Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

Presents a social history of women journalists of the Gilded Age who went undercover to champion women's rights and expose corruption and abuse in America. (Description from catalog)

Marie Laveau may be the most influential-and is among the most famous-American practitioner of the magical arts. She is the subject of songs, films, and legends and the star of New Orleans ghost tours. Her grave in New Orleans ranks among the most popular spiritual pilgrimages in the US. This book explores Laveau's life and work-the history and mystery. It gives an overview of New Orleans Voodoo, its origins, history, and practices. It contains spells, prayers, rituals, recipes, and instructions for constructing New Orleans Voodoo-style altars and crafting your own gris-gris. (Description from catalog.)

The Barbizon tells the story of New York's most glamorous women-only hotel, and the women-both famous and ordinary-who passed through its doors. (Description from catalog)

From the bestselling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time. (Description from catalog)

A history of the debutante ritual and its role in contemporary traditions chronicles how the exclusive presentations of husband-seeking noblewomen in the Tudor era expanded into London’s courtship seasons and beyond. (Description from NoveList.)

A Black Women's History of the United States is a critical survey of black women's complicated legacy in America, as it takes into account their exploitation and victimization as well as their undeniable and substantial contributions to the country since its inception.

Examines the struggle of African American women to achieve equality and political power by examining the lives and work of black women, including Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Fannie Lou Hamer. (Description from NoveList)

Award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of the first generations of women who fought their way into the finance world. If the wolves of Wall Street made a show of their ferocity, the she-wolves did so with tough-as-nails persistence. Starting at a time when "No Ladies" signs hung across the doors of Wall Street's clubs and unapologetic sexism and racism were the norm at top firms, Bren chronicles the remarkable women who demanded a seat at the table.
(Description from catalog)

Madam C. J. Walker—reputed to be America’s first self-made woman millionaire—has long been celebrated for her rags-to-riches story. In this biography, Erica L. Ball places this remarkable and largely forgotten life story in the context of Walker’s times. (Description from NoveList)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra analyzes the Salem Witch Trials to offer key insights into the role of women in its events while explaining how its tragedies became possible. (Description from catalog)

Tracing the long history of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's work for gender equality and a "more perfect Union." (Description from NoveList)

From corsets to crime fighting, Mae Foley challenged the patriarchal status quo by not only juggling family life, but also by forming the first female auxiliary police force in the City That Never Sleeps. After the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, Foley galvanized 2,000 women to join her "Masher Squad" and eventually became one of the first sworn officers with the NYPD.
(Description from catalog)

Part social history, part true-crime investigation, Levin's mesmerizing book, the product of six years of reporting and research, is a fascinating account of American racism, and an expose of the "welfare queen" myth, one that fueled political debates that reverberate to this day.
(Description from catalog)

Why do we love stories about scammers so much? Journalist Tori Telfer dives into the stories of historical female con women and explains why we are so enamored by their scams. (Description from catalog)

A glittering, glamorous portrait of the golden age of American department stores and of three visionary women who led them, from the award-winning author of The Plaza.
(Description from catalog)

An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes.
(Description from NoveList)

The true story of the little-known mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era- anxiety. (Description from catalog.)

A biography of the first Native American doctor in U.S. history describes how she received her medical degree in 1889 and went home to doctor her tribe of over 1,200 people living across 850 square miles. (Description from NoveList)

Documents the true stories of three pioneering women who defied Victorian-era boundaries to become the first women doctors, discussing how they banded together to support each other and advocate for women's health in a male-dominated field. (Description from catalog)

The vivid biography of two pioneering sisters who, together, became America's first female doctors and transformed New York's medical establishment by creating a hospital by and for women. (Description from catalog)

The riveting story of how three years spent in the United States transformed Frida Kahlo into the artist we know today. (Description from catalog.)

With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanor of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person's right to love whomever they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And, as an artist, she never stopped experimenting.
(Description from Amazon)

Tells the story of four pioneering women--Susan Stamberg, Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, and Linda Wertheimer--whose work fighting the male chauvinism of 1970s journalism helped define the character and voice of National Public Radio. (Description from catalog)

From the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls comes the untold story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations.
(Description from catalog)

In 1910, Olive MacLeod, a thirty-year-old, redheaded Scottish aristocrat, received word that her fiancé, the famous naturalist Boyd Alexander, was missing in Africa. So she went to find him. Olive the Lionheart is the thrilling true story of her astonishing journey. Drawing on Olive’s own letters and secret diaries, Olive the Lionheart is a love story that defies all boundaries, set against the backdrop of a beautiful, unconquerable Africa. (Description from NoveList.)

The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of 15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII-in and out of uniform, for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come. (Description from catalog)

A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo-the city that would become Tokyo-and a portrait of a great city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. (Description from catalog.)

A lively, informative and illustrated tribute to one of the most exceptional women in American history--Harriet Tubman--looks at a heroine whose fearlessness and activism still resonates today. (Description from NoveList.)

A Watergate prosecutor takes readers inside her trial by fire, in a book that looks at obstruction of justice, lies from the White House, sexism at work, shocking revelations and more. (Description from NoveList.)

Chronicles the revolutionary activities of Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright--friends and neighbors in Auburn, New York--discussing their vital roles in the Underground Railroad, abolition, and the early women's rights movement. (Description from catalog)

The patriarchy is falling. It's time to smash it. This graphic novel shows you how. Patriarchy means "the rule of the father" and describes a system where men are in control. At least since the time of Aristotle, loud-mouthed men have called women weak and inferior. In entertaining comic book form, Smash the Patriarchy shames the culprits and salutes more than 100 inspiring women-from Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Mary Wollstonecraft to Petra Herrera-who stood up to them.(Description from NoveList)

An historical and imaginative tour-de-force, WAKE brings to light for the first time the existence of enslaved black women warriors, whose stories can be traced by carefully scrutinizing historical records; and where the historical record goes silent, WAKE reconstructs the likely past of two female rebels, Adono and Alele, on the slave ship The Unity. (Description from catalog)