Library Spotlight: Women's History Month

She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral--viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time. Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words.

At twenty-one, Amaryllis Fox was recruited by the CIA. At twenty-two, she was fast-tracked into advanced operations training, sent from Langley to "the Farm," where she lived for six months in a simulated world learning how to use a Glock, how to get out of flexicuffs while locked in the trunk of a car, how to withstand torture, and the best ways to commit suicide in case of captivity. At the end of this training, she was deployed as a spy under non-official cover--the most difficult and coveted job in the field as an art dealer specializing in tribal and indigenous art and sent to infiltrate terrorist networks in remote areas of the Middle East and Asia.

All moms have to deal with choosing baby names, potty training, finding your village, and answering your kid's tough questions, but if you are raising a Black child, you have to deal with a lot more than that. Especially if you're a single Black mom... and adopting. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single Black moms, and confronts the reality of what it looks like to raise children of color and answer their questions about racism in modern-day America.

When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone's boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? Complete with recipes, Save Me the Plums is a personal journey of a woman coming to terms with being in charge and making a mark, following a passion and holding on to her dreams--even when she ends up in a place she never expected to be.

That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Born blind in Vietnam, she narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with three hundred other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age thirty-seven, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began.

At the core of The Anthropologist are the parallel stories of two women: Margaret Mead, who popularized cultural anthropology in America; and Susie Crate, an environmental anthropologist currently studying the impact of climate change. Uniquely revealed from their daughters' perspectives, Mead and Crate demonstrate a fascination with how societies are forced to negotiate the disruption of their traditional ways of life, whether through encounters with the outside world or the unprecedented change wrought by melting permafrost, receding glaciers, and rising tides.

Reel Herstory takes us on a sweeping journey that looks at the remarkable achievements of female filmmakers from 1896 into the 21st century who transformed the way we look at movies. Using rare footage and exclusive interviews with filmmakers all over the globe, Reel Herstory corrects the notion that women behind the scenes held adjunct or peripheral careers and restores them rightfully to their pioneering status.

She's Beautiful When She's Angry chronicles the birth of the modern women's liberation movement in the 1960s and early 1970s, covering the emergence of the National Organization for Women (NOW) as well as more radical factions such as WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell!). This film also includes new and archival interviews with feminists of that era.

Every family has its secrets. Director Peter Stephan Jungk had always known that his Austrian-born great aunt, Edith Tudor-Hart, was a talented documentary photographer. But it was not until twenty years after her death in 1973 that he learned she had led a double life and changed the course of history. Jungk unravels what had been a well-kept secret by speaking with military historians, photo archivists, ex-KGB agents, and family members.

In 2011, construction workers were shocked to uncover the remains of a woman in an abandoned lot in Queens, New York. Follow forensic archaeologist Scott Warnasch and a team of historians and scientists as they investigate this woman's story, revealing a vivid picture of what life was like for free African American people in the North.

In 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer delivered a heart-wrenching testimony before the Democratic National Convention's (DNC) Credentials Committee. As significant as the 1964 DNC speech is, this book will underscore that Hamer's testimony was but one moment within a remarkable life that spanned fifty-nine tumultuous years in the history of American race relations.

Trailblazing African American civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree recounts her inspiring life story. When African American attorneys had to leave the courthouses to use the bathroom, Roundtree took on Washington's white legal establishment and prevailed, winning a 1955 landmark bus desegregation case that would help to dismantle the practice of "separate but equal" and shatter Jim Crow laws.

Most civil rights victories are achieved behind the scenes, and this riveting, beautifully written memoir by a "black first" looks back with searing insight on the decades of struggle, friendship, courage, humor, and savvy that secured what seems commonplace today--people of color working in mainstream media.

Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait? weaves together two storylines: the trajectories of Alice Paul and Woodrow Wilson, two apparent opposites. With no equality in sight and patience wearing thin, Paul organized a parade of eight thousand suffragists on Pennsylvania Avenue and the first group to ever picket in front of the White House lawn.

For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship.

This one-of-a-kind intersectional anthology features the writings of the most well-known suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, alongside accounts of those often overlooked because of their race, from Native American women to African American suffragists like Ida B. Wells and the three Forten sisters.

Beginning in World War I, in an effort to boost soldiers' morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women and famous entertainers overseas. Young women from across the United States, many of whom had never traveled far from home, volunteered to serve in one of the nation's most brutal work environments.

The first Vietnam POWs to return home would learn that their rescuers were their wives. These women, who formed The National League of Families, went to extraordinary lengths to facilitate their husbands' freedom and to account for missing military men--by relentlessly lobbying government leaders, conducting a savvy media campaign, conducting covert meetings with antiwar activists, and helping to code secret letters to their imprisoned husbands.

The woman warrior is always cast as an anomaly--Joan of Arc, not GI Jane. But women, it turns out, have always gone to war. In this fascinating and lively world history, Pamela Toler not only introduces us to women who took up arms but also shows why they did it and what happened when they stepped out of their traditional female roles to take on other identities.

They were the most famous sisters in China. As the country battled through a hundred years of wars, revolutions and seismic transformations, the three Soong sisters from Shanghai were at the center of power, and each of them left an indelible mark on history. All three sisters showed great courage and experienced passionate love as well as despair, heartbreak, and constant mortal danger.

But Sandra Day O'Connor's story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings--doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness. When she arrived at the Supreme Court, appointed by Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law.

In the 2018 midterms, the greatest number of women in history were elected to Congress. The group was diverse in background, age, experience, and ideology. From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and "the Squad" to a group with national security backgrounds calling themselves "the Badasses," from the first two Native American women to the first two Muslim women, all came into office on an enormous wave of grassroots support.

Dita Kraus grew up in Prague in an intellectual, middle-class Jewish family--until the advent of the Holocaust. Torn from her home, Dita was sent to Auschwitz with her family. From her time in the children's block of Auschwitz to her liberation from the camps and on into her adulthood, Dita's powerful memoir sheds light on an incredible life--one that is delayed no longer.

By 1941, Winston Churchill believed that the outcome of World War II rested on the battle for the Atlantic. A grand strategy game was devised by Captain Gilbert Roberts and a group of ten members of the Women's Royal Naval Service in an attempt to reveal the tactics behind the German U-boats. Through play, the designers developed "Operation Raspberry," a counter-maneuver that helped turn the tide of World War II.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Gertrude Legendre, married and a mother of two, joined the OSS, the wartime spy organization that preceded the CIA. In 1944, while on leave in liberated Paris, Legendre was captured by the Germans, witnessing the collapse of Hitler's Reich as no other American did. After six months in captivity, Legendre escaped into Switzerland.

In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one goal: make a team, any team. For Missy, that turned out to be the basketball team. Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in athletics. Missy and her teammates finally had opportunities. And, in 1979, they became state champions.

Czechoslovakia, October 1937. Vast crowds have gathered to watch the threatened nation's most prestigious sporting contest: the Grand Pardubice steeplechase. The Nazis have sent their paramilitary elite--SS officers on a mission to crush the "subhuman Slavs". The local cavalry officers have no hope of stopping them. But there is one other contestant: a countess riding a little golden mare....

Rachael Denhollander's voice was heard around the world when she spoke out to end the most shocking US gymnastics scandal in history. The first victim to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor who sexually abused hundreds of young athletes, Rachael now reveals her full story for the first time.

Working in wide-reaching fields that include botany, floral design, landscape architecture, farming, herbalism, and food justice, these 75 inspiring women are creating change from the ground up. Rich with personal stories and insights, Jewell's portraits reveal a devotion that transcends age, locale, and background, reminding us of the profound role of green growing things in our world--and our lives.

Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she developed a fascination with the investigation of violent crimes and made it her life's work. Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.

If "a woman's place is in the kitchen," why is the history of food such an old boys' club? In an era when women were told to stay at home and leave glory to the men, these rebel women used the transformative power of food to break barriers and fight for a better world. This book reclaims women's rightful place--in the kitchen, and beyond.

From Scarlett O'Hara to Thelma and Louise to Wonder Woman, strong women have not only lit up the screen, they've also inspired and fired our imaginations. All dynamic women buck the narrow confines of their expected gender role -- whether by taking small steps or revolutionary strides.

Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop--from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. At last, this book gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.

The animated films of Walt Disney Studios have moved and entertained millions. But few fans know that behind these groundbreaking features was an incredibly influential group of women who fought for respect in an often ruthless male-dominated industry and who have slipped under the radar for decades.

In the early morning of April 14, 2014, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram violently burst into the small town of Chibok, Nigeria, and abducted 276 girls from their school dorm rooms. Many unanswered questions surrounding that fateful night remain about the girls' experiences in captivity and where many of them are today.

Surrounded by people who sought to limit her potential, Doris vowed to turn the tables. Becoming an expert world-class jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies. But even prison couldn't contain this larger-than-life personality who cleverly used nuns as well as various ruses to help her break out.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, the sadistic Knotek mother subjected her daughters to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than their mother imagined.