Historic photo: black and white image of a crowd of women suffragettes dressed in white marching on a city street lined by men in dark suits.

5 Memoirs to Read for International Women’s Day

(Feature Image: From the [U.S.] National Archives catalog; National Archives Identifier: 593556)

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Purple square background with text: Happy International Women's Day #EmbraceEquity #IWD2023
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.

#IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity

Here are memoirs by five strong women with whom to celebrate.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd was an established Christian inspirational writer when an incident involving her teenage daughter called her to question her strict Southern Baptist upbringing. The resulting spiritual quest produced a profound change in her belief system.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

After the death of her husband and writing partner of 40 years, Joan Didion faced the prospect of living and writing alone. This book is her account of dealing with grief and adjusting to a new reality.

The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

This moving memoir covers Mary Karr?s childhood, which ?included rape, sodomy, an embittered maternal grandmother with an artificial leg who maneuvered her wheelchair around the house chiding and terrifying the children, a mother whose own demons, which she tried to fend off with liquor and tranquilizers, took priority over her children.?

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief by Ann Hood

After the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter from a virulent form of strep, novelist Ann Hood found herself unable to read or write?or do anything else. In desperation, she turned to knitting, a meditative activity that helped to ease her back into living.

Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

Novelist Ann Patchett describes her young-adult friendship with poet Lucy Grealy, whose troubled life led to her death from an accidental drug overdose at the age of 39.

©  2023 by Mary Daniels Brown

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