Please join us as we meet on Zoom each first Wednesday evening of the month to discuss books about women who have helped to shape history. If you're interested in joining our group, please click on the link below to register so you can receive an invitation with a link to join the meetings. While you don't have to have read the book to take part, we would appreciate it if all purchases would be made either here through our website (scroll down for selections), or at our cash counter either in person or by phone.

For those of you who would prefer to meet in person, we do have a live group that usually meets to discuss the same book each third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm in Conference Room A of the St. George Public Library (downstairs). That group is led by Jamee Adams and if you contact us at (435) 619-8200, we can provide her contact information, or you can simply show up to a meeting to join.

REGISTER ONCE FOR ALL RECURRING VIRTUAL MEETINGS HERE.

READING SCHEDULE FOR 2023:

JANUARY - "The Chancellor" by Kati Marton (2022) | Biography | 368 pages | $18.99 - The definitive biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, detailing the extraordinary rise and political brilliance of the most powerful -- and elusive -- woman in the world.

FEBRUARY - "The Woman They Could Not Silence" by Kate Moore (2022) | Biography | 560 pages | $16.99 - The captivating story of Elizabeth Packard, a forgotten heroine whose harrowing ordeal in an insane asylum seems straight from the mind of Stephen King--except every word is true. In 1860 Packard was committed by her husband to the Illinois State Hospital. This courageous woman fought for her own freedom--and in doing so freed millions more.

MARCH - "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai (2015) | Biography | 368 pages | $18.99 - Memoir by the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley of Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, when she was 15, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to live.

APRIL - "The Only Woman in the Room" by Marie Benedict (2019) | Historical Fiction | 336 pages | $16.99 - Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side and understood more than anyone could guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

MAY - The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell (2022) | Historical Fiction | 352 pages | $28.00 - In 1560, fifteen-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de'Medici left Florence to begin her married life with Alfonso II d'esme, Duke of Ferrara. It was a union meant to unite two Renaissance dynasties. The book brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life and offers an unforgettable portrait of a resilient young woman battling for her very survival.

JUNE - Come Fly the World by Julia Cooke (2022) | History | 288 pages | $16.99 - Required to have a college degree, speak two languages and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age stewardess serving on iconic Pan Am between 1966 and 1975 also had to be 5'3" and 5'9", between 105 and 140 pounds, and under twenty-six years old at the time of hire. Cooke's intimate storytelling weaves together the real-life stories of a memorable cast of characters... She brings to light the story of Pan Am stewardesses' role in the Vietnam War, as the airline added runs from Saigon to Hong Kong for planeloads of weary young soldiers straight from the battlefield.

JULY - The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict (2022) | Historical Fiction | 352 pages | $17.00 - A remarkable novel about J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation.

AUGUST - Wise Gals by Nathalia Holt (2022) | History | 400 pages | $28.00 - In the wave of WWII, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page and Elizabeth Sudmeier were called "wise gals" by their male colleagues because of their sharp senses of humor and keen intelligence. They were at the top of their class, and throughout the Cold War era each woman had a vital role to play on the international stage.

SEPTEMBER - The Divorce Colony by April White (2022) | History | 304 pages | $30.00 - For a woman traveling without her husband in the late nineteenth century, there was only one reason to take the train all the way to Sioux Fall, South Dakota -- one sure way to garner disapproval from fellow passengers. On the American frontier, the new state offered a tempting freedom that was often difficult to obtain elsewhere: divorce.

OCTOBER - The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs (2021) | Nonfiction | 288 pages | $17.99 - The book focuses on the women who raised some of the most influential figures in history: Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and Martin Luther King, Jr. It addresses the discrimination and prejudice faced by these Black women during Jim Crow as they taught, cared for and supported their sons.

NOVEMBER - Zarifa: A Woman's Battle in a Man's World by Zarifa Ghafari (2022) | Biography | 288 pages | $29.00 - Zarifa Ghafari was three years old when the Taliban banned girls from schools, and she began her education in secret. She was six when American airstrikes began. She was 24 when she became mayor--one of the first female mayors in the country--and first of Wardak, one of the most conservative provinces in Afghanistan. An extremist mob barred her from office; her male staff walked out in protest; assassins tried to kill her three times. Through it all, Zarifa stood her ground. She ended corruption in the municipality, promoted peace, and tried to lift up women, despite constant fear for herself and her family. When the Taliban took Kabul in 2021, Ghafari had to flee. But even that couldn't stop her. Six months later, she returned to continue her work empowering women.

DECEMBER - A Woman of Influence by Vanessa Wilkie (April, 2023) | Biography | 240 pages | $28.00 - This extraordinary true story transports us to Tudor and Stuart England as Alice Spencer, the daughter of an upstart sheep farmer, becomes one of the most powerful women in the country and establishes a powerful dynasty that endures to this day.

*Below, you will find purchase links to the first six books on our 2023 list. If interested in past picks or other recommended titles, please see the attached PDF forms.