Women's History Month

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Call #: Adult Plath

An autobiographical novel which chronicles the mental breakdown of Esther Greenwood, a gifted young woman working for the summer as a junior editor at a New York magazine in the early 1950s.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Sherly

Call #: 510.92 Shetterly

Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as -human computers- used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Call#: Adult 921 Angelou

Poet Maya Angelou chronicles her early life, focusing on her childhood in 1930s rural Arkansas, including her rape at the age of five, her subsequent years of muteness, and the strength she gained from her grandmother and Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a respected African-American woman in her town.

Memories of Anne Frank, Alison Gold

Call #: LIT 949.2 Gold

A touching memoir recounts the story of Hannah Goslar, a close friend of Anne Frank during her time in Amsterdam and one of the last people to see her alive after their detainment at a concentration camp. Reprint.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta, Rebecca Skloot

Call #: Adult 616.02 Skloot

Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which was used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta's life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics.

Purple Hibiscus, Chimanda Adichie

Call #: Adult Adichie

Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear.Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home-a home that is silent and suffocating.