Staff Picks

Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote

Veronica Chambers

An illustrated chronicle of the history of women's voting rights in America, with an emphasis on the women whose names have been left out of the story.

 

Her Epic Adventure: 25 Daring Women Who Inspire a Life Less Ordinary

Julia de Laurentiis Johnston, illus. Salini Perera

Snapshot biographies of female adventurers around the world, from Bessie Coleman (the first Black woman to earn a pilot's license) to Arunima Sinha (the first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest).

 

Stolen Science: Thirteen Untold Stories of Scientists and Inventors Almost Written Out of History

Ella Schwartz, illus. Gaby D'Alessandro

True stories of scientists and inventors whose disadvantaged place in society meant they never got the credit they deserved for their work.

 

History vs Women: The Defiant Lives That They Don't Want You to Know

Anita Sarkeesian & Ebony Adams, illus. T.S. Abe

Short biographies of women whose remarkable, socially defiant lives have often been left out of the history books, from brilliant artists to reprehensible villains.

 

Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History

Blair Imani, illus. Monique Le

Illustrated mini-biographies of activists and educators who've helped to shape the development of a fairer, more inclusive world.

 

Sisters in Arms

Kaia Alderson

Kaia Alderson's debut historical fiction novel reveals the untold, true story of the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women's Army Corps, who made the dangerous voyage to Europe to ensure American servicemen received word from their loved ones during World War II.

 

My Notorious Life: A Novel

Kate Manning

Inspired by the true history of an infamous female physician who was once called "the Wickedest Woman in New York," My Notorious Life is a mystery, a family saga, a love story, and an exquisitely detailed portrait of nineteenth-century America. Axie Muldoon's inimitable voice brings the past alive, and her story haunts and enlightens the present.

 

The Radium Girls

Kate Moore

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive - until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

 

The Doctors Blackwell

Janice P. Nimura

Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician.