

Participating in the Books & Bites Bingo Reading Challenge? Try these books for the prompt, historical fiction or nonfiction about women's history.

Updated February 7, 2024
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Eve : how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution
Bohannon, Cat
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FOYLE'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 LONGLISTED FOR BLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 A GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH and PROSPECTBEST BOOK OF 2023 How did wet nurses drive civilization? Are women always the weaker sex?...
The picture bride
Yi, Kŭm-i
Paper Book
Could you marry a man you've never met? Three Korean women in 1918 make a life-changing journey to Hawaii, where they will marry, having seen only photographs of their intended husbands. Different fates await each of these women. Hongju, who dreams of a marriage of 'natural love', meets a...
Lady Tan's circle of women : a novel
See, Lisa
Paper Book
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!* From "one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot" (The New York Times Book Review) an immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China--perfect for fans of...
The Alice network : a novel
Quinn, Kate
Paper Book
Don't miss the thrilling new novel from Kate Quinn, The Briar Club, coming July 9th! New York Times and USA Today Bestseller An NPR's Best Book of the Year  A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick! The 2017 Girly Book Club Book of the Year! A Summer...
The dark queens : a gripping tale of power, ambition and murderous rivalry in early medieval France
Puhak, Shelley
Paper Book
A vivid double biography of two fearless early medieval queens. 'Brings the Merovingian empire to thrilling, bewildering, horrifying life' Helen Castor 'Restores two half-forgotten and much-mythologized queens to their proper place in medieval history' Dan Jones 'Fredegund and Brunhild...
The dictionary of lost words
Williams, Pip
Paper Book
The bookbinder of Jericho
Williams, Pip
Paper Book
"It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrowboat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press. Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most...
All That She Carried: The Journey Of Ashley's Sack, A Black Family Keepsake - Longlisted For The Women's Prize For Non-Fiction 2024
Miles, Tiya.
Paper Book
A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a deeply layered and insightful testament to people who are left out of the archives
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick Winner of the Pulitzer Prize * Winner of the National Book Award   Published to unprecedented acclaim,The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in...
The dressmakers of Prospect Heights : a novel
Zeldis, Kitty
Paper Book
"A haunting meditation on the bonds between mothers and daughters. Zeldis offers a fascinating look into historic New York City and New Orleans, and her skill as a storyteller is matched by her compassion for her characters. What a beautiful read."--Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author...
Outlawed
North, Anna
Paper Book
In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. The day of her wedding, 17-year-old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are...
On the rooftop
Sexton, Margaret Wilkerson
Paper Book
A Reese's Book Club Pick "An utterly original and brilliant story." -Reese Witherspoon A stunning novel about a mother whose dream of musical stardom for her three daughters collides with the daughters' ambitions for their own lives--set against the backdrop of gentrifying 1950s San...
Godmersham Park
Hornby, Gill
Paper Book
From the number one bestselling author of Miss Austen, a powerful and moving novel featuring Jane Austen's closest friend and confidante . . . * Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month * 'So envious of anyone yet to read this. A...
Weyward
Hart, Emilia
Paper Book
*As seen on BBC's BETWEEN THE COVERS * A #2 Times bestseller * A New York Times bestseller OVER 500,000 COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE PRE-ORDER EMILIA HART'S STUNNING NEW BOOK THE SIRENS NOW
The house of Eve : a novel
Johnson, Sadeqa
Paper Book
"Amazing...I was completely surprised by the ending of this beautifully told and written book." --Reese Witherspoon "A triumph of historical fiction" (The Washington Post), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese's Book Club pick, set in 1950s...
Lone women : a novel
LaValle, Victor
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Blue skies, empty land--and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, and an "absorbing, powerful" (BuzzFeed) new vision of the American West, from the award-winning author of...

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