Every year on March 8, International Women’s Day is celebrated to acknowledge the social, economic, political, and cultural achievements of women — and what better way to celebrate than by listening to audiobooks penned by incredible female authors?
I look forward to this day every year to see what governments, organizations, charities, corporations, and my friends are doing and saying to recognize the trailblazing women who have changed (and are changing) the world. The future, indeed, is female.
In addition to the many remarkable women in my life, reading books by female authors that depict both real and fictional lives of iconic and ordinary women has given me the support, guidance, and courage to move beyond glass ceilings and push for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
We’ve rounded up a dozen inspiring books to celebrate some of our favorite female authors and feminist stories. Tell us in the comments who your favorite female authors or characters are and let us know how you’re celebrating International Women’s Day!
1. A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena, narrated by Firdous Bamji, Neil Shah, Soneela Nankani, Lameece Issaq
In this young adult debut set in Saudi Arabia, where the law forbids romantic relationships outside of marriage, two teens fall in love with tragic consequences. Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: an Indian girl, a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a troublemaker whose romantic entanglements are the subject of endless gossip among the girls in her school.
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2. What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton, narrated by Hillary Rodham Clinton
For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history. Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules.
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3. Getting Off: One Woman’s Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction by Erica Garza, narrated by Joy Osmanski
A courageous account of one woman’s unflinching and ultimately hopeful journey through sex and porn addiction. A fixation on porn and orgasm, strings of failed relationships and serial hook-ups with strangers, inevitable blackouts to blunt the shame – these are not things we often hear women share publicly, and not with the candor, eloquence and introspection Erica Garza brings to Getting Off.
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4. This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins, narrated by Morgan Jerkins
From one of the fiercest critics writing today, Morgan Jerkins’ highly-anticipated collection of linked essays interweaves her incisive commentary on pop culture, feminism, black history, misogyny, and racism with her own experiences to confront the very real challenges of being a black woman today — perfect for fans of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me.
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5. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur, narrated by Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur reads milk and honey, her New York Times bestselling collection of poetry and prose about survival, the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache.
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6. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, narrated by Caroline Lee
Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate, remembering everything and forgiving no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but pays a price for the illusion of perfection. Single mom Jane is so young, another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. They are at different crossroads, but all wind up in the same shocking place.
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7. The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips, narrated by Bahni Turpin
A new edition of this award-winning modern classic, the shade of a 13-year-old black girl’s skin can make the difference in her fate. Tangy Mae is the smartest of her mother’s ten children, but she is also the darkest-complected. The Quinns-all different skin shades, all with unknown fathers-live with their charismatic, beautiful, and tyrannical mother, Rozelle, in poverty on the fringes of a Georgia town where Jim Crow rules.
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8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under — maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies.
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9. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, narrated by Elisa Donovan
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, ranked eighth on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, is one of America’s most galvanizing leaders, and an icon for millions of women juggling work and family. In Lean In, she urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, to find work that they love, and to remain passionately engaged with it at the highest levels throughout their lives.
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10. Wild by Cheryl Strayed, narrated by Bernadette Dunn
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Alone.
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11. Heart Talk by Cleo Wade, narrated by Cleo Wade
True to her hugely popular Instagram account, Cleo Wade brings her moving life lessons to Heart Talk, an inspiring, accessible, and spiritual book of wisdom for the new generation. Featuring over one hundred and twenty of Cleo’s original poems, mantras, and affirmations, including fan favorites and never before seen ones, this book is a daily pep talk to keep you feeling empowered and motivated.
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12. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, narrated by Karissa Vacker
In this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside age-old questions surrounding motherhood, identity, and freedom.
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What really happened when LeBron James stunned the NBA by leaving a potential dynasty in Miami to come home to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers? How did the Cavs use secret meetings to put together the deal to add star Kevin Love? Who really made the controversial decision to fire coach David Blatt when the team was in first place? Where did the greatest comeback in NBA history truly begin-and end?
At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals.
