Browse below to find both fiction and nonfiction tales based on the real stories of many amazing women who have existed throughout time. Throughout history, many women’s stories were treated as less important than their male counterparts’. Books like these remind us of the fundamental awesomeness of humanity in all its shapes and sizes!
Fiction
The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal
The Collector’s Daughter by Gill Paul
Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird
Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
The Great Mrs. Elias by Barbara Chase-Riboud
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Learning to See: A Novel of Dorothea Lange, the Woman Who Revealed the Real America by Elise Hooper
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley
The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal by Bryn Turnball
Nonfiction
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner
The Book of Gutsy Women by Hilary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Pénélope Bagieu
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire Lisa Evans
Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World by Mackenzi Lee
Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance edited by Alexis Greene
Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back by Janice P. Nimura
Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It by Janina Rameriz
Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien
A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin
Girls Rule: A Collection of Women Who Defied Social Standards by Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation by Mindy Johnson
Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux
More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Massachusetts Women by Lura Rogers Seavey
The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society by Eleanor Janega
Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women by Nancy Marie Brown
The Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World by Malcolm Gaskill
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists by Jean H. Baker
They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil Warby DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha S. Jones
Wanton West: Madams, Money, Murder, and the Wild Women of Montana’s Frontier by Lael Morgan
When Women Invented Television: The Untold Story of the Female Powerhouses Who Pioneered the Way We Watch Today by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
The White Devil’s Daughters: The Women Who Fought Slavery in San Francisco’s Chinatown by Julia Flynn Siler
Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West’s Most Notorious Woman Bandit by John Boessenecker
