Let’s celebrate Women’s History Month! These are the books I featured on WBRC Fox 6 this month. I shared a great book for young readers about global and personal perseverance, a memoir by RBG, a collection of timely and funny essays about feminism in the modern world and a beloved book worth revisiting.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
This powerful story of an African American girl’s journey through adolescence is told through poetry. Growing up in South Carolina and New York, she experienced both the remnants of Jim Crow and the promise of the Civil Rights Movement. Her eloquent poetry is a celebration of spirit and life and perseverance—in the larger world and personally. The author overcame childhood struggles with reading and found the amazing power of words, and they changed her life. This book is for ages 10 to 14 (but adults will enjoy it, too). It’s a National Book Award winner as well as the winner of the Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award. And it was a pick in President Obama’s O Book Club.
My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
The late RBG, certainly one of the most influential women in American history, had so much wisdom to share! In this collection of essays, she touches on everything from her early career to, of course, her time on the Supreme Court. She writes about gender equality, the inner workings of the Supreme Court, interpreting the U.S. Constitution, being Jewish and being a woman. The pieces in this book were chosen by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers, Mary Harnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter with biographical context and quotes from the hundreds of interviews they conducted with Justice Ginsburg.
This New York Times bestselling book about feminism in the modern world is thought-provoking and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Writer, activist and cultural critic Roxane Gay writes about gender, race, body image, politics and more. “These essays are political, and they are personal,” she writes in the introduction of Bad Feminist. “They are, like feminism, flawed, but they come from a genuine place.” The book also is a look at how the culture we consume—everything from Sweet Valley High to The Help to Django in Chains—shapes who we are. This book was named Best Book of the Year at NPR.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The haunting story of Anne Frank still resonates in today’s world—even though it was first published more than 70 years ago. Anne, of course, kept a diary during the two years she spent in hiding with her family (and another family) during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was captured in 1944, and Anne died (probably of typhus) in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, just weeks before it was liberated. Anne didn’t just keep a diary, she wrote stories—including fairy tales she made up—and, after the war, planned to publish a book about her time in the Secret Annex. She also had a Book of Beautiful Sentences filled with sentences and passages copied from books she read in the Annex. The diary and Anne’s notebooks were found and kept by one of the family’s helpers Miep Gies, who later gave them to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the only member of the family who survived. He was the one who fulfilled Anne’s wish to share her words. The diary has been published in more than 70 languages. It is perhaps the single most compelling account of the Holocaust. It remains one of the most read and most inspiring books in the world.
Head’s up: The Hill We Climb and Other Poemsby Presidential Inaugural Poet (and first-ever U.S. Youth Poet Laureate) Amanda Gorman is available for pre-order (delivery Sept. 21).
I link to Amazon to show you exactly what book I’m talking about, but I love to shop locally at Church Street Coffee and Books, The Alabama Booksmith, Little Professor Book Center, and I often visit my local library.
savor 