Women's History Month

Alone with Other People by Gabby Bess "What Gabby Bess captures with her words is the beauty of a fragile time and place. In this collection, she evokes what it means to be young, to be a woman, to have both feet firmly planted both in this world and the virtual. She asks fascinating questions like, 'Is anyone moved by the plainness of raw skin anymore?' She makes you trust she has the necessary answers with intelligence and confidence. In this book, Bess builds an identity for herself and tears it down and builds herself anew. It is breathtaking to behold." -Roxane Gay, author of An Untamed State and Bad Feminist

Bicycles by Nikki Giovanni In her legendary career, artist and activist Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, and a voice for social justice who can inform and inspire in times of national crisis. Controversial, revolutionary, ethereal, or illuminating, her poems about race, Black lives, violence, gender, and family move readers of all ages and backgrounds. With BICYCLES, she's collected poems that serve as a companion to her 1997 LOVE POEMS. An instant classic, that book--romantic, bold, and erotic--expressed notions of love in ways that were delightfully unexpected. In the years that followed, Giovanni experienced losses both public and private. A mother's passing, a sister's, too. A massacre on the campus at which she teaches. And just when it seemed life was spinning out of control, Giovanni rediscovered love--what she calls the antidote. Here romantic love--and all its manifestations, the physical touch, the emotional pull, the hungry heart--is distilled as never before by one of our most talented poets. In a time of national crisis or personal crisis, this is a collection that will open minds and change hearts as only the best art can.    

Black Candle by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Poetry. Asian American Studies. A revised edition of this popular book of poetry. Chitra Divakaruni evokes the sounds, smells, tastes, sights of South Asian culture. Told in a woman's voice, these poems create a mindscape of a woman's experience, their hold both tenuous and graceful. The world in this book is a necklace of bright pearls that burns the skin, yet is... fastened to the body with a jeweled clasp: the compassion of Divakaruni's fiercely seeing heart -- Jane Hirshfield.

Bolts of Melody by Emily Dickinson; Mabel Loomis Todd; Millicent Todd Bingham

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson A New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Red at the Bone, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.   Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.   A National Book Award Winner A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Award Winner Praise for Jacqueline Woodson: Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story . . . but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery."--The New York Times Book Review

The Carrying by Ada Limon WINNER OF THE 2018 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD ALA NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 FINALIST FOR THE 2019 PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD From National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Ada Limón comesThe Carrying--her most powerful collection yet. Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility--"What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"--and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: "Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal." And still Limónshows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. "Fine then, / I'll take it," she writes. "I'll take it all." In Bright Dead Things, Limón showed us a heart "giant with power, heavy with blood"--"the huge beating genius machine / that thinks, no, it knows, / it's going to come in first." In her follow-up collection, that heart is on full display--even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream, following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world.

Casa en Que Nunca He Sido Extraña by Milena Rodriguez Gutiérrez (Editor) Casa en que nunca he sido extraña. Las poetas hispanoamericanas: identidades, feminismos, poéticas (Siglos XIX-XXI) reúne artículos de destacados académicos y estudiosos de Europa y América con aproximaciones a relevantes autoras de la poesía de América Latina desde el siglo XIX hasta la actualidad, a partir de tres perspectivas: las identidades (entendidas en su relación con las naciones latinoamericanas, así como en su dimensión subjetiva), los feminismos y las poéticas. Los capítulos se dedican a las siguientes poetas: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Laura Méndez de Cuenca, Juana Borrero, Mercedes Matamoros, Delmira Agustini, Alfonsina Storni, Gabriela Mistral, Juana de Ibarbourou, Dulce María Loynaz, Josefina Plá, Blanca Varela, Nivaria Tejera, Carmen Naranjo, Isel Rivero, Lina de Feria, Magali Alabau, Elvira Hernández, Eugenia Brito, Piedad Bonnett, Alicia Genovese, Verónica Zondek, Ivonne Coñuecar y Gabriela Wiener, entre otras. El libro se completa con un Anexo de textos literarios: la lectura de Josefina de Diego de fragmentos de Pequeñas memorias, texto autobiográfico inédito de Fina García Marruz, y poemas inéditos de prestigiosas autoras hispanoamericanas actuales: Magali Alabau (Cuba), Márgara Russotto (Venezuela), Carmen Ollé (Perú), Elvira Hernández (Chile), Piedad Bonnett (Colombia) y Alicia Genovese (Argentina).

Fleshgraphs by Brynne Rebele Haunted by on-line confessions, ranging from the trivial to the homicidal, and by a society obsessed with people changing their corporeal forms, Fleshgraphs is a multi-vocal manifesto of the body. Lyrical, experimental, satirical--these prose fragments enact a potent exploration of queerness, girlhood and illness against a backdrop of internet and rape culture.

Garden of Exile by Aleida Rodriguez Aleida Rodríguez's first full-length collection of poems,Garden of Exile, was selected by Marilyn Hacker as the 1998 winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. Garden of Exile reveals a life enriched by layers of language and culture. Rodr,guez was born in Cuba and emigrated to the Midwest at age nine via Operation Peter Pan. These poems are psalms that celebrate the pleasures of experience made palpable through language. Rodríguez counts her bilingual lexicon as a double blessing: "Earth's language is a continuous current,/ translating the voices of my early trees along the ground./ I can't afford not to listen." In her liminal world, the lyricism of Spanish and English mingle their most gorgeous incarnations: sinsontes, ciruelas, mamoncillos, meringue clouds, and the cluck of coconuts "deliver a lost dictionary of delight." Rodríguez is a remarkably deft poet: not only is she fluent in two tongues, she articulates the delicate nuances of daily life. Whether speaking of water, flora, or women in love, she refuses to produce the poof of easy lyric like a rabbit from a hat. Though they nod to heady pleasures, these poems keep their wits. Rodríguez remains self-possessed, intelligent, and interesting, even in her most impassioned moments. She reveals perception as the self's real alchemy and, by so doing,makes the world appear right before our very eyes. Garden of Exile is the fifteenth poetry title to be published by Sarabande Books, a nonprofit literary press headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Since the 1996 debut of the press, Sarabande Books titles have received positive review attention from nationally distinguished media includingThe New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, American Book Review, Small Press, The Nation, andLibrary Journal. Aleida Rodríguez was born on a kitchen table in Havana, Cuba. Her poetry and prose have been published in many literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies nationwide, includingPloughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, ZYZZYVA, Southern Poetry Review, andThe Progressive, as well asIn Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction (W.W. Norton, 1996),T

The Magic Whip by Wang Ping This melodic, visceral collection -juxtaposes the author's unbridled joy in motherhood with the complex and brutal practice of footbinding in China, the plight of Tibet, and the remarkable endurance of survivors everywhere.The Magic Whip pays particular attention to women and children whose ordeals have been -imprinted on their very bodies and whose memories resonate in these -exceptionally clear poems. Wang Ping, born in Shanghai, came to New York City in 1985 after graduating from Beijing University. She is the acclaimed author of the novel Foreign Devil, the story collection American Visa, the poetry collectionOf Flesh & Spirit, and the academic studyAching for Beauty: Footbinding in China. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and teaches at Macalester College.

Material Goods by Janet Burroway

On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove From the opening sequence, probing the private griefs and dreams of a working class family, to the emblematic grace of the living legend Rosa Parks, these poems explore the intersection of individual fates with the grand arc of history.

Our Emily Dickinsons by Vivian R. Pollak For Vivian R. Pollak, Emily Dickinson's work is an extended meditation on the risks of social, psychological, and aesthetic difference that would be taken up by the generations of women poets who followed her. She situates Dickinson's originality in relation to her nineteenth-century audiences, including poet, novelist, and Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson and her controversial first editor, Mabel Loomis Todd, and traces the emergence of competing versions of a brilliant but troubled Dickinson in the twentieth century, especially in the writings of Marianne Moore, Sylvia Plath, and Elizabeth Bishop. Pollak reveals the wide range of emotions exhibited by women poets toward Dickinson's achievement and chronicles how their attitudes toward her changed over time. She contends, however, that they consistently use Dickinson to clarify personal and professional battles of their own. Reading poems, letters, diaries, journals, interviews, drafts of published and unpublished work, and other historically specific primary sources, Pollak tracks nineteenth- and twentieth-century women poets' ambivalence toward a literary tradition that overvalued lyric's inwardness and undervalued the power of social connection. Our Emily Dickinsons places Dickinson's life and work within the context of larger debates about gender, sexuality, and literary authority in America and complicates the connections between creative expression, authorial biography, audience reception, and literary genealogy.

Peculiar Heritage by DeMisty D. Bellinger Poetry. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies. The shock of American violence and hate shouldn't be shocking at all. This is our peculiar heritage from an ugly institution. Still; we are not without resistance and PECULIAR HERITAGE; a collection of imagery and rhythm-heavy poems; is a resistance narrative to the present political climate and a regime in the U.S. that rejects culture and inclusion. Bellinger's poetic style is heavy on imagery and rhythm. Combining love poems--of self; of nature and life--with heavier; weight of responsibility narratives and poems; PECULIAR HERITAGE explores how we live in a country built on freedom; individualism; and exceptionalism; but only for the ruling class.

Scattering the Dark: an Anthology of Polish Women Poets by Karen Kovacik (Editor) "Wow! What a book! The tradition of women's writing that flows out of the work of Symborska and Anna Swir--the way this mighty tradition turns in the hands of a younger generation from the traumatic history of their country to a poetics of everyday life, of play, and experiment. An absolutely rich and appealing book."--Robert Hass "These cosmopolitan, multilingual poets speak to us across the decades, overcoming a great silence, redirecting the myths, reimagining the role of the poet, and the nature of poetry itself.Scattering the Darkis a useful, subversive, even necessary anthology."--Edward Hirsch Scattering the Darkoffers a lively selection of over thirty of Poland's women poets writing before and after the fall of communism. Karen Kovacikis a translator and poet.

Sherwood Forest by Camille Roy Poetry. LGBT Studies. The forest is a place of refuge and story, created by characters who enter and enlarge it beyond the fantasy of any one person. Authority is diminished and recuperated. Personalities perform themselves via vivid and anarchic gestures. A condition of dereliction becomes the arena where bodies rustle with erotic pulse. "My hope was that this book would be entered as its own social space. Like a gay bar of the fifties, entry would signal that you have taken membership in a stigmatized community, with the risk that entails. Can readership entail risk? Readership as a secret society."

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker The only thing more beautiful than Beyoncé is God,and God is a black woman sipping rosé and drawing alavender bath, texting her mom, belly-laughing in thetherapist's office, feeling unloved, being on display, daring to survive. Morgan Parker stands at the intersectionsof vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust,of tragedy and excellence. Unrelentingly feminist,tender, ruthless, and sequined, these poems are an altarto the complexities of black American womanhood inan age of non-indictments and deja vu, and a time ofwars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate andmourn. They are a chorus chanting: You're gonna giveus the love we need.

The Wake Forest Book of Irish Women's Poetry, 1967-2000 by Moya Cannon; Mary O'Malley; Peggy O'Brien (Editor, Preface by); Wake Forest University Press Staff; Eavan Boland; Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin; Medbh McGuckian; Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill; Paula Meehan; Kerry Hardie; Rita Ann Duffy This groundbreaking anthology includes poetry from Eavan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Medbh McGuckian, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Rita Ann Higgins, Paula Meehan, Mary O'Malley, Kerry Hardie, and Moya Cannon.

Washing Windows? by Alan Hayes (Editor) Compiled in honour of pioneering poet Eavan Boland and Catherine Rose, Ireland's first feminist publisher, Washing Windows? is a wide-ranging and insightful collection of poetry by 100 contemporary Irish women writers, including Edna O'Brien, Moya Cannon, Mary O'Malley, Martina Evans, Katie Donovan and Nuala Ní Chonchúir.

When Rap Spoke Straight to God by Erica Dawson A book-length poem navigating belief, black lives, the tragedies of Trump, and the boundaries of being a woman. "When Rap Spoke Straight to God is utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger." --Jennifer Egan When Rap Spoke Straight to God isn't sacred or profane, but a chorus joined in a single soliloquy, demanding to be heard. There's Wu-Tang and Mary Magdelene with a foot fetish, Lil' Kim and a self-loving Lilith. Slurs, catcalls, verses, erasures--Dawson asks readers, "Just how far is it to nigger?" Both grounded and transcendent, the book is reality and possibility. Dawson's work has always been raw; but, When Rap Spoke Straight to God is as blunt as the answer to that earlier question: "Here." Sometimes abrasive and often abraded, Dawson doesn't flinch.   A mix of traditional forms where sonnets mash up with sestinas morphing to heroic couplets, When Rap Spoke Straight to God insists that while you may recognize parts of the poem's world, you can't anticipate how it will evolve.    With a literal exodus of light in the book's final moments, When Rap Spoke Straight to God is a lament for and a celebration of blackness.  It's never depression; it's defiance--a persistent resistance. In this book, like Wu-Tang says, the marginalized "ain't nothing to f--- with."

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood "Splendid." NEWSWEEK It is the world of the near future, and Offred is a Handmaid in the home of the Commander and his wife. She is allowed out once a day to the food market, she is not permitted to read, and she is hoping the Commander makes her pregnant, because she is only valued if her ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she was an independent woman, had a job of her own, a husband and child. But all of that is gone now...everything has changed. "Deserves the highest praise." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE From the Paperback edition.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; Nikki Giovanni (Foreword by) 8 starred reviews · Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best  ·  William C. Morris Award Winner · National Book Award Longlist · Printz Honor Book · Coretta Scott King Honor Book · #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" --Jason Reynolds "Stunning." --John Green "This story is necessary. This story is important." --Kirkus (starred review) "Heartbreakingly topical." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A marvel of verisimilitude." --Booklist (starred review) "A powerful, in-your-face novel." --Horn Book (starred review) Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does--or does not--say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. Want more of Garden Heights? Catch Maverick and Seven's story in Concrete Rose, Angie Thomas's powerful prequel to The Hate U Give.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes USA Today's top 100 books to read while stuck at home social distancing  From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me. They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . . Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life--steady boyfriend, close family--who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life--big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel--and now he's pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy--but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn't have less in common--a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

The Mothers by Brit Bennett The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community - and the things that ultimately haunt us most. It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, 17-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance - and the subsequent cover-up - will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth.

The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Sue Davis 2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was not only one of the most important leaders of the nineteenth century women's rights movement but was also the movement's principal philosopher. Her ideas both drew from and challenged the conventions that so severely constrained women's choices and excluded them from public life. In The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sue Davis argues that Cady Stanton's work reflects the rich tapestry of American political culture in the second half of the nineteenth century and that she deserves recognition as a major figure in the history of political ideas. Davis reveals the way that Cady Stanton's work drew from different political traditions ranging from liberalism, republicanism, inegalitarian ascriptivism, and radicalism. Cady Stanton's arguments for women's rights combined approaches that in contemporary feminist theory are perceived to involve conflicting strategies and visions. Nevertheless, her ideas had a major impact on the development of the varieties of feminism in the twentieth century. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, The Political Thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton draws on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources and promises to fill a gap in the literature on the history of political ideas in the United States as well as women's history and feminist theory.

Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden From a critically acclaimed voice in African-American contemporary fiction comes a novel Ebony praised for its "unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end." A young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the daughter who was murdered fifteen years before. Over sweet-potato pie, an unlikely friendship begins, transforming both women's lives-and the life of an entire town. Sugar brings a Southern African-American town vividly to life, with its flowering magnolia trees, lingering scents of jasmine and honeysuckle, and white picket fences that keep strangers out-but ignorance and superstition in. To read this novel is to take a journey through loss and suffering to a place of forgiveness, understanding, and grace.

A tree grow in Brooklyn: a novel by Betty Smith

Wise Women by Suzanne I. Barchers; Leann Mullineaux (Illustrator) Strong women who prevail and triumph using their intelligence, courage, or resourcefulness are celebrated in this gathering of stories for all ages. It features legends, folklore, and fairy tales from such far-flung places as the Punjab, Africa, China, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe and from places close at hand-Hawaii, New England, and the Ozarks. Some of the tales are reprinted from their original telling, others are completely retold. All are excellent for read-alouds, story time, or reading programs. Also of interest to students of literature, storytelling, or women's studies.

Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés "WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows." Alice Walker Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype. Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha (Illustrator) Harvey Award Nominee, Best Children or Young Adult Book  A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life--perfect for fans of American Born Chinese and Hey, Kiddo.  For as long as she can remember, it's been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn't always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation--following her mother's announcement that she's getting married--Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes. She is dropped into a new school where she doesn't understand the language and struggles to keep up. She is completely cut off from her friends in Seoul and has no access to her beloved comics. At home, she doesn't fit in with her new stepfamily, and worst of all, she is furious with the one person she is closest to--her mother. Then one day Robin's mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined. This nonfiction graphic novel with four starred reviews is an excellent choice for teens and also accelerated tween readers, both for independent reading and units on immigration, memoirs, and the search for identity.

Anne Frank's Diary: the Graphic Adaptation by Anne Frank (Text by); David Polonsky (Illustrator); Ari Folman (Adapted by) A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girl stands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to capture the remarkable spirit of Anne Frank, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world has seen--and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.   Adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky, and authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, this is the first graphic edition of The Diary and includes extensive quotation directly from the definitive edition. It remains faithful to the original, while the stunning illustrations interpret and add layers of visual meaning and immediacy to this classic work of Holocaust literature.

The Annotated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Louisa May Alcott illuminates the world of Little Women and its author. Since its publication in 1868-69, Little Women, perhaps America's most beloved children's classic, has been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. It has been translated into more than fifty languages and inspired six films, four television shows, a Broadway musical, an opera, and a web series. This lavish, four-color edition features over 220 curated illustrations, including stills from the films, stunning art by Norman Rockwell, and iconic illustrations by children's-book illustrators Alice Barber Stevens, Frank T. Merrill, and Jessie Wilcox Smith. Renowned Alcott scholar John Matteson brings his expertise to the book, to the March family it creates, and to the Alcott family who inspired it all. Through numerous photographs taken in the Alcott family home expressly for this edition--elder daughter Anna's wedding dress, the Alcott sisters' theater costumes, sister May's art, and Abba Alcott's recipe book--readers discover the extraordinary links between the real and the fictional family. Matteson's annotations evoke the once-used objects and culture of a distant but still-relevant time, from the horse-drawn carriages to the art Alcott carefully placed in her story to references to persons little known today. His brilliant introductory essays examine Little Women's pivotal place in children's literature and tell the story of Alcott herself--a tale every bit as captivating as her fiction.

I Know What I Am by Gina Siclliano In 17th century Rome, where women are expected to be chaste and yet are viewed as prey by powerful men, the extraordinary painter Artemisia Gentileschi fends off constant sexual advances as she works to become one of the greatest painters of her generation. Frustrated by the hypocritical social mores of her day, Gentileschi releases her anguish through her paintings and, against all odds, becomes a groundbreaking artist. Resonant in the #MeToo era, I Know What I Am highlights a fierce artist who stood up to a shameful social status quo.

The Illustrated Feminist by Aura Lewis A beautifully illustrated history celebrating the achievements of American women from 1920 to present day   The year 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in America, and what better way to commemorate the 19th Amendment than with a gorgeously illustrated handbook that explores a century's worth of feminism? Each chapter illustrates 10 landmark moments in each decade from 1920 to 2020. Featuring iconic events and the trailblazing women who made them happen, from Amelia Earhart to Shirley Chisholm, The Illustrated Feministwill inspire both dedicated feminists and burgeoning activists to continue the fight for women's rights. Aura Lewis's powerful artwork coupled with her well-researched and accessible text make this book an ideal gift for anyone looking to celebrate groundbreaking women and their colorful history.

Passing for Human by Liana Finck A visually arresting graphic memoir about a young artist struggling against what's expected of her as a woman, and learning to accept her true self, from an acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Guardian * New York * Refinery29 * Kirkus Reviews In this achingly beautiful graphic memoir, Liana Finck goes in search of that thing she has lost--her shadow, she calls it, but one might also think of it as the "otherness" or "strangeness" that has defined her since birth, that part of her that has always made her feel as though she is living in exile from the world. In Passing for Human, Finck is on a quest for self-understanding and self-acceptance, and along the way she seeks to answer some eternal questions: What makes us whole? What parts of ourselves do we hide or ignore or chase away--because they're embarrassing, or inconvenient, or just plain weird--and at what cost? Passing for Human is what Finck calls "a neurological coming-of-age story"--one in which, through her childhood, human connection proved elusive and her most enduring relationships were with plants and rocks and imaginary friends; in which her mother was an artist whose creative life had been stifled by an unhappy first marriage and a deeply sexist society that seemed expressly designed to snuff out creativity in women; in which her father was a doctor who struggled in secret with the guilt of having passed his own form of otherness on to his daughter; and in which, as an adult, Finck finally finds her shadow again--and, with it, her true self. Melancholy and funny, personal and surreal, Passing for Human is a profound exploration of identity by one of the most talented young comic artists working today. Part magical odyssey, part feminist creation myth, this memoir is, most of all, an extraordinary, moving meditation on what it means to be an artist and a woman grappling with the desire to pass for human. Praise for Passing for Human "In its ambition, framing, and multiple layers, [Passing for Human] raises the bar for graphic narrative. Even fans of [Liana Finck's] work in the New Yorker will be blindsided by this outstanding book."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A sure hit for readers of graphic memoirs, this explores feeling different while recognizing sameness in others and making art while embracing being a work-in progress oneself."--Annie Bostrom, Booklist "This story is as tender as it is wry. . . . Becoming human is a lifelong task--but Finck illustrates it with humor and panache."--Publishers Weekly

Pretty in Ink by Trina Robbins (Editor) With the 1896 publication of Rose O'Neill's comic strip The Old Subscriber Calls, in Truth Magazine, American women entered the field of comics, and they never left it. But, you might not know that reading most of the comics histories out there. Trina Robbins has spent the last thirty years recording the accomplishments of a century of women cartoonists, and Pretty in Ink is her ultimate book, a revised, updated and rewritten history of women cartoonists, with more color illustrations than ever before, and with some startling new discoveries (such as a Native American woman cartoonist from the 1940s who was also a Corporal in the women's army, and the revelation that a cartoonist included in all of Robbins's previous histories was a man!) In the pages of Pretty in Ink you'll find new photos and correspondence from cartoonists Ethel Hays and Edwina Dumm, and the true story of Golden Age comic book star Lily Renee, as intriguing as the comics she drew. Although the comics profession was dominated by men, there were far more women working in the profession throughout the 20th century than other histories indicate, and they have flourished in the 21st. Robbins not only documents the increasing relevance of women throughout the 20th century, with mainstream creators such as Ramona Fradon and Dale Messick and alternative cartoonists such as Lynda Barry, Carol Tyler, and Phoebe Gloeckner, but the latest generation of women cartoonists--Megan Kelso, Cathy Malkasian, Linda Medley, and Lilli Carré, among many others. Robbins is the preeminent historian of women comic artists; forget her previous histories: Pretty in Ink is her most comprehensive volume to date.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of one of the world's most iconic superheroes hides within it a fascinating family story--and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism Wonder Woman, created in 1941, is the most popular female superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no superhero has lasted as long or commanded so vast and wildly passionate a following. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike every other superhero, she has also has a secret history. Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline Pankhurst, who was banned from speaking on campus in 1911, when Marston was a freshman. In the 1920s, Marston and his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony. In the 1930s, Marston and Byrne wrote a regular column for Family Circle celebrating conventional family life, even as they themselves pursued lives of extraordinary nonconformity. Marston, internationally known as an expert on truth--he invented the lie detector test--lived a life of secrets, only to spill them on the pages of Wonder Woman. The Secret History of Wonder Woman is a tour de force of intellectual and cultural history. Wonder Woman, Lepore argues, is the missing link in the history of the struggle for women's rights--a chain of events that begins with the women's suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.

The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen by Hope Nicholson A woman's place is saving the universe. Think comic books can't feature strong female protagonists? Think again! In The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen you'll meet the most fascinating exemplars of the powerful, compelling, entertaining, and heroic female characters who've populated comic books from the very beginning. This spectacular sisterhood includes costumed crimebusters like Miss Fury, super-spies like Tiffany Sinn, sci-fi pioneers like Gale Allen, and even kid troublemakers like Little Lulu. With vintage art, publication details, a decade-by-decade survey of industry trends and women's roles in comics, and spotlights on iconic favorites like Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel, The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen proves that not only do strong female protagonists belong in comics, they've always been there.

This Woman's Work by Julie Delporte; Helge Dascher (Translator); Aleshia Jensen (Translator) A profound and personal exploration of the intersections of womanhood, femininity, and creativity This Woman's Work is a powerfully raw autobiographical work that asks vital questions about femininity and the assumptions we make about gender. Julie Delporte examines cultural artifacts and sometimes traumatic memories through the lens of the woman she is today--a feminist who understands the reality of the women around her, how experiencing rape culture and sexual abuse is almost synonymous with being a woman, and the struggle of reconciling one's feminist beliefs with the desire to be loved. She sometimes resents being a woman and would rather be anything but. Told through beautifully evocative colored pencil drawings and sparse but compelling prose, This Woman's Work documents Delporte's memories and cultural consumption through journal-like entries that represent her struggles with femininity and womanhood. She structures these moments in a nonlinear fashion, presenting each one as a snapshot of a place and time--trips abroad, the moment you realize a relationship is over, and a traumatizing childhood event of sexual abuse that haunts her to this day. While This Woman's Work is deeply personal, it is also a reflection of the conversations that women have with themselves when trying to carve out their feminist identity. Delporte's search for answers in the turmoil created by gender assumptions is profoundly resonant in the era of #MeToo.

Wonder Woman by Les Daniels She is STRONG. She is INVINCIBLE. She is WONDER WOMAN--the most popular super heroine of all time. Les Daniels honors her superhuman strength, her peace-seeking mission, and her fabulous outfits throughout the years. The unconventional Dr. William Moulton Marston originally created her as "psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should rule the world." And Wonder Woman--known to her friends as Diana--has triumphed for sixty years, whether battling evil fascists or ensnaring villains with her magic lasso. Filled with a fascinating array of archival comic book art, photographs, and paraphernalia, and designed by Chip Kidd,Wonder Woman follows on the heels of the successfulBatman andSuperman histories to complete this popular super hero series. Not only a sure hit with collectors and fans, this celebration of Wonder Woman's independent spirit will also appeal to the larger girl-power audience of today. Colorful, complete, and captivating,Wonder Woman: The Complete History is a true tribute to this splendid super hero.

Wonder Woman Unbound by Tim Hanley 2015 Amelia Bloomer Project List This close look at Wonder Woman's history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman with a golden lasso and bullet-deflecting bracelets. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery, and Wonder Woman was tied up as often as she saved the world. In the 1950s, Wonder Woman begrudgingly continued her superheroic mission, wishing she could settle down with her boyfriend instead, all while continually hinting at hidden lesbian leanings. While other female characters stepped forward as women's lib took off in the late 1960s, Wonder Woman fell backwards, losing her superpowers and flitting from man to man. Ms. magazine and Lynda Carter restored Wonder Woman's feminist strength in the 1970s, turning her into a powerful symbol as her checkered past was quickly forgotten. Exploring this lost history adds new dimensions to the world's most beloved female character, and Wonder Woman Unbound delves into her comic book and its spin-offs as well as the myriad motivations of her creators to showcase the peculiar journey that led to Wonder Woman's iconic status.