Women's History Month

March is Women's History Month! Celebrate the history and literary contributions of women with these library titles.

This list was compiled by South Pasadena Public Library staff and members of the South Pasadena Public Library Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee.

Updated February 13, 2025
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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<...
In search of our mothers' gardens : womanist prose
Walker, Alice
Ebook
A collection of early personal and political essays from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple. Includes a new letter written by the author   What is a womanist? Alice Walker sets out to define the concept in this...
The feminine mystique
Friedan, Betty.
Paper Book
Landmark, groundbreaking, classic--these adjectives barely do justice to the pioneering vision and lasting impact of The Feminine Mystique. Published in 1963, it gave a pitch-perfect description of "the problem that has no name": the insidious beliefs and institutions that undermined women's...
The soul of a woman : on impatient love, long life, and good witches
Allende, Isabel
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes "a bold exploration of womanhood, feminism, parenting, aging, love and more" (Associated Press). "The Soul of a Woman is Isabel Allende's most liberating book yet."--Elle
Pleasure activism : the politics of feeling good
Brown, Adrienne M.
Paper Book
How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Editor Adrienne Maree Brown finds the answer in something she calls 'Pleasure Activism,' a politics of healing...
The moment of lift : how empowering women changes the world
Gates, Melinda
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "In her book, Melinda tells the stories of the inspiring people she's met through her work all over the world, digs into the data, and powerfully illustrates issues that need our attention--from child marriage to gender inequity in the workplace...
Bad feminist : essays
Gay, Roxane
Paper Book
"Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there."  -- Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be...
Men explain things to me
Solnit, Rebecca
Paper Book
In her comic, scathing essay "Men Explain Things to Me," Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don't, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works...
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
Traister, Rebecca
Paper Book
***NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** ***BEST BOOKS OF 2018 SELECTION BY*** * WASHINGTON POST * People * NPR * ESQUIRE * ELLE * WIRED * REFINERY 29 * "In a year when issues of gender and sexuality dominated...
Know my name : a memoir
Miller, Chanel
Paper Book
Universally acclaimed, rapturously reviewed, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, and an instant New York Times bestseller, Chanel Miller's breathtaking memoir "gives readers the privilege of knowing her not just as Emily Doe, but as Chanel Miller the writer,...
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Skloot, Rebecca
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The story of modern medicine and bioethics--and, indeed, race relations--is refracted beautifully, and movingly."--Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE ...
The secret history of Wonder Woman
Lepore, Jill
Paper Book
A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world's most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story--and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time...
The nine : the true story of a band of women who survived the worst of Nazi Germany
Strauss, Gwen
Paper Book
"[A] narrative of unfathomable courage... Ms. Strauss does her readers--and her subjects--a worthy service by returning to this appalling history of the courage of women caught up in a time of rapacity and war." --Wall Street Journal "Utterly gripping." --...
Aftershocks : a memoir
Owusu, Nadia
Paper Book
In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this "gorgeous" (The New York Times, Editors' Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the "incredible story" (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets...
Wild : from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Strayed, Cheryl
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the...
How the Garcia girls lost their accents
Alvarez, Julia.
Audiobook
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "simply wonderful" How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents captures the vivid lives of the Garcia sisters, four privileged and rebellious Dominican girls adapting to their new lives in America. In the 1960s, political tension forces the Garcia family away from...
13 ways of looking at a fat girl
Awad, Mona
Ebook
Little gods : a novel
Jin, Meng
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of Winter by Vogue - USA Today - TIME - Electric Literature - PopSugar - Alma - Bustle - PureWow - The Millions "Meng Jin is a writer whose sweep is as intimate as it is global. Little Gods is a novel...
Circe : a novel
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios,...
Outlawed : a novel
North, Anna
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK * INDIE NEXT SELECTION * LIBRARY READS SELECTION * AMAZON EDITORS' CHOICE * WASHINGTON POST BEST OF THE YEAR The "terrifying, wise, tender, and thrilling" (R.O. Kwon)...
All the lives we never lived : a novel
Roy, Anuradha
Paper Book
"[Roy's] mastery of detail ties an intimate domestic drama to national history, offering a portrait of one family's troubles with desire and loss that speaks to the more universal struggles for personal and political freedom." --Time From the Man Booker Prize-nominated...
Salvage the bones : a novel
Ward, Jesmyn.
Paper Book
Winner of the National Book AwardThe National Book Award winning novel from the author of Let Us Descend and Men We Reaped--a gritty but tender story of family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico,...
My favorite thing is monsters. Book one
Ferris, Emil
Paper Book
Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late '60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography. Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her enigmatic upstairs neighbour,...
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....

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