The Women Who Write the Real World

Welcome to You Might Like, our weekly recommendations column. In this issue, the recommendations come from our founding editor Josie Cox, an avid consumer (and writer) of women-centric nonfiction.

Last month I did something I’d wanted to do for a very long time: I signed up for a guided tour of the New York Public Library’s magnificent flagship building, overlooking Fifth Avenue. Wandering through the various reading rooms, archives and corridors, you can almost feel the collective intellectual might of New Yorkers past and present. But one thing I couldn’t help myself doing — as I so often do — was scouting for women. I scoured the paintings on the rotunda and the names on the walls, and while I did spot a few (there’s a reading room named after Brooke Russell Astor, for example), it was, of course, male industrialists, philanthropists and financiers who showed up most.

This got me thinking about libraries and the literary world more generally. Where do we actually stand in terms of gender balance when it comes to books — the gender author gap, if you will? According to an Australian study examining gender representation in literary reviews, 61% of fiction books reviewed in 2020 were written by women. For nonfiction, however, the statistic was less impressive: just 45%. 

The numbers aren't a comprehensive measure of all books published, but they do point to a troubling divide between the genres — and raise necessary questions about whose voices we consider authoritative.

One thing we can all do is keep reading, recommending and celebrating the women who are helping us make sense of the world. The thing is, for me, choosing my favorite women writers of nonfiction would be like choosing a favorite child (or, well, choosing a favorite book). That said, here’s a list of six nonfiction books by women that I’ve read (or re-read) and loved so far this year. They include histories, biographies and memoirs. Some are old, some are brand new. All have made me think about the world and life a little differently.

A devastatingly beautiful memoir, in which Didion reflects on the death of her daughter, Quintana Roo, and confronts the fragility of life, memory and motherhood. It's a hauntingly intimate meditation on grief and aging, written with the characteristic precision, dark wit and restraint that made Didion one of America's finest prose stylists and a national treasure.

A sweeping, hulking, single-volume history of the United States — from its founding ideals of liberty and equality to the contradictions that have shaped the nation ever since. Lepore is brilliant and particularly artful at weaving the stories of women, enslaved people and other historically overlooked Americans into the larger national narrative. If you like this, also check out We The People, Lepore’s 2025 history of the U.S. Constitution.

A deeply researched and unsettling examination of the invisible hierarchies that have shaped American society. Wilkerson draws striking parallels between the racial caste system in the U.S., India's caste hierarchy and Nazi Germany. I read this when I first moved to the U.S. in 2020 and re-read it this year. I’ve yet to find a book that has been more helpful when it comes to understanding the forces that perpetuate inequality and the ways in which history continues to shape our lives.

I saw Orlean speak at the Santa Barbara Literary Festival this year and when her talk was over I almost rose from my seat to shout “encore!” I could read Orlean every single day and not get bored. This, her spirited memoir, offers a retrospective on her unconventional career, the people she's encountered and the tireless curiosity that has driven her writing. It's a lively celebration of journalism, storytelling and the unexpected places a willingness to follow your interests can take you.

A rollicking journey back through the history of the publishing world told through the life of Bennett Cerf, the charismatic co-founder of Random House, whose influence helped shape American publishing in the twentieth century. Feldman brings to life a remarkable cast of literary figures while offering a fascinating behind-the-scenes history of the business of books.

Blending memoir, science and environmental history, Boissoneault (whose magnificent essay on medical misogyny you can read here) explores the connections between chronic illness and a planet enduring its own upheavals. It's a moving, thought-provoking examination of what it means to inhabit a vulnerable body in an increasingly unstable world.

Fellow nonfiction readers, we want to hear from you. Which authors are on your list? Who should Josie read next? Get in touch and let us know: send us an email [email protected] and we may include it in the next You Might Like! We'll be back with more recommendations next Friday.