Women’s History Month is a dedicated month to reflect on and highlight the impact and contributions of both women past and present. In celebrating Women’s History Month, it is important to honor struggles, challenges, and triumphs. It is essential that we do not simply focus on singular achievements, but that we recognize the entirety of the experience of being and living as a woman. 

In this blog we are featuring books from five women authors and are recognizing their literary achievements. We are recognizing their achievements as published authors and also want to highlight their dedication to representing and portraying women’s experiences throughout their books. These selected books vary in storylines, characters, themes, etc., but all of them present women characters with an authenticity and genuineness that maximizes readership connections with characters and leaves an unforgettable impact long after the reader flips past the final page of the book. 

Let’s explore these five books so that you can decide which one to start reading first! 

Wrong Kind of Paper by Cynthia Simmons

When an ambitious reporter takes a job in a town where nothing ever happens, bad things happen.

Hallie Linden yearns to write for the New York Times. At the moment, she’s stuck at a daily newspaper in tiny Green Meadow, Indiana, a town known for its amusement park and nothing else. It’s 1989, and juicy reporting jobs are hard to find. She resolves to work hard, win a few awards, and then welcome the job offers.

Hallie’s beats are cops, courts, and schools. When the local D.A.R.E. officer’s dog bites a schoolkid—at school—Hallie learns that Green Meadow’s townspeople have a reason for keeping quiet.

A steamy and ill-advised liaison with a firefighter connects Hallie with sources who are eager to talk, yet also fear for their lives. Bull-headed, idealistic Hallie struggles to figure out who she can trust in order to get the real story.

Told with gritty detail, Wrong Kind of Paper is a love song to ordinary people who decide to fight for what is right.

Page Count: 264

Imprint: Brown Posey Press

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Feminist / Small Town & Rural / Romance / Firefighters

Leave Everything You Know Behind by Ginny Fite

Cranky, aging newspaper publisher Anne Canfield is determined to live forever, no matter what. Young, brilliant writer and teacher Indira Anand thinks she wants to die. But the winter morning Anne saves Indira Anand from drowning, everything changes. 

That evening, Anne stumbles and falls. Diagnosed shortly after her fall with incurable brain cancer and only months to live, she must hurry to save her newspaper, heal her regrets, keep her secrets hidden, and protect her son from the truth before time runs out.

Indira, suffering a second incidence of ovarian cancer, wants to invoke her right to die. Thwarted by both the law and her distant husband but desperate to escape the pain she watched her grandmother endure, she wavers, unsure of her decision. 

Out of options, Indira reaches out to Anne. Even as they make a pact to help each other, Indira realizes Anne won’t live long enough to be with her at the end. She must find another way.

Leave is a story about what keeps us wanting to live, what we’ll do for redemption, and how love can save us. 

Page Count: 236

Imprint: Milford House Press

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Women / Literary / Family Life

When the Only Light Is the Moon by Rita Wilson

Four women, four stories, and a chance encounter that changes everything.

Still reeling from a recent breakup, Demi, a Greek-American banquet manager, joins her mother, aunt, and cousin on a trip to Greece, hoping to clear her head, heal her heart, and take a break from an unfulfilling job.  Her plans for a relaxing holiday are derailed when their rental car breaks down on their way to the coast; that is, until they are rescued by a villager and her charming grandson, Stavros. While Demi navigates this unexpected romance, her mother, aunt, and cousin examine their own fears, hopes, and dreams, aided by Charles, a witty British author who endears himself to them with his good humor and sage advice. Demi’s whirlwind romance ends abruptly when she returns to the States despite Stavros’s pleas for her to stay with him.  Upon her return, she must confront her feelings for Stavros and her impossible job situation.  With Charles’s advice in mind, the ladies tackle their issues. 

Set in a charming Greek village, When the Only Light of the Moon follows two sisters and their daughters as they navigate individual journeys of self-discovery through the unexpected help of strangers. The crystal blue Mediterranean skies and silvery olive groves provide a magical backdrop for this lively story of romance, realization, and renewal.

Page Count: 252

Imprint: Milford House Press

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Women / Romance / International / Family Life / Siblings

Summer Squall by Sarah Jones

Beth Gardner knows what she wants. As she approaches her thirtieth birthday, her life has progressed like the to-do list stuck to her refrigerator. Fulfilling job? Check. Condo in a trendy Atlanta neighborhood? Check. Supportive friends and a cat to cuddle? Check and check. Safe distance from her childhood in Tennessee? Big check. But something is still missing.

When she meets the charming Mark Berger out dancing one night, it’s love at first tango. Adventurous and athletic, Mark encourages her to venture out of her carefully constructed life and begin a new life with him in southwest Florida. “Slow down,” her friends advise. “What’s the hurry?” her therapist asks. “Why not?” Beth responds. “Why not happiness for a change?”

But will open-water diving, night lobster hunts, and off-shore sailing offer smooth waters for the couple? Or will the dangers and secrets of the deep pull them under? Determined to make this relationship work, Beth is about to find out.

Full of adventure and reflection, Summer Squall explores how the correct course in life isn’t always straight line.

Page Count: 240

Imprint: Milford House Press

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Women / Southern / Friendship / Family Life / Marriage & Divorce

Bitter Magic by Nancy Hayes Kilgore

Bitter Magic, inspired by the true story of Isobel Gowdie and her witchcraft confession, reveals a little-known corner of history—the lives of both pagan and Protestant women in the Scottish Reformation of the 1600s as witch trials and executions threatened their lives, values, and beliefs.

The story is told by Isobel herself and also by Margaret Hay, a fictionalized seventeen-year-old noble woman. When Margaret stumbles across Isobel one day, it seems as though Isobel is commanding the dolphins in the ocean to dance. Margaret is enchanted. She becomes interested in Isobel’s magic, in fairies, and in herbal remedies; Isobel freely shares her knowledge. While Margaret worries that being around Isobel could be dangerous, she also respects Isobel’s medical successes and comes to believe that acknowledging the efficacy of herbal remedies or believing in fairies does not challenge her Christianity.

But Isobel believes in more than cheery fairies and herbal medicine. She has dark wishes as well, unknown to most people. Isobel seeks vengeance against the local lord who executed her mother for witchcraft. More important, Isobel’s trance experiences (or are they dreams?) lead her to confess to a wide range of sins, including consorting with the devil. Then, during her trial, Isobel names thirteen others, calling them all witches. To her great shock, Margaret hears her own name. Can her tutor, a Christian mystic named Katharine, save them?

Page Count: 276

Imprint: Milford House Press

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Historical / Women / Literary / Romance / Paranormal / Witches

Thank you for checking out our list of “5 Books to Read for Women’s History Month”! Stay tuned for more blog posts like this one coming soon!