Empowering Women

Stories of women who find themselves, have done something incredible, and overall are encouraging and empowering.  Check out these titles in your Library.

#GirlBoss by Sophia Amoruso - broke, hitchhiking and stealing her way through life, Sophia Amoruso started out about as low as one can go.  After finding low wage work in mediocre jobs, she starts out on her own selling vintage clothing on eBay and became the very kind of success every woman wants to be.  This book is funny, raw, honest, and inspiring, to put it lightly.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - This true memoir tells how the author "made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. [She is] rapturous and rueful...wise and funny". (from Amazon)

Magnificence by Lydia Millet - Her husband has died, her paraplegic daughter has given up on college and decided to earn a living working a phone sex hotline, estranged from her family and starting life anew while struggling with grief and loss, Susan Lindley finds salvation in work and connecting with life in an expected manner.

How to Be a Woman by Cailtin Moran - Prepare yourself.  This book is all about being a woman.  Written by Canadian comedian Caitlin Moran, it will have you laughing out loud through most of it, making a fool of yourself while reading, and leave you feeling not only proud to be a part of and survivor of the sex, but a special kinship with your fellow woman.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
 

 Peony in Love by Lisa See - “I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.” For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings. In the garden of the Chen Family Villa, amid the scent of ginger, green tea, and jasmine, a small theatrical troupe is performing scenes from this epic opera, a live spectacle few females have ever seen. Like the heroine in the drama, Peony is the cloistered daughter of a wealthy family, trapped like a good-luck cricket in a bamboo-and-lacquer cage. Though raised to be obedient, Peony has dreams of her own." (from Amazon)  If you haven't read Lisa See yet, you will fall in love and this is one of our favorite to get you started.

Bossypants by Tina Fey - Yes, it's Tina Fey.  Need we say more?  Read This Book!

The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte - One of the most classic and beautiful stories of a girl who has nothing, and we do mean nothing.  No home.  No family.  No money.  No hope.  And yet through education and sheer perseverance she not only gets through life but creates a life of love for herself and saves others.  The writing and the language is beautiful.  The story, it's incredible that despite one horrific turn after another she remains constant and true to herself, the woman she is and the passions she has.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - And for our more adventurous literary readers, this list would be utterly remiss without the extraordinary Ms. Plath.