Books About Women
  • Welcome to the World of Real Women
  • Bibliography of all books listed on this site
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  • Recommended books in 2011
  • Recommended books in 2012
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  • Recommended books 2015
  • Recommended books in 2016
  • Recommended in 2017
  • Recommended in 2018
  • Recommended in 2019
  • Contact
  • Recommended in 2020
  • Recommended in 2021
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Monthly Book Feature --
December 2016
Nothing Daunted
by Dororthy Wickenden
One hundred years ago in 1916, two young women from Auburn, New York decided they were bored with their society life which consisted on doing the "Grand Tour of Europe" and attending parties.  They answer an ad to become school teachers in the mountains of western Colorado.  With no teaching training or experience they set off to live and work in the Wild West.  The author of the book, Dorothy Wickendon, is the granddaughter of one of those women.  Using her grandmother's letters home, she shares her grandmother's the world of romance, intrigue, adventure, and politics. 


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Monthly Book Feature--
​November 2016

The Prison Angel
by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan

This is the fascinating story of Mary Clarke, a twice divorced mother of seven children who starts a new order of nuns and begins a prison ministry in Mexico.  Her story begins on a  charity mission across the Mexican border to the drug-trafficking capitol of Tijuana, where she visited La Mesa prison and experienced an intense feeling that she had found her true life's work. As she recalls, "I felt like I had come home." On March 19, 1977 at the age of 50  she moved into a cell in La Mesa, sleeping on a bunk with female prisoners above and below her. For the next 36 years she lived in the prison until she died at age 86. Her story of both passion and compassion for others in difficult and sometimes frightening circumstances should serve as as inspiration for all of us.

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  ​ Monthly Book Feature --
  October 2016
  The Girl with Seven Names
  by Hyeonseo Lee


​Hyeonsee Lee grew up in North Korea, one of the world's most  secretive societies.  Her home on  the border with China gave her  some exposure to life outside of  North Korea and at the age of 17 she decided to escape across the river to China.  She learned Chinese and survived for 12 years in China before she could return to help her mother and brother escape too. At times reading her book, I wondered if Hyeonseo Lee could survive one more challenge or setback, but survive she does. Her story is one that inspires all who are searching for a better life, whether we are refuges or not.
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​Monthly Book Feature --
September 2016
Castings Lots:  Creating a Family in a Beautiful Broken World

by Susan Silverman

Susan Silverman grew up with parents who were atheists. Yet, as a young adult, she shocked everyone who knew her and became a rabbi. She then built her own big, unwieldy family through both birth and adoption. With three daughters and two sons (“We produce girls and import boys”), Silverman writes about raising a family in the Jewish tradition.  Not having this as my own background, I found it intriguing to learn more about these traditions and compare them to my own.  In the process I discovered how we are more alike than different and this made me feel hopefully for our often divided world.

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Monthly Book Feature --
 August 2016
Accidental Saints: Finding God In All the Wrong People

by Nadia Bilz-Weber

Nadia Bilz-Wber is the founding Lutheran pastor of the House for All sinner and Saints Church in Denver, Colorado.  She is a former stand-up comic who answers God's call to minister to all of God's people, be they saints or sinners.  She is a master story teller who understands that God greets our messed-up lives with His mercy over and over again.  Reading this book reminds us that we are all flawed, but we can also all become accidental saints. Bilz-Weber's insights into life and faith are authentic, down-to-earth and full of hope.
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Monthly Book Feature--
 July 2016
 Rise of the Rocket Girls
 by Nathalia Holt

 In the 1940's and 50's when the  newly minted Jet Propulsion Lab  needed quick-thinking  mathematicians to calculate  velocities and plot trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper and mathematical prowess, served as human computers who transformed rocket design and helped bring about the first US satellites and made space exploration possible. This book is their story,  Nathalia Holt describes the successes and challenges these women faced in a world composed almost exclusively of men.  One particular story tells of one of the women requesting a closer in parking space when she was 7 months pregnant.  This disclosure of her "condition" did not result in a closer parking space but resulted in being fired!  Reading this book takes you on a journey through shifting gender norms, science and history and showcases the hard work and commitment of many unsung female scientists.



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Monthly Book Feature--
June 2016
A Pearl in the Storm
by Tori McClure

Tori McClure is the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  In her book she shares the physical, intellectual and spiritual challenges she faced in doing so.  Learning how she survived a hurricane in a 23 foot homemade plywood boat with no motor or no sail is just one part of the adventure that awaits readers.  This is a remarkable tale of one woman's tenacity and determination written in clear and descriptive language.  In addition to her sea-faring adventures, the author shares how she came to be a graduate of Smith College, Harvard Divinity School and U of Louisville Law School. 

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 Monthly Book Feature--
  May 2016
 Chasing Chaos
 by Jessica Alexander

 Over the past 12 years, Jessica  Alexander has worked in  humanitarian operations around  the world.  In telling her story, she  shares her motivations for doing  this work and the challenges that  she encountered.  Rwanda, Dafur and Haiti are just a few of the places from which she shares her analysis of foreign aid and the world of NGOs, the U.N. and disaster recovery efforts.  Part coming of age and part insightful analysis of the power and limitations of humanitarian work, Alexander's personal memoir  charts one young woman's education in the challenging, maddening, and often times heartbreaking world of humanitarian aid.

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Monthly Book Feature --
​April 2016
​Surprised by Oxford
by Carolyn Weber
Part love story, part an agnostic's search for God and part life as an Oxford graduate student, the author of this book, Carolyn Weber, engages the reader on all three levels.  Weber is a passionate wordsmith who invites her readers to share in both her personal and spiritual journey.  As a bonus, she intersperses snippets from the Romantic poets along the way.   Regardless of your own faith journey, Weber's story is incredibly compelling and entertaining.

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Monthly Book Feature--
March 2016
7 Women and The Secret of Their Greatness
​by Eric Metaxas

This book caught my eye in the new books section of my local library.  What kept me reading was when the author stated in his introduction that what made these women great had nothing to do with their being measured against or competing against a man.  They were great in their own right.  The seven women selected were from various periods in history:  Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Saint Maria of Paris, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa. Metaxas gracefully writes about how they broke the norms of society to be the person they were created to be. How they took their hardships, their questions, and their passions to change the world they lived in. 

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Monthly Book Feature--
​ February 2016
 In the Skin of a Jihadist
​ by Anna Erelle

 If you are like me, it is at times  hard to understand how young  women can leave their western  lives and travel to Syria to join  ISIS.  The author of this book,  Anna Erelle, provides some  insight into how this can happen.  Erelle is a young French journalist who poses on-line to be an 18 year old French girl who wants to come to Syria and be an ISIS bride.  What unfolds is an accounting of how ISIS recruiters play on the vulnerabilities of young women and entice them to leave their families and travel to a place from which they can never return.  I couldn't help but make a comparison between ISIS and other cults that draw people in with dreams of a better life that really does not exist.

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Monthly Book Feature --
January 2016

The News Sorority
by Shelia Weller

This book follows the stories of Daine Sawyer, Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour on their journeys in broadcast journalism.  Today, the news is brought to us by mean and women in equal numbers. However, when these three journalists began their careers, journalism was an Old Boys Club.  Reading about the challenges each of these women faced cracking the glass ceiling of network news makes for engaging reading.