Desperately Seeking Non-Fiction Written by Women
Confession: I don’t read non-fiction. BUT. Everyone in my family are fanatical nonfiction readers and, as I look at the books they’re reading, I realize almost all the authors are male. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
That said, I’d like to start–gently, of course–suggesting some tomes by female authors. What do you love? These books can be about anything!
Happy Monday!
I have so many; it’s hard to narrow down.
I loved The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (more than Caste).
Any book by Rebecca Solnit
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong explores Asian American identity. It was one of my favorites in the past year
Voter Suppression in the US is a conversation between Stacey Abrams, Carol Anderson, Heather Cox Richardson and Kevin Kruse that quite succinctly and easily talks about voter suppression. It’s a really good primer if you’re interested.
Slow Days, Fast Company: the World, the Flesh, and LA by Eve Babitz is a great book of essays about her life in LA in the 70’s. She was a party girl, a muse, and an author.
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino is another book of essays reflecting on life today. She’s a New Yorker essayist. I found her essays captivating.
Educated, a Memoir by Tara Westover is a book about the author’s time growing up as a highly isolated survivalist.
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay will make you laugh.
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom is a memoir about growing up in East New Orleans (it’s a part of the city you often don’t hear much about, it’s far from the Quarter and the Garden District and one of the few places that has resisted gentrification)
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson The best book on America’s racial issues that I’ve read.
Code Girls by Liza Mundy The untold story of the women who worked as American code breakers during WWII
You Never Forget Your First Alexis Coe this is a great, short, fun biography of George Washington and is only 4.99 on Kindle right now.
Some of the non-fiction books in my collection by women are :
A Natural History of Parenting, by Susan Allport
A Perfect Red : Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Color of Desire, by Amy Butler Greenfield
Salt Fat Acid Heat, by Samin Nosrat
The Speckled Monster : A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox, by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes : The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, by Joan Ryan
Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots by Nancy Goldstone………I’m a major British History geek but I knew very little of Elizabeth Stuart…..granddaughter of Mary Queen of Scots. I’m enjoying it a great deal . Elizabeth Stuart’s 4 daughters were all brilliant in their own ways. The oldest daughter Sophia was the mother of George I and she almost became Queen of England. I’m gushing but I love this book.
I just started reading Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City, by Rosa Brooks, and I’m liking it. Participant-observation of the world of policing in a large metro area.
On deck: Jen Gunter’s Menopause Manifesto.
Not much of a non-fiction reader, but I loved:
Chanel Miller, ‘Know My Name’: One of the most powerful memoirs I have ever read. It was reviewed on AAR, if I’m not mistaken, and it is by Chanel Miller, survivor of the Stanford sexual assault case.
Rebecca Solnit, ‘Men Explain Things to Me’: A collection of essays on feminism
Afua Hirsch, ‘(Brit)ish’: A wonderful mediation on racism in the UK and personal identity
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, ‘We Should All be Feminists’: An essay by my favourite author on feminism.
Anne Frank, ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’: Read this as a teenager, and fell in love with Anne’s sparkling wit and sunny optimism in the face of unimaginable suffering.
Michelle Obama, ‘Becoming’: Another great memoir, I particularly enjoyed reading about her early life.
Rebecca Solnit is a great recommendation! I just finished A Paradise Built in Hell.
I love her writing! I haven’t read ‘A Paradise Built in Hell’ but it’s on my TBR list:)
Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost is one of the greatest books about the joys of nature that I have ever read, and it doesn’t get nearly the acclaim as others.
I second recommendations of Mary Roach and Caitlyn Doughty.
Non-fiction books that I have reread:
The Astronaut’s Wives Club – Lily Koppel
Five Days at Memorial – Sheri Fink
The Secret History of Wonder Woman – Jill Lepore
Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly
The Poison Squad – Deborah Blum
Some of those have movies, TV movies, etc – remember, the book is always better!
Deborah Blum and Mary Roach’s books are good for those that like popular science history. Natalie Angier is good as well, but more science than science history.
Anything by Dava Sobel is worth reading. I especially enjoyed The Glass Universe, Galileo’s Daughter, and Longitude.
Lots of great suggestions below and especially pleased to Susan Orlean in the list. Her books of essays are also terrific. One author I haven’t seen mentioned: Mary Roach, a science writer who makes the most obscure/odd topics so readable: Stiff (cadavers), Bonk (sex), Grunt (war), Spook (paranormal/afterlife) to name a few.
I love Mary Roach! Not for the squeamish but I think her books are fascinating. Another one along those lines is Lydia Kang’s Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Co-authored with a man, so maybe not exactly for this list ;).
I also enjoy Caitlyn Doughty’s books about death and the funeral industry, etc. I kind of wish I’d discovered her before my dad died.
Finally, I enjoyed Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland earlier this year. It was a bit eye-opening.
I haven’t checked if she also has books out, but Indre Viskontas has created several Great Courses (audio and/or video). Two that I’ve listened to are “12 Essential Scientific Concepts” and “Brain Myths Exploded”, and one I’m working through now in video is “How Digital Technology Shapes Us”.
Two that I really enjoyed last year –
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Basically a naturalist’s love letter to nature. I had to stop after each chapter and just ponder her words. Beautifully written!
The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair. A tour of 75 colors – their background, what they come from, their place in history. It doesn’t seem like there would be that much to say about colors but there is!
I read a lot of nonfiction.
My top pick
Caroline Criado Perez Invisible Women – we should all know this as women. Accessible examples of numbers and how they “hide” women.
Also
On history, religion, society, philosophy, economics, science, just names, not all titles, simply good authors writing well.
warning: in n-f, I read a lot of books only partially- below list is for interesting topics, written well, but that may have been just 1/3 of a book, on some topics, I do not need to know all an author tells, often. Too many interests.
Warning 2: As I do not know some of US political affiliations and debates, they may be “in some corner” that makes them good/bad to others. I do not worry about that when I read for curiosity.
Mary Beard
Jill Lepore These Truths
Anne Applebaum
Wendy Doniger
Karen Armstrong
Susan Neiman
Katie Roiphe
Eva Illouz
Susan Cain
Naomi Klein
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Esther Duflo (writes with her husband)
no self help here!
Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit and Unbroken were two of my favorite nonfiction books as they were so well-researched, but they read like beautifully written novels. Notably, they were massive bestsellers on the male-dominated nonfiction lists and were both made into movies. She suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and vertigo, and she hasn’t come out with a new book in awhile, so I wondered if she was still writing, and found this interview: https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/seabiscuit-author-laura-hillenbrand-on-coronavirus-symptoms-it-felt-like-i-was-breathing-through-gauze.html
In it she says she is writing about a biography about an “amazing woman.” I look forward to reading it!
It’s wonderful to see Barbara Tuchman in the lists. Almost everything she wrote was superb. My favorites are A Distant Mirror (Medieval) and Stillwell. For beautifully written, evocative cookery, Julia Child is wonderful as are M. F. K. Fisher (American) and Elizabeth David (British).
And thanks, all, for these great referrals. I’ve got more to do!
Like Lil, when I read non-fiction, it’s usually history or cookery. There are some terrific women historians writing today, some of whom have a large body of highly regarded work. Here is a selection of books that I have enjoyed and that reside on the bookshelves in my home, all written by women (often about women) and all much enjoyed.
Kate Colquhoun – Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking
Jane Aiken Hodge – Passion and Prejudice: The Loves and Lives of Regency Women
Claire Tomalin – Jane Austen; Samuel Pepys (and many more works)
Stella Tillyard – Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1750-1832
Alison Weir – Katherine Sywnford (and many more books)
Emily Cockayne – Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England 1600-1770
Fiona Fraser – George and Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage (and many more books)
Amanda Foreman – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Julie Peakman – Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the 18th Century **
Reay Tannahill – Food in History: An overview of food as a catalyst of social and historical development (she is mainly known as a writer of historical fiction)
Antonia Fraser – Mary Queen of Scots (and a great body of work but this was my first book by her and started my lifelong interest in MQS)
Amanda Vickery – The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England
Venetia Murray – High Society: A Social History of the Regency Period
Kate Colquhoun – Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking
Jane Aiken Hodge – Passion and Prejudice: The Loves and Lives of Regency Women
Claire Tomalin – Jane Austen; Samuel Pepys (and many more works)
Stella Tillyard – Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1750-1832
Alison Weir – Katherine Sywnford (and many more books)
Emily Cockayne – Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England 1600-1770
Fiona Fraser – George and Martha Washington: A Revolutionary Marriage (and many more books)
Amanda Foreman – Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
Julie Peakman – Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the 18th Century **
Reay Tannahill – Food in History: An overview of food as a catalyst of social and historical development
Antonia Fraser – Mary Queen of Scots (a great body of work but this was my first book by her and started my lifelong interest in MQS)
Amanda Vickery – The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England
Venetia Murray – High Society: A Social History of the Regency Period
Helen Carr – The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, The Duke of Lancaster
** Julie Peakman has a very interesting body of work about the role of sex in all of its permutations and she has examined so-called norms and deviancies in her books, within the context of history.
I forgot about Alison Weir. I heard her speak at one the Smithsonian Associates seminars when her book on Katherine Swinford (spelling ?) came out. She also talked about Anne Boleyn and the differences and similarities between the two women. They both were mistresses of powerful men before they married their lovers, and both had great impact on British history.
And speaking of cookery, Anne Willan’s new book, Women in the Kitchen, is great fun.
For history lovers, there is Doris Kearns Goodwin (A Team of Rivals), Cokie Roberts (Founding Mothers), Lynne Olson (Last Hope Island), Stacy Schiff (The Witches: Salem 1692), Barbara Tuchman (The Guns of August), Holly Tucker (City of Light, City of Poison), and Susan Higginbotham (The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England’s Most Infamous Family).
For more current subject matter there is Kim Goldman (Media Circus: A Look at Private Tragedy in the Public Eye). Her brother, Ron Goldman, was killed with Nicole Simpson, which led to the OJ Simpson trial. Also Lindy West (Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman), although I did not enjoy this book and did not finish it, others might like it. That book got a lot of buzz so I was definitely in the minority.
I’m not into self help books (reading fiction is my therapy) but there are a ton of female writers of those books.
How could I forget My Life in France by Julia Child. That was a delightful memoir.
I have greatly enjoyed a number of Jenny Uglow’s books, especially The Lunar Men and In These Times.
Also books by Amanda Vickery, Barbara Tuchman, Amanda Foreman, H.F.M. Prescott…
Okay, they’re all historians, but then when I read nonfiction , it’s almost always history.
I also don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but I wish I did. I love the request for female authored books!
If you have any interest in self-help, my sister could probably open a library of books written by women to support women in all stages of life. She’s always recommending books to me (that I never read and vice versa). Two that recently come to mind (and that she actually mailed to me!) are: Untamed, by Glennon Doyle (which I WILL read. One day.), and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, by Lori Gottlieb. The Gottlieb also comes with a reader discussion guide & I’m tempted to suggest it to my book club. They won’t pick it, but maybe? :)
Thanks. Self-help is not my thing although I have heard good things about the Doyle.
While Dava Sobel writes wonderful historical fiction like Longitude, she also wrote several award winning non-fiction books, like The Glass Universe and Planets.
Any by naturalist Sy Montgomery, but might start with THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS.
If you like historical crime, Kate Summerscale’s THE SUSPICIONS OF MR. WHICHER by Kate Summerscale is so good (tw for murdered child). Also just finished and loved A FATAL THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM by Emma Southon – all about how “murder” was and was not defined in Ancient Rome. Oh and Deborah Blum writes all about how poisons were used in THE POISONER’S HANDBOOK – broken into chapters about historical use of poison so an easy one to start and stop.
Something funny and an easy read: WE ARE NEVER MEETING IN REAL LIFE by Samantha Irby.
Also any of Roxane Gay, especially HUNGER or BAD FEMINIST.
Been out for a while and you may have seen the movie, but also highly recommend IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS by Rebecca Skloot.
And this one is a compilation but all women writers, WELL-RED BLACK GIRL edited by Glory Edim.
Oh and one more book related: THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean.
And that’s WELL-READ BLACK GIRL… argh.
Some I have enjoyed or thought were very good:
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard (contemplations on life and nature, beautiful writing)
River of Doubt by Candice Millard (Teddy Roosevelt’s expedition up an uncharted tributary of the Amazon)
Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (I think the audio was narrated by the author and her love for these animals really comes through)
Stasiland by Anna Funder (life in East Germany during the cold war)
My husband loved River of Doubt.
I absolutely recommend The Fabric of Civilization by Virginia Postrel. It is a comprehensive history of textiles throughout world history, and contains a lot of juicy tidbits that HR and historical fiction writers could use.
The Seawomen of Iceland by Margaret Wilson!!!! It’s a history of sailing women, whether fisherwomen, migrants, or modern container-ship captains.
We have had some great chats lately about loving Viking settings, and this book just wonderfully brings Viking Iceland to life (and continues into the modern era). The writing connects the landscape of Iceland to the way of life that developed there while also telling lively, often funny stories about women from the sagas and from other history.
AAR readers who were professionals in the 1970s and 80s in male-dominated settings will also love the author’s reminiscences about her own seafaring career.
You’ve got my attention Caroline!!
Two books by Susan Orlean: THE ORCHID THIEF (about the lengths to which the orchid-obsessed will go to obtain rare specimens; also the book that was being adapted in the movie “Adaptation”) and THE LIBRARY BOOK (about a devastating fire at the main branch of the Los Angeles public library in 1986).
The Future is History by Masha Gessen – about the final years of the USSR and how Russia became as it is today, told through the stories of several individuals.
Island of the Lost by Joan Druett – two ships were wrecked on the remote Auckland Island within months of each other in the 1860s. Some of the crew made it out, and their survival is truly an amazing story.
I really liked Island of the Lost, too. I’ve been looking for more by Druett at my library, but haven’t had luck yet.
I loved The Island of the Lost.
Any topic at all? Well here are two for a start. I shall check my bookshelf for more.
1) Prof.Dr. Madelaine Böhme (et al.) Ancient Bones. How we Became Human (Paleoanthroplogy: No idea how well the translation works, but in German a very good book)2) Noreena Hertz The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart (Economy, psychology, sociology
I read this one a long time go, and it is probably no longer available Hypatia’s Heritage (1986)by Margaret Alic.
This deals with female scientists throughout history. There might be newer books that do this better these days, but back then I found it fascinating.
It’s a shame some of my favourite nf books are in German and have not been translated, but here are some more:
The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf
The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory by Dr. Julia Shaw
Darwin’s Pictures: Views of Evolutionary Theory, 1837-1874 by Julia Voss