From prehistory to past the present day, these works of fiction bring to life stories of friendship, bravery, loss and triumph experienced by women. You can immerse yourself in many lives, including those of Joan of Arc, an Indian deity, a family in Haiti during the revolution, nurses and soldiers during the second World War, all the way up to a girl just trying to grow up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (and into the future as a matriarch of a Chinese American family uses an experimental treatment to experience the past lives of her ancestors). With a title a day to explore, there should be something that will catch your eye – but if not, fill out our personalized match form and let us know what you’re looking for!
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The lives of two women intersect despite being 40,000 years apart. While modern day archaeologist Rose is scrambling to finish a dig before her baby comes, she unearths the remains of a Neanderthal girl cast out of her family four millennia before. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
A reimagining of the ancient Hindu epic the Ramayana, told from the perspective of one of its antagonists, Kaikeyi. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook and in eAudio on Libby.
A retelling of Homer’s Iliad focusing on the life of Achilles, here a trans demigod and daughter of Athena, as she battles bloodthirsty gods and challenges a villainous, vicious Helen of Troy. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Based on a 2,000-year-old true story, two warrior sisters lead an army of women in the fight for an independent Vietnam against the Han Chinese rulers who oppress their people.
Recently orphaned Marie de France is cast out of the royal English court and sent to run a crumbling abbey, where her ambition and visionary ideas bring her glory but also make her enemies. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Chen’s historical fiction transforms the myth and legend of Joan of Arc into a flesh-and-blood young woman. Filled with vivid characters, transporting settings, and action-packed storytelling, Joan is a feminist celebration of one remarkable–and remarkably real–woman who left an indelible mark on history. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
In sixteenth century Italy, the young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici is married to her late sister’s fiancé, a charming but cruel man. He whisks his 16-year-old bride off to an isolated old fortress where her life may be in danger. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
A natural disaster in 1617 leaves a small village in Norway without men. The women persevere and pull together for three years, when a family led by a witch-burning man arrives. This man doesn’t like what he sees and wants to set things right, while his wife finds a new level of friendship and connection with one of the villagers. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
A saga of the Haitian Revolution focusing on the lives of the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire, and a West African-born warrior, Gran Toya, as they play pivotal roles in one of the most successful slave uprisings in history.
A tale of inherited memory and trauma spanning over two hundred years and seven generations of women, beginning with Afong Moy, the first woman to immigrate from China to the United States. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Lafanu Brown has made her way to Rome in 1887 and established herself as a painter but is haunted by her past. In 2019, a Somali-Italian art curator links Brown’s art to the struggle of modern day migrants, and their lives echo and intertwine. This title is also available for checkout in eAudio on Hoopla.
Yemaya, a Yoruba deity, is living as a young woman in mid-1800s America. She searches for a man named Obatala from Africa to America, and through the Underground Railroad, finding her power along the way.
After Emancipation, Josephine N. Leary moves to North Carolina to follow her ambition of acquiring and investing in real estate. While her marriage and family gladly take up her time and energy, she still yearns to create a legacy outside of them. This fictional account is based on true events and historical figures. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Overdrive/Libby and in eAudio on Overdrive/Libby.
Guided by her obsession with legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley, failed doctoral candidate Ruth tries to uncover secrets and artifacts from her idol’s life. You can also check out this title as eAudio on Hoopla.
A free Black community in the Brooklyn of the Reconstruction Era is where Libertie Sampson comes of age, knowing that her doctor mother expects the same life trajectory for her future. Libertie wants to explore her love for music, however, and decides to seek freedom through marriage to a man from Haiti, only to find that her search for this elusive state of being has just begun. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla and in eAudio on Hoopla.
A kidnapping brutally rips Daiyu from her life in a calligraphy school in China to a life of forced sex work in San Francisco of the 1880s. Escaping and living as a man, Daiyu tries to find a safe place to call home and an identity that feels real, but the Chinese Exclusion Act threatens this plan. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Life is good for Hannah Elias, one of the richest Black women in early 20th century America, until an unsolved murder turns her glitzy world on its head. Her story, from a childhood in Philadelphia, rising through the world of finance to a prominent mansion on Central Park West, is one of suspense and drama – and dangerous secrets. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, an eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
The lives of three women working in creative fields (and inspired by the muse of queer poet Sappho) circle and converge in different ways through different time periods spanning the late 1800s through the 1920s. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Julia Lundqvist escapes her bad marriage in 1910 and starts a relationship with Eve Perret, a tailor. Over the next decades they build a chosen family in the liberal Jewish enclave of Vienna, as Julia’s yearning for a biological child brings conflict and the second world war looms on the horizon. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Trần Diệu Lan is made to leave her family farm in 1920 as part of Communist land reform in Việt Nam. In the present day, her granddaughter Hương travels to Hà Nội and travels the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to discover the story of what happened to her grandmother and the six children that fled with her to an uncertain future. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Nashville in 1926 is the home of Two Feathers, a Cherokee horse-diver, and her best friend Hank, son of a prominent Black family in the town. An accident during Two Feathers’ show at the zoo triggers strange events that require the eclectic mix of people there to come together and solve the mystery of apparitions of the past appearing in the present. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
This family saga begins with Luz Lopez, an indigenous Chicana tea leaf reader and laundress in Denver of the 1930s. Her visions take her to witness the struggles and triumphs of her ancestors, and to understand the importance of saving these stories now that the homelands of these ancestors have been taken from them. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Four Londoners are brought together after the war as their lives, and secrets, intertwine in strange and startling ways. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby, as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on Hoopla.
Optimism is hard to come by in wartime London of 1941, but essential for survival of the human spirit – that is what Emmeline Lake learns answering advice questions for a woman’s magazine during the war. On a trip to the country with her friend Bunty, they also learn about what the toll of war is for the women now working for the war effort in munitions factories and wonder what they can do to publicize their plight. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
The Six Triple Eight were the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, and part of the Army’s first class of female officers in World War II. Grace Steele and Eliza Jones are part of the battalion, and quickly learn that the battle is not just them against fascism, but also them against the racism inherent within the Army, and only the camaraderie and strength of their battalion’s bonds can see them through. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Arriving in North Carolina in 1946, Maddie is ready to help out at her aunt’s sewing business, serving the high society wives of the tobacco barons of Bright Leaf. Her initial enthusiasm for this new life is dampened by learning how life in the tobacco factories grinds down the women who work there, and morphs into a desire to take action to improve their situations. This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Living under the dangerous Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, Primi Peregrino finds escape and excitement in finding books and romancing their authors.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Sashi’s teenage ambitions of becoming a doctor morph into the reality of working as a medic for the Tamil Tigers during the Sri Lankan civil war of the 1980s. She is torn between loyalty to her brother, a Tiger, and her questioning of the morality of the war she is helping to support.
Maeve is working in a shirt factory as she waits for the summer of 1994 to pass so she can leave her small northern Irish town to go to University in London. What she hoped would be a boring way to earn some money becomes a hotbed of political tensions that Maeve has to reckon with before she makes her escape.
In the present-day Carlisle Martin is a well-established choreographer in early middle age. She gets the news that her estranged father is dying, bringing up memories of a formative time in her youth studying ballet during the AIDS crisis in New York City and feelings she hasn’t been able to deal with until now.
Teeming with life and crackling with energy – a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby. This title is also available as an eBook or eAudio on Hoopla.