24 Books by Women Authors to Read in March for Women's History Month and All Year Long

Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, has released a new memoir about the complicated relationship between her and her mother-in-law during her last days.

Descending into the inner depths of our world,  Jill Heinerth is a world-renowned cave diver who discovered remains of ancient Mayan civilization and plunged into Antarctic icebergs. Read her accounts and see her expeditions in her new book Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver.

Crystal Hefners’ new memoir Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself gives an inside look into her time at the Playboy Mansion, where she was one of Hugh Hefner's selected girlfriends and later married the magazine mogul. Her candid memoir gives insight into the infamous mansion while documenting her transformative journey since those days.

This collection of essays chronicles writer, professor and social commentator Gay's evolution as a woman of color, while also giving a candid, witty and entertaining look at feminism, race, gender, body image, politics and pop culture. Bad Feminist looks at how the culture we consume shapes who we are, as well as inspires us to do and be better.

Read Obama's New York Times best-selling memoir, Becoming, which covers her early life in South Side Chicago and chronicles her journey to the White House as first lady.

This 2016 book is a collection of the late, great American Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's speeches and writings dating back to the eighth grade. My Own Words touches on the fascinating life of one of our generation's most influential voices in both law and public opinion as she touches on gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera and more.

Educate yourself during Women's History Month and learn about the changing roles of America's First Ladies in Katie Rogers' new book.

Award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton explains the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital — a segregated asylum in Maryland — in her book Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, which was one of Amazon Editor's Best Book Picks. The hospital discussed in the book was shuttered in 2004 but the building still stands today.

This highly acclaimed NYT best-seller dives into what being a feminist in the 21st century is all about. Sharing personal and eloquently argued essays, the Nigerian author advocates for equity and equality between men and women in all aspects of life and champions making the world a better place for women.

"Whom to marry, and when will it happen — these two questions define every woman’s existence." In Spinster, Bolick takes a look at the pleasures and possibilities of remaining single. She weaves together her and other women's stories about why being without a partner "has neither been fully understood, nor appreciated." This book is all about living your best life and not always needing to be in a relationship to make it happen.

Modern poet Kate Baer covers women's bodies, marriages and lives in her accessible poems perfect for sharing with the women in your life.

Maya Angelou's poems continue to inspire and heal, and you can devour them all in this book.

Gaining popularity during the Civil Rights Movement, Nikki Giovanni is a celebrated poet with a commanding voice. Read her powerful, truth-telling poems in this collection.

Not much is known about one of the most influential American poets of all time, Emily Dickinson, but her work speaks for itself.

Historical fiction lovers won't want to miss The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. Belle da Costa Greene is a part of high society curating J.P. Morgan's personal library, but her secret — that she's the daughter of a Black man — could ruin her reputation in the racist world she finds herself in.

New York Times best-selling author Tia Williams' latest book is a No. 1 pick on Amazon. In A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, misfit Ricki Wilde moves to Harlem to open a flower shop where a mysterious stranger sets her world ablaze. 

Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale, has a new book that's made its way onto four of the top bestseller lists. The Women tells the story of Frances, a field nurse who enters the Vietnam War to return home only to find rising political tensions. 

Logan Lerman and Joey King are set to star in Hulu's adaptation of Georgia Hunter's We Were the Lucky Ones about a Jewish family separated during World War II. The series premieres on March 28. 

Written in 1982 by Alice Walker, The Color Purple is a now-classic novel that was quickly adapted into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover. In 2023, Taraji P. Henson, Halle Bailey and a truly amazing cast brought the musical version of this story to the screen. 

Colleen Hoover's award-winning novel It Ends With Us is about a romance that is threatened when an old fling returns. The novel is being made into a film starring Blake Lively.

When a married couple moves into their family estate, they start to question the life of the late heiress who previously owned the home — specifically the truth about the death of her four husbands — in Rachel Hawkin's new novel The Heiress.

A 1960s housewife leaves the comfort of her life to become a reporter, investigating the murder of a missing girl. Apple TV+ is reimagining Lady of the Lake by Laura Lippman as a limited series with Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o.

House of Flame and Shadow is the third and final book in the Crescent City novels by New York Times best-selling author Sarah J. Maas. The book series brims with magic, intrigue and steamy romance. In the latest book, you'll follow Bryce Quinlan, who is lost in a new world and hoping to find her way back to Midgard.

Dragon riders reign in Fourth Wing, where 20-year-old Violet is forced into the ranks by her mother, who is also the commander general. If she is unable to bond with a dragon, she will be eviscerated — and that's only one of the problems she's facing.