19+ Nonfiction Books Every Woman Should Read
From memoirs to essays to research on topics relevant to women, these books are must-reads for every woman.
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As women, we feel pressures from all sides–home, work, community, society–and sometimes it all feels overwhelming.
These nonfiction books explore a wide range of topics relevant to women, including friendship, home, relationships, mental health, creativity, misogyny, and more.
Whether you’re looking for insight or just a little solidarity, these nonfiction books and memoirs are must-reads for any woman.
The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs
Author & Narrator: Laura Tremaine
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction
Friendships as adults can be difficult, and Laura Tremaine offers a different way to think about friends, meant to relieve the pressure of adult friendships looking a certain way.
She presents the idea of a “Life Council” that includes 10 different types of friends and the roles they fill in our lives–for example, work friends, new friends, old friends, fun friends, and soul sister friends. As she discusses each type and offers ideas for nurturing them, you’ll likely start to think of your own friends and who fits the role or what roles are lacking. Worth the listen for anyone who enjoys reading about friendships, and who spends time thinking about their own friendships.
How to Keep House While Drowning
Author: KC Davis
Publish Date: 2022
Genres: Nonfiction
KC Davis is a therapist who provides advice on caring for yourself and your home during challenging times. In this little book, she acknowledges that struggles, such as neurodivergence, trauma, health struggles (mental or physical), and other hardships can make daily care tasks of the home and self difficult. She emphasizes that care tasks are morally neutral and provides small tricks for completing them, such as starting with manageable amounts of time, along with gentle messaging to let go of the guilt.
An easy, fast read with short, unintimidating chapters, and Davis provides shortcuts for even faster reading. Highly recommended, whether you consistently feel overwhelmed by all there is to do in life or if you’d just like a few shortcuts (and permission to give yourself a break–from the chores and the shame).
How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind
Author: Regan Penaluna
Narrators: Angie Kane
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction
Regan Penaluna entered academia with aspirations of becoming a philosopher and joining the ranks of others who live a life of the mind, exploring life’s deepest questions. What she found was misogyny, deeply embedded not just in the halls of her universities, but in the very area of study she loved. She found herself contending with both the male gaze and the “male glance”–a consistent ignoring and devaluing of her work as a philosopher.
Here she examines four notable female philosophers (Damaris Cudworth Masham, Mary Astell, Catharine Cockburn, and Mary Wollstonecraft), their lives, philosophies, and obstacles each faced as they tried to join conversations dominated and gate-kept by men. Penaluna is a fantastic storyteller, and she weaves her own story with the lives and philosophies of these women. Even if you’re not a student of philosophy (I am not), this is worth the read.
Quietly Hostile
Author & Narrator: Samantha Irby
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir
I’m new to Samantha Irby’s humor essays, and her fans know that her writing is filled with honesty about all the messiness and often embarrassing parts of life. There were essays that I really liked–especially the first one where she declares that the proper response to anyone trying to yuck on your yum is, “I like it!” There’s also a great essay where she breaks down how certain episodes of Sex and the City should have gone (she is a writer for the reboot).
Perfect if you sometimes need a reminder that it’s okay to laugh, but also for when you’re looking for some inspiration to be unapologetically bold.
Hunger
Author: Roxane Gay
Publish Date: 2017
Genres: Nonfiction
Roxane Gay’s life was changed forever at 12. The victim of a gang rape, Gay began building a fortress around herself, attempting to both keep herself safe and regain control. Instead, she found herself in what she calls an “unruly body,” one that, in its obesity, provides some measure of safety while also shrinking her world in various ways.
At the same time, she asserts herself as fully human in a world that is determined to dehumanize her: highly intelligent, fully able to love and be loved, and in no way ignorant of the health and nutrition facts people throw at her. Gay is brutally honest and raw in this memoir about her struggles to understand and care for herself–weight, past, and all.
Wintering
Author: Katherine May
Publish Date: 2021
Genres: Nonfiction
This little nonfiction book examines the concept of “wintering”–retreating into a more insular, reflective, and healing way of being by some necessity. In this exploration, May visits places with harsh winters and learns how people there cope and thrive through the dark months.
It’s an unusual type of travel that struck me as exactly the type of retreat so many of us need. Quiet, meditative, and filled with lovely prose.
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It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway
Author: Elizabeth Passarella
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir
This collection of personal essays from Southern Living columnist Elizabeth Passarella has one common theme: change. Whether it’s moving, getting rid of sentimental furniture, or dealing with a health crisis, the stories are familiar to anyone, even if the specifics are different. Passarella has a charming, likable voice and reading this felt like hanging out with a friend.
I loved how she spaced out a series of stories on her struggles to buy an apartment from her neighbor in New York–I was thoroughly hooked and needed to know how it ended. The audio version included an interview with that neighbor, which was a delightful addition. This isn’t a groundbreaking memoir, but I thoroughly enjoyed the listen, and the theme of change is one that will resonate with everyone.
All the Gold Stars
Author: Rainesford Stauffer
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction
This book examines ambition: what it means, its origins in our lives, how it affects us, and whether we are striving for the wrong things. Stauffer looks at how our ambition can feel like it’s taking us to a destination and a time when we can finally rest, only to reach our goals and be rewarded with more work.
This is an excellent combination of anecdote and research, which adds credibility and human interest. Stauffer encourages a reframing of ambition–toward our families, friendships, and contentment, rather than achievement. I love that she offers this alternative, because the burnout epidemic feels so bleak and hopeless.
Untamed
Author: Glennon Doyle
Publish Date: 2020
Genres: Nonfiction
I started reading Glennon Doyle’s work years ago, mostly on her blog Momastery. My feelings have always been mixed–I sometimes just found her writing a little too much. What I always appreciated was her relentless insistence that “we can do hard things.” Like Marie Forleo’s mantra of “everything is figureoutable,” I–and many other women–find these simple phrases bolstering.
With Untamed, her writing, to me, felt more focused and certain than I’ve read before. It’s a memoir of sorts, but also a treatise for overwhelmed women who are trying to be and do everything they’re told they should. She implores women to discover themselves, to trust their own knowing, and build lives that feel true. All messages we’ve heard before, but Doyle’s writing hits hard:
“…discontent is the nagging of the imagination. Discontent is evidence that your imagination has not given up on you. It is still pressing, swelling, trying to get your attention by whispering: ‘Not this.'”
Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
Author: Bernardine Evaristo
Narrator: Bernardine Evaristo
Publish Date: 2022
Genres: Nonfiction
In this memoir, Booker Prize-winning novelist Evaristo recounts her childhood in England, growing up with eight siblings and a Nigerian father and Catholic mother, and how her drive toward a creative life helped her find her writing voice. Poetry and the theater occupied her early creative years, until she moved to writing fiction.
The story of Evaristo’s life is interesting, but it’s her compelling voice and deep determination in the face of every obstacle that stand out. Her strength to push–and push hard–toward creative pursuits and success is inspiring. Evaristo narrates the audiobook and it’s worth the listen for any artist.
Everyone But Myself
Author: Julie Chavez
Publish Date: 2024
Genres: Nonfiction
When Julie Chavez had her first panic attack, she knew she had to figure something out. On the surface, her life seemed fine: her librarian job, her two children, and her loving husband made her happy. But each day, she walked a precarious line while juggling the million details that keep a family going. Her worries took over, and she was left with crippling anxiety.
Chavez’s honest account of her struggles to manage her anxiety was binge-listening for me because it was all so familiar. I intensely related to the way she described the miserable buzzing of anxiety throughout her body, and I suspect many other women will also see themselves. Our reasons for the anxiety may be different, but the feeling seems common, and Chavez gives voice–and a little hope–to our mostly silent battles.
This American Ex-Wife
Author: Lyz Lenz
Publish Date: 2024
Genres: Nonfiction
In this memoir, Lyz Lenz proudly claims her status as an ex-wife. She starts with the tipping point, when she finally realized her marriage was over. On the surface, it seemed like a normal mess at home, an annoyance and an inconvenience. But it was emblematic of the thousands of small tasks and messes that fell to her, and of the way she was taken for granted and lost her identity within the marriage and family.
But this is less about the end of her marriage than about the start of her life as a single woman. Lenz describes the freedom she feels in her home, as a parent, and as a woman. Between her personal reflections, she examines marriage as an institution, as well as divorce. While not encouraging divorce for women in healthy marriages, she instead reframes it as a viable and positive step for the women who need it to feel ownership over their own lives. Not for everyone, but well worth the read for many women.
Why We Can’t Sleep
Author: Ada Calhoun
Publish Date: 2021
Genres: Nonfiction
Ada Calhoun interviewed thousands of Generation-X women across the United States to understand one thing: why are we all struggling so much? What is with this exhaustion, depression, and endless feeling of being stretched too thin?
The answers are complicated and varied, as are the backgrounds and life experiences of the women interviewed. So many of the struggles stem from the same place: the notion that we can “have it all.”
Calhoun’s book is reassuring in that it provides reasons why so many women feel this way and assures us that we aren’t alone. However, this book will mostly provide solidarity rather than solutions; while she does end on a high note, most of her book does not offer advice for improving Gen-X women’s bleak outlook.
Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood
Author: Jessica Grose
Narrators: Suehyla El-Attar
Publish Date: 2022
Genres: Nonfiction
In this reflection on motherhood–part journalistic, part historical, and part memoir–Jessica Grose examines motherhood in the U.S. and how systemic supports have lagged behind societal expectations, leading to burnt-out, stressed, and increasingly desperate women trying to fulfill impossible roles. COVID made this timely, but Grose makes clear that this issue is not new. The pressure to be perfect–at home and at work–comes from all sides, including internally, and is reinforced by judgmental online parenting subcultures.
Grose spoke with many different women, and their backgrounds and stories differ, but the overall feeling of desperation was consistent. Whether you relate to some or all of Grose’s assertions, support for parents is no longer an individual issue but a societal one, and her book offers insight into both the problems and potential solutions.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Author & Narrator: Maggie Smith
Publish Date: 2023
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir
Maggie Smith is a poet who wrote the poem “Good Bones,” which went viral a few years back. It changed her career and her marriage, which ultimately ended in divorce when her husband had an affair. This is Smith’s deeply personal and poetic reflection on that difficult time of her life. Smith doesn’t share unnecessary details, keeping certain things private for her children, but her words cut to the heart of the pain of the split, the way her career and accomplishments were diminished, her default parenting role, and more.
Whether you’ve been through a divorce or not, Smith’s voice is so eloquent, it’s as if she ripped open the collective hearts of so many women in 2023 and read what was written there, then translated it into lyrical prose. Her narration is beautiful, but I also wanted a physical copy to hold and highlight so many passages that took my breath away because they captured so much sparse, brutal, beautiful truth.
My Glory Was I Had Such Friends
Author: Amy Silverstein
Publish Date: 2017
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir
Twenty-six years ago, during the infancy of heart transplant surgery, Amy Silverstein received a new heart. Now in her fifties, that heart is failing, and she again waits for a new heart. Her wait requires a move to California with her husband, and with them, nine of Amy’s closest friends sign onto a schedule to keep constant vigil at her bedside. They pass the baton to one another, flying in from across the country to offer their unique qualities and gifts to their friend.
This is a brutally raw memoir of suffering and friendship. Amy unflinchingly examines herself and what it means to be a sick person, dependent on others, and what it means to find the balance between caring for yourself and caring for those who surround you in such a situation. It’s precarious, and the scales tip easily when emotions run high, requiring extraordinary feats of forgiveness and understanding from all.
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
Authors & Narrators: Robert Waldinger, MD and Marc Schulz, PhD
Publish Date: 2022
Genres: Nonfiction
For more than 80 years, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has been following participants. In this novel summarizing findings thus far, the current directors make the case that relationships are the key to a happy life.
Strong connections don’t just make for a happier life, but they also predict the overall health of our bodies and brains. Each chapter in this book delves into the different kinds of relationships–family, work, romantic, friendship, etc.–and how we can and should cultivate them in order to live “the good life.” An excellent reminder (especially for the extreme introverts–ahem–among us) of the value of reaching out and spending time with loved ones.
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Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
Author: Anna Quindlen
Publish Date: 2013
Genres: Nonfiction
Anna Quindlen’s memoir is less the story of her life and more a series of essays reflecting on how the lives of women in general have changed over the last century. From marriage, friendships, parenthood, careers, loss (and the familial expectations placed on women during those times), to facing our own aging and mortality, Quindlen’s reflections have a universal feel for American women even several generations after the baby boomers.
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh in solidarity or cry in…exhaustion, maybe?…over Quindlen’s views on how the expectations of motherhood changed from when she was a child to when she was raising children. So much of what she says rings true, regardless of generation.
Tell Me More: And 11 Other Important Things I’m Learning to Say
Authors & Narrators: Kelly Corrigan
Publish Date: 2019
Genres: Nonfiction
The twelve things that Kelly Corrigan is learning to say are things that we all need to learn to say, and I think women and mothers in particular feel many of these deeply. Corrigan weaves in small anecdotes over larger narratives of family, friendship, and loss. Her reflections bring her to comfort with uncertainty, with deeper listening and less solving, and with setting limits–among other things.
Each reader will find something different that resonates. For me, the essays “Tell Me More” and “No” stuck out, but I suspect that will change through the years. Worth a read, and a regular revisit.
Over the Influence
Author: Kara Alaimo
Narrator: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
Publish Date: 2024
Genres: Nonfiction
In Over the Influence, Alaimo examines how social media damages women and girls, from all sides. While you might immediately think of body image (and that is covered here), she also delves into sexism and misogyny, dating, sexual assault and violence, misinformation targeted at women (especially mothers), and the effects on our mental health, relationships, careers, and more.
The litany of stories and negative effects is depressing–we all know social media is here to stay, and companies that profit from the engagement and even the negative effects on women are unlikely to change. But she does offer some suggestions for how to remedy some of this. Sadly, many of these are at the personal level–which is, of course, important–but also feels like asking every woman to fight a monster on her own. She does have ideas for more systemic change, and I think these are just the beginning. This is a conversation that needs to continue and reach the level of lawmakers and corporate responsibility.