March brings Women's History Month around once again. If these annual months of recognition happen over and over again, how can we make them different? One way is that, as a society, we continuously reframe the ways we talk about gender and what it means to be a woman. And, of course, we see women increasingly add to the incredible wealth of their contributions to our world across history and into the present. This year's official theme for the month, "Providing Healing, Promoting Hope," highlights these more recent contributions while also honoring the past. The National Women's History Alliance describes it as "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history."
Photo courtesy of the Camden Herald
As we look outward to our country and our world to celebrate women this month, it's of course also worth a local look at the wonderful women right here in Camden—and with an eye toward history, who better to honor than a woman who helped to tell ours? Historian Barbara Dyer was truly beloved in this community as she grew up here and documented the area's history in books and newspapers. Dyer passed away at 97 last month, but her legacy lives on in part on the circulating shelves of our library and in our Walsh History Center, where you can find many of her works to explore.
Now we turn to the reading list! Below you'll find fiction and nonfiction titles written by and about a diverse array of women. Please discover some exciting titles from last year's list (https://camdenpubliclibrary.wixsite.com/booktalkbythesea/post/women-s-history-month) and then delve into some newer acquisitions and discoveries below. We can redefine a bit what this month means to us every year, but one thing doesn't change—the wealth of books available that help us learn about incredible women. After the following list, you'll find a short selection of newer titles linked to our current Picker Room exhibit, "Finding Our Voices," which features portraits of 41 Maine survivors of domestic violence.
Without further adieu...
Roar, Cecelia Ahern
Her Hidden Genius, Marie Benedict
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
The School For Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan
Martita, I Remember You: A Story in English and Spanish, Sandra Cisneros
Dear Miss Metropolitan, Carolyn Ferrell
We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip, Anne B. Gass
Libertie, Kaitlyn Greenidge
Matrix, Lauren Groff
Something Wild, Hanna Halperin
The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris
A Spindle Splintered, Alix E. Harrow
Mirrorland, Carole Johnstone
Notes on an Execution, Danya Kukafka
What You Can See From Here, Mariana Leky
The Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon
Recitatif: A Story, Toni Morrison
Please See Us, Caitlin Mullen
The Swimmers, Julie Otsuka
Island Queen, Vanessa Riley
Ariadne, Jennifer Saint
False Witness, Karin Slaughter
Wayward, Dana Spiotta
Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan
The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
O Beautiful, June Yun
A History of Women in 100 Objects, Maggie Andrews & Janis Lomas
Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, Leslie Brody
The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers, Elizabeth Cobbs
What Would Frida Do?: A Guide to Living Boldly, Arianna Davis
A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America's Schools, Rachel Devlin
Formation: A Woman's Memoir of Stepping Out of Line, Ryan Leigh Dostie
The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt, Audrey Clare Farley
Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir: Ashley C. Ford
Justice, Justice, Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life's Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, Haben Girma
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley, Charlotte Gordon
Bending the Arc: My Journey from Prison to Politics, Keeda J. Haynes
Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, Linda R. Hirshman
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, Suleika Jaouad
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, Martha S. Jones
All in: An Autobiography, Billie Jean King
The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story, Lily Koppel
Seeing Serena, Gerald Marzorati
No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Military Hospital, Wendy Moore
Kamala's Way: An American Life, Dan Morain
Aftershocks: A Memoir, Nadia Owusu
She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World, Jennifer Palmieri
It's Up to the Women, Eleanor Roosevelt
The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, Rosemary Sullivan
Just As I Am, Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford
Persist, Elizabeth Warren
Mary Magadelene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet, Meggan Watterson
This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir, Jacqueline Winspear
The Field House:A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine, Robin Clifford Wood
Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, ed. Lexie Bean
Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival, Kelly Sundberg
Writings in the Sand, Ruth Collins
The Road Through Wonderland: Surviving John Holmes, Dawn Schiller
Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence, Tanya Selvaratnam
Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls, Carrie Goldberg