Books To Read For Women's History Month
Beryl Markham
A memoir, this book consistently ranks as one of my all time favorite reads.
"In West with the Night Beryl Markham chronicles her unconventional, free-spirited girlhood in Kenya and her adventures as a rescue pilot, mail carrier, and bush pilot, scouting game for safaris all over Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe." As if that all isn't enough, "In 1936 Markham, who was already a well-known figure among in aviation circles, made international news when she became the first woman to make a non-stop solo transatlantic flight from Europe to North America. After a stint in Hollywood, Markham returned to Kenya and trained horses until her death in 1983."
AND, she was an excellent writer, too. Her memoir is a wonderful read.
“Written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. [Markham] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers...it really is a bloody wonderful book.”—Ernest Hemingway
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
By Jennifer 8. Lee
This was a fun, and educational, read. Summaries really do not do it justice. The author, a Chinese woman born in America, traces the history of American Chinese foods, which are nothing at all like actual Chinese meals.
"Jennifer Lee traces the history of Chinese-American experience through the lens of the food. In a compelling blend of sociology and history, Jenny Lee exposes the indentured servitude Chinese restaurants expect from illegal immigrant chefs, investigates the relationship between Jews and Chinese food, and weaves a personal narrative about her own relationship with Chinese food."
By Kate Moore
The true story of the women who painted radium watch dials.
"In the dark years of the First World War, 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. 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. And, until they begin to come forward."
"Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives."
by Ben Montgomery
The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
Emma Gatewood was the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times and she did it all after the age of 65. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.
By Kate Braithwite
Her published story is well known. But did she tell the whole truth about her ten days in the madhouse?
Down to her last dime and offered the chance of a job of a lifetime at The New York World, twenty-three-year old Elizabeth Cochrane agrees to get herself admitted to Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum and report on conditions from the inside. But what happened to her poor friend, Tilly Mayard? Was there more to her high praise of Dr Frank Ingram than everyone knew?
Thirty years later, Elizabeth, known as Nellie Bly, is no longer a celebrated trailblazer and the toast of Newspaper Row. Instead, she lives in a suite in the Hotel McAlpin, writes a column for The New York Journal and runs an informal adoption agency for the city’s orphans.
Beatrice Alexander is her secretary, fascinated by Miss Bly and her causes and crusades. Asked to type up a manuscript revisiting her employer’s experiences in the asylum in 1887, Beatrice believes she’s been given the key to understanding one of the most innovative and daring figures of the age.
by Keith O'Brien
"The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s — and won." We hear so much about Amelia Earhart, but she was only one of many impressive female pilots of the time.
"The untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s — and won." We hear so much about Amelia Earhart, but she was only one of many impressive female pilots of the time.
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by Rebecca Skloot
"Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her enslaved ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. "
by Kim Michele Richardson
Historical Fiction based on the story of the packhorse librarians in the Appalachian Mountains.
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A Few More
Non Traditional Choices
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By Lisa Wingate
Lest we think all women should be championed, lets remember that women are, after all, merely human. And some of them were not very good humans.
Lisa's Wingate's historical fiction novel is based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country
Two more - both Memoirs - That remind us not all women should be championed.
Educated by Tara Westover
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Both were excellent reads, difficult to put down.
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Also -
On My To Read List
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On My To Read List
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by Janice P. Nimura
The story of the Blackwell sisters, two of the first female doctors.
Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights—or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, "a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now."
by Clemantine Wamariya
The story of two sisters who fled the Rwanden massacre in 1994, spent 6 years migrating through 7 African countries, and then being granted asylum in the United States. "In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine provokes us to look beyond the label of “victim” and recognize the power of the imagination to transcend even the most profound injuries and aftershocks. Devastating yet beautiful, and bracingly original, it is a powerful testament to her commitment to constructing a life on her own terms."
by Kate Moore (the author of Radium Girls)
The real life story of Elizabeth Packard, a mid 19th century wife who was placed in an an asylum after offering views that differed from her husbands. While incarcerated, she met other sane women, also institutionalized by their husbands when they became inconvenient. Elizabeth took notes in a secret journal, and when she was released, she published her writings, then campaigned tirelessly to change the laws that allowed this to happen to her.
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