“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s the power of using your voice.” ~ Michelle Obama (Author of Becoming, 2018)

March is Women’s History Month, and March 8 is International Women's Day!* Here’s a small selection of books that not only commemorate some extraordinary figures from around the world but also inspire feminists of all ages, shapes, and sizes. There will be names you’ll recognize, plus others you may want to know more about or ones you wish to revisit.

Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories, by Octavia E. Butler; ed. Gerry Canavan & Nisi Shawl.
An exceptional compilation by an original and eerily prophetic writer whose work used science fiction as a vessel to explore the dangerous legacy of racism in America in resounding intimate terms.

Bad Feminist: Essays, by Roxane Gay
A collection of essays concentrating on what is going on in current culture and politics including race, gender, sexuality, and feminism that's funny, insightful, passionate, and brilliant.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Here's a most recent entry of in-depth interviews to the ground-breaking career of one of the greatest, most influential, and most exciting legal minds in American history.

Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid
A powerfully stunning and indomitable "coming of age" of a young teen who comes to America to work for a wealthy couple, where she's confronted by themes such as family, home, sexuality, and class that are both personal to her but also universal in essence.

Heart Berries: A Memoir, by Terese Marie Mailhot, with an introduction by Sherman Alexie and an afterword by Joan Naviyuk Kane
Given a diary as a child, Terese Marie Mailhot writes an emphatic, potent account of grief, abuse, and trauma that centers on the Indigenous experience that's both hopeful and heartbrokenly raw.

The Arabian Nights, written by Wafa' Tarnowska; illustrated by Carole Hénaff
Eight stories from the Arabian Nights, especially ones you never heard before such as “The Speaking Bird” and “The Diamond Anklet,” with frame stories focused on the renowned narrator herself: Scheherazade. An engaging book for kids!

Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism by Alice Walker
A book that goes from autobiography to guidance on how we could become an activist to do our part to save the world, with a deep focus on many political, societal, and cultural issues; banned books, gender, sexuality, natural hair, free education, etc.

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World, by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick
An intimate portrait of the life, activism, and ideas of Malala Yousafzai who believed in change through her community, and the entire world. She is widely considered an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.

*Observances exist to give us a period for extra focus and special care for various themes - but women's history is important year-round!