This booklist highlights women’s stories and work, from scientists to secret agents, and a former first lady to an Afghani writing group. There’s also a selection of personal recommendations from our staff.
This list is part of our Year of Reading celebrations, click the link to find out more about the Go All In Campaign.
Staff Recommendations
Click on the images to find out why staff personally recommend these books
Recommended Reads
Weathering by Ruth Allen
Popular psychology, Natural history
Rocks and mountains have withstood aeons of life on our planet – gradually eroding, dissolving, recycling, shifting, solidifying, and weathering. We might spend a little less time on earth, but humans are also weathering: evolving and changing as we’re transformed by the shifting climates of our lives and experiences. So, what might these ancient natural forms have to teach us about resilience and change?
In a stunning exploration of our own connection to these enduring forms, outdoor psychotherapist and geologist Ruth Allen takes us on a journey through deep time and ancient landscapes, showing how geology – which has formed the bedrock of her own adult life and approach to therapy – can offer us a new way of thinking about our own grief, change and boundaries.
Against the Odds by John Gribbin & Mary Gribbin
Popular science, Biography
Even in the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is still harder for women to make a career in science than men. Two centuries ago, however, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when science as we know it was just getting started, the situation was far worse. Then, the very notion of a female scientist would have been regarded as something of an oxymoron.
From bestselling and award-winning science writers John and Mary Gribbin, Against the Odds highlights the achievements of women who overcame hurdles and achieved scientific success (although not always as much as they deserved) in spite of male prejudice, as society changed over about 150 years, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century.
There is Eunice Newton Foote, who discovered the carbon dioxide greenhouse effect; Chien-Shiung Wu, who discovered the law which allows matter to exist in the Universe today; and Barbara McClintock, who discovered how genes turn on and off.
With a foreword from astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, this book is not only a cautionary tale about the stifling effects of prejudice against women in science, but a celebration of those who achieved success against the odds – and an inspiration for the next generation.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Biography
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her — from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it — in her own words and on her own terms.
Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations — and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Enchantment by Katherine May
Self-help & personal development, Memoirs
Feeling bone-tired, anxious and overwhelmed by the rolling news cycle and the pandemic age, Katherine May seeks to unravel the threads of a life wound too tightly. Could there be another way to live – one that feels more meaningful, more grounded in the places beneath our feet? One that would allow us to feel more connected, more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet? Craving a different path, May explores the restorative properties of the natural world and begins to rekindle her sense of wonder.
Fantastically Great Women Series by Kate Pankhurst
Children’s Non-fiction
The books in this series introduce readers to real women from history, like Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, Mary Anning, Rosa Parks, and Frida Kahlo. Each themed book gives short, accessible snapshots of their lives and what they’re known for, with illustrated pages that make their stories easy to dip into. It’s a straightforward, friendly way for younger readers to discover a mix of explorers, scientists, artists and activists.
My Dear Kabul
Adult Non-fiction
In August 2021 a women’s creative writing group in Afghanistan shared news of political turmoil and the Fall of Kabul. These women were in the process of publishing a short-story collection when their world was turned upside down by the Taliban
In staying connected via WhatsApp messages, they established a lifeline; a vital space to keep their creativity alive, support each other and bear witness to the events unfolding around them. ‘My Dear Kabul’ is their story, and a collective diary of a year living under the Taliban.
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
Climate change, Political activism
In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day. Her actions ended up sparking a global movement for action against the climate crisis, inspiring millions of pupils to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
This book brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across Europe, from the UN to mass street protests, this is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.
Something Lost, Something Gained by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Biography
What would it be like to sit down for an impassioned, entertaining conversation with Hillary Clinton?
In ‘Something Lost, Something Gained’, Hillary offers her candid views on life and love, politics, liberty, democracy, the threats we face, and the future within our reach. She describes the strength she draws from her deepest friendships, her Methodist faith, and the nearly fifty years she’s been married to President Bill Clinton – all with the wisdom that comes from looking back on a full life with fresh eyes.
She takes us along as she returns to the classroom as a college professor, enjoys the bonds inside the exclusive club of former First Ladies, moves past her dream of being president, and dives into new activism for women and democracy.
The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg
Climate change, Political activism
It seems like an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed that the world has never seen, in the face of vast and powerful forces – not just oil tycoons and governments, but the changing climate system itself. The odds are against us, and we are running out of time. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Around the world, geophysicists and mathematicians, oceanographers and meteorologists, engineers, economists, psychologists and philosophers have been using their expertise to develop a deep understanding of the crises we face.
Greta Thunberg has created ‘The Climate Book’ in partnership with over one hundred of these experts in order to equip us all with this knowledge.
The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel
Biography, Science
For decades Marie Curie was the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings, and despite constant illness she travelled far and wide to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined.
She is still the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Her ingenuity extended far beyond the laboratory walls; grieving the death of her husband, Pierre, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne, devotedly raised two daughters, drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and inspired generations of young women to pursue science as a way of life.
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour
Memoir, Second World War
In June 1940, a covert new force – the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 25 female SOE agents would return.
None before have told their story in their own words. This is the astounding true story of Phyliis ‘Pippa’ Latour, one of the last female SOE agents to get out of France alive after its liberation in WWII.
The Missing Thread by Daisy Dunn
Classical History
Spanning 3,000 years, from the birth of Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, a magisterial new history of the ancient world told, for the very first time, through women.
For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. While Penelope and Helen of Troy live on in the imagination, their real-life counterparts have been relegated to the margins.
In ‘The Missing Thread’, Daisy Dunn inverts this tradition and puts the women of history at the centre of the narrative.
