American Women Biographies

At age four, Phyllis Biffle Elmore was plucked off her front porch in Detroit and dropped on her grandmother Lula Horn's doorstep in rural Alabama. Phyllis felt utterly abandoned until Grandma Lula showed her both all-encompassing love and her intricate "Quilts of Souls." Phyllis listened intently as Lula told epic stories of folks who had passed on as she turned their clothing into breathtaking quilts for their families.

Witty, sharp, and unflinching, I Named My Dog Pushkin will have fans of Samantha Irby and Jenny Lawson howling with laughter at Margarita’s catastrophes, her victories, and her near misses as she learns to grow as both a woman and an immigrant in a world that often doesn’t appreciate either.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "[The] rare biography of a public figure that's not only beautifully written, but also shockingly revelatory." -- The Atlantic A vivid biography of former First Lady Barbara Bush, one of the most influential and under-appreciated women in American political...

New York Times Bestseller Featured in the critically acclaimed documentary RBG ""It was beyond my wildest imagination that I would one day become the 'Notorious RBG."" — Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 2019 She was a fierce dissenter with a serious collar game. A legendary, self-described “flaming...

This beautiful and devastating book - part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir - should be required for anyone seeking to learn about California Indian history, past and present. Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. The result is a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, a compilation that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew.

Susie King Taylor, born a slave in 1848, would learn to read at secret schools and go on to teach countless others to read and write. Follow the course of the Civil War in her own words as she remembers her work as a nurse and teacher with an Army troop of African-American soldiers.

The incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage. Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off...

In Hadassah, Lieberman pens the compelling story of her extraordinary life: from her family’s experience in Eastern Europe to their move to Gardner, Massachusetts; forging her career; experiencing divorce; and, following her remarriage, her life on the national political stage. By offering insight into her identity as an immigrant, an American Jew, a working woman, and a wife, mother, and grandmother, Lieberman’s moving memoir speaks to many of the major issues of our time, from immigration to gender politics.

Pakistani American Farah Naz Rishi’s first year of college was perfectly, thankfully, uneventful. After all, she was in college to learn and forge a path of self-sufficiency, especially after her last relationship fell apart—dashing her mother’s aspirations for an early marriage. What could Farah expect, anyway? For the ideal guy to just conveniently waltz into her life? Life isn’t a love story.

Award-winning author Joyce Hansen gives voice to 13 amazing African American women who have overcome adversity to make their mark in history. Each of these women will capture your heart and mind as you listen to their inspiring life stories. Hear about the life of acclaimed actress Ruby Dee and 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker. Meet the first African American woman to travel into space and the first African American resident neurosurgeon. These fascinating women remind us that with determination, we can overcome any obstacle.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER In a time of rising authoritarianism and attacks on personal freedoms, the New York Times bestselling author of I’m Still Here chronicles her efforts to live as her full self in a society that wants women—and Black women in particular—to do anything but that. “A...

Famously known as the text that Martin Luther King Jr. sought inspiration from in the days leading up to the Montgomery bus boycott, Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited helped shape the civil rights movement and changed our nation’s history forever. In this classic theological...

The compelling autobiography of a remarkable Catholic woman, sainted by many, who championed the rights of the poor in America’s inner cities. When Dorothy Day died in 1980, the New York Times eulogized her as “a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality . . . founder of the Catholic...

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. “Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and...

Finalist for the 2024 Forest of Reading Evergreen Book Award and the City of Vancouver Book Award. Named a Best Book of 2023 by the Globe and Mail and Apple Books Canada A TODAY Show Recommended Read This beautifully intimate memoir-in-pieces uses one woman's life-long love affair with pop...

Nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature ""An absolute must-read"" – Shondaland “[Rabbit] tells how it went down with brutal honesty and outrageous humor” – New York Times They called her Rabbit. Patricia Williams (aka Ms. Pat) was born and raised in Atlanta at the...

The Indignities of Coach Class, the Torments of Low Thread Count, the Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems David Rakoff’s collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of our funniest, most insightful writers. In Don’t Get Too...

Valentin Chmerkovskiy, the world championship-winning and beloved Dancing with the Stars ballroom dancer invites fans into his life as never before, sharing the experiences, including the failures and successes, that have shaped him, from his early childhood in Ukraine to growing up as an...

The untold story of how one woman's life was changed forever in a matter of seconds by a horrific trauma. Barbara Leaming's extraordinary and deeply sensitive biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' brutal, lonely and valiant thirty-one year struggle with...

The extraordinary true story of four women pioneers in physics during World War II and their daring escape out of Nazi Germany In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig...