500 Great Books by Women

Co-authors: Erica Bauermeister, Jesse Larsen and Holly Smith

500 Great Books by Women presents a rich array of books by women authors from across time and from over seventy countries. The guide is organized by theme, with indexes by author, title, country, genre, and date, among others. Our goal was to cover as many centuries as possible, and as many countries as we could.  The criteria were simple – the book had to be written by a woman, in print, and written or translated into English – and one of the three of us had to love it.

“Imagine an unhurried afternoon spent browsing among the best possible selection of books by and about women. Imagine further that you’re with friends who take the time to browse along with you and occasionally murmur over a prized find, ‘You must read this,’ or ‘I loved this book because…’ Then buy this book, fix yourself a cup of tea, and enjoy.”

—
Kathryn Cullen-Dupont, co-author,Women’s Suffrage in America

Let’s Hear It For Girls

375 GREAT BOOKS FOR READERS 2-14

Co-authors: Erica Bauermeister and Holly Smith

Each book annotated in Let’s Hear It for the Girls presents a portrait of a strong female protagonist. Books are arranged alphabetically by title in four age ranges, while indexes by title, author, time period of the book, subject, and country of book content make finding the right book easy. Now, over fifteen years since its publication, we are meeting amazing girls and boys who grew up on the works we selected – and it is an incredible experience.

“Bravo for Bauermeister and Smith! They’ve give adults and young girls a much-needed treasure map of heroines and ‘she-roes.’ With its hundreds of titles and summaries, it blazes an important path in the forest of children’s literature.”

—Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook

“A wonderful resource for parents who want to encourage their daughters to be strong, capable, and self-reliant.”

—Mindy Bingham, co-author of Things Will Be Different For My Daughter