11 Powerful Non-Fiction Books Written by Women
Story by María García- Juanes📍Utrecht
For International Women’s Day this year, I wanted to pay tribute to some of the talented female writers whose brave stories have touched me and inspired me over the past few years. While their backgrounds are very different, they all share the same courage and feisty attitude. May their experiences keep inspiring generations of women to live their lives on their own terms; here’s to you, strong women, wherever you are in the world.
Four corners — Kira Salak
Kira Salak didn’t earn the title of “gutsiest woman adventurer of our day” by mistake. While some of her travel experiences to conflict areas and war zones border on suicidal, I can only admire her desire to push her limits and follow her curious, adventurous drive.
She was the first woman to cross Papua New Guinea, and she did it at the age of 24. Although Kira was often approached by people who tried to dissuade her from carrying out her journey, that only made her want to do it all the more. Despite having had a near-death experience in Mozambique some years before, she didn’t let fear stop her, and produced this amazing book from what she experienced while traversing the country. Her narrative is full of interesting facts about Papua’s different towns and their history. If you are as fascinated as I am by remote, unknown places, you’ll love it.
I know why the caged bird sings — Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou’s tale of perseverance and resilience in the face of racism is the central topic of this novel. In it, she recounts her childhood, in which she not only suffered the pervasive racism of growing up as a black girl in Arkansas in 1930 but later became a victim of sexual abuse, enduring the guilt and shame that usually follow. Though the book transpires love for her brother Bailey, she also harbors beliefs of inferiority and inadequacy that often made her feel lonely.
However, despite her difficult upbringing, there’s an optimism latent in Maya’s attitude throughout the novel; a way of not giving up, a desire to improve her circumstances and find happiness nonetheless. Maya’s autobiographical piece oozes resilience and strength, and her courage is contagious for all who venture into its pages. The underlying conclusion, just like she wrote in one of her most famous poems, is “still I rise”.
Three Women — Lisa Taddeo
To write Three Women, Lisa Taddeo followed the lives of three women over the course of several years, so she could comprehend them on a deeper level and put their perspective into words. Their stories are very different: Lina is trapped between a loveless marriage and a frustratingly unavailable lover; Sloane is happily married but her sex life is untraditional, and she’s judged for it; Maggie was abused by her former high school teacher, and subsequently accused of lying by her community.
This gripping novel is an honest account of the complex world of female desire, sexuality, and relationships. The capacity of the author to empathize with all three of her subjects and her total lack of judgment toward their stories impacted me. Since society has a way of shaming and blaming women who take control of their lives and do so on their own terms, this book represents a much-needed work.
Wild — Cheryl Strayed
In Wild, Cheryl Strayed portrays the details of the healing journey she embarked in across a section of the Pacific Crest Trail. Her daily struggles during the 3-month hike are intertwined with memories of her troubled upbringing and subsequent trauma caused by the unexpected and premature death of her mother from lung cancer. This particular event shatters Cheryl’s world to a point where she gives in to drugs and reckless sex to numb her unbearable pain. Along the journey, she reconnects with herself through nature and finds the strength to restore her life.
I remember one particularly beautiful passage, as she reaches Mount Mazama in Oregon, in which she uses the natural process of the mountain as a metaphor to explain the process towards healing that she undertook: “This was once a mountain that stood nearly 12,000 feet tall and then had its heart removed.” The best lessons this book gave me were both mantras that she repeated to herself throughout the book: to not be afraid and to keep moving forward.
Anne Frank Diary — Anne Frank
After years of hearing about Anne’s diary, I finally decided to read it when I moved to the Netherlands, as I thought it would help me feel closer to Anne and her story. I was instantly astonished by her sensibility and maturity at such a young age; her capacity to understand the difficult circumstances she was living.
Even though I already knew how her story ended, Anne’s strong will to live reflected on the pages of her diary was heartbreaking. If I had to keep something from this read, it would be the way Anne seems to find allure in everyday events. During these times of constant lockdowns and social isolation, I’ve found it comforting to keep this book close. It reminds me that there’s beauty in the ordinary and that we must never lose hope.
Women who run with the wolves* — Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Bone by bone, hair by hair, Wild Woman comes back. Through night dreams, through events, half understood and half remembered…”
Jungian psychoanalyst and writer Clarissa Pinkola Estés offers such an array of insights into the feminine psyche that it’s hard to synthesize her ideas here. The main notion she introduces in the book is that of Wild Woman, a part all women carry inside, sometimes sleeping, sometimes silenced, but that desperately wants to be set free. Wild Woman is the voice inside us that wants to shout out loud, swim naked and run wild. It’s the source of our creativity and passion, too. Throughout the book, she offers tools to unearth it, gather its bones, and restore it to its natural state.
Using stories and metaphors to help get her point across, the author explains how trusting one’s intuition, embracing the “life, death, life” cycles, loving our true selves, and letting our creativity flow without reserves, we can bring Wild Woman back and finally find our pack.
On Being Human — Jennifer Pastiloff
Jennifer’s childhood and youth are deeply marked by the death of her father at the young age of 38, and especially by the guilt she harbors due to her last words to him being: “I hate you”. She struggled with depression, anorexia, and a lack of self-worth for many years, triggered also by her denial that she was experiencing hearing loss. Years later, she finds peace in her yoga practice and resolves to quit her 14-year-long wearisome waitressing job to become a yoga teacher, taking control of her life and allowing happiness into it.
The title of her book is chosen wisely: the author openly shows what makes her human, addressing difficult topics with candor and honesty, and what’s more important: with no shame. By allowing her true self to be seen, she is inspiring her readers to do so, too. Her story is proof that it’s never too late to change our lives for the better.
It’s what I do — Lynsey Addario
It’s what I do recounts Lynsey’s story of persistence and effort in pursuing her dream of becoming what she is today: an internationally recognized photojournalist. From the moment she was given her first camera to covering conflicts in South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Libya, Lynsey shows her fierce determination to put her talent at the service of stories that need to be told.
Her hard work and the source of her motivation to do it, which is to show the human side of wars and conflict, are admirable. The book starts with one of the hardest episodes in her career: the day she is kidnapped in Libya while covering the Arab Spring. Nevertheless, despite the downsides of always being on the front lines, she persists in producing impactful images to let the world know that behind the numbers we see on TV, there are actual people.
The Chronology of Water — Lidia Yuknavitch
In a similar way as On Being Human does, Yulia Yuknavitch’s autobiographical novel presents us the author’s humanity in full, without filters. She addresses topics like addiction, sexuality, and violence in a refreshing and straightforward way.
By offering a glimpse into her world and the life events that broke her, Yulia conveys in her narrative that no matter how wrecked your life is, you can put the pieces back together: life goes on. She herself goes through addiction and the loss of her stillborn child, so she knows what she’s talking about. In the end, through art and self-expression, she finds a way out of her pain.
Just Kids — Patti Smith
In Just Kids, Patti Smith tells the story of how she met Robert Mapplethorpe, the special bond they shared, and the intertwined lives they led ever since, until Robert’s death. Art is at the center of their story, as a third party in their relationship.
No book has ever inspired me to create as much as this one did. Patti’s unique personality, attitude towards hardships, and way of life fascinated me from the very first pages; from the moment she arrives in New York City full of dreams but without a dime and manages to get by starting as a homeless person. If I had to choose one word to describe her youth, it would be “freedom”.
Maid — Stephanie Land
Maid is perhaps the most relatable book of all those presented on the list. A single, first-time mother with no family support must give up on her dreams and find a way to provide for her daughter performing menial jobs that pay her 9$ an hour. This is Stephanie Land’s story, but also that of many other women in the US who are forced to take on overtaxing and ridiculously underpaid jobs in order to (barely) get by. In telling her story, Stephanie helps shed light on the injustice suffered by that collective.
For years, she deals with the strain of caring for a child on her own and the stigma and isolation that accompany those who live in poverty. In the end, she’s finally able to escape that reality and accomplishes her dream of earning a bachelor’s degree and becoming a writer. The conclusion of Maid, though, is that not all stories like hers have a happy ending, so the oppressive system that cripples so many must come to an end.
It was hard to settle for only 11 stories to feature here. There are many other writers whose works of art have shaped the way I see the world today. All stories matter, and deserve to be told. What’s important is to keep feeding our minds new ideas, and finding that little push we sometimes need in order to put our own stories out there. Happy International Women’s Day!
*I doubted whether to include Women who run with the wolves in the non-fiction list or not since, as its subtitle states, it features stories and myths. However, I believe that although in order to write the book the author used fictional elements, their presence in it serves to explain what’s already inside our minds. Her contribution was important so I made space for it here.
