March is Women’s History Month, so today, I thought I’d share some recommendations for books about women in history that also complete 2026 Read Harder Challenge tasks. We have memoirs and biographies about famous women in history, little-known women’s history, and books about women making history today. Let’s dive in!
Task #1: Read a microhistory
Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement by Wendy L. Rouse
While you may be quite familiar with the suffragist movement of the early 20th century, you may be less familiar with the correlated birth of the women’s self-defense movement. Rouse explores why (white) women took to boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and other forms of defense in the early 1900s. Of course, the move was largely to protect themselves from the men in their lives, but Rouse doesn’t shy away from exposing uglier truths — like how white women wielded this tool of empowerment to reinforce their privileged spot above women of color. —Nicole Hill
Task #5: Read a nonfiction book about resistance
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The Combahee River Collective was a group of radical Black lesbian feminists in 1960s and ’70s Boston who believed in intersectionality (before we had a word for it) and the idea that “If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free.” This book reprints the Combahee River Collective Statement, still impactful and relevant almost 50 years later, and editor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor interviews Combahee members. —Alice Burton
All Access members, read on for more books to read for Women’s History Month and the 2026 Read Harder Challenge.
Task #7: Read a sports book by a woman, trans, or nonbinary writer
All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is one of the winningest athletes in tennis, with an amazing twenty Wimbledon championships and thirty-nine grand-slam titles. She also inspired generations of young women, as she broke barriers in a sexist sport (most notably by beating Bobby Riggs in the famous “Battle of the Sexes”) and paved the way for other LGBTQ+ athletes. This is a fascinating, fierce memoir by a legend, one whose name will never be forgotten. —Liberty Hardy
Task #13: Read a nonfiction comic
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez
Dr. Hall and illustrator Hugo Martinez deliver a strong and unforgotten lesson on the countless Black women who have led slave revolts throughout history. While many of these brave women never made it into our history books, Hall dives deep into public records as well as her own family’s history to discover brave women who risked their lives for their families and communities in an effort to liberate us all. Women’s History Month would not be the same without learning about these heroes. —Erika Hardison
Task #15: Read a book by a librarian
That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones
In this memoirifesto, Louisiana librarian Amanda Jones recounts how she went to advocate for the freedom to read at a local public hearing in 2022 and was immediately plunged into a nightmare. Right-wing book banners called her things like a pedo and a porn pusher, but she fought back. She sued her defamers and has been encouraging others to do the same. In That Librarian, she calls on all book lovers to stand up to the deluge of book bans the U.S. has been suffering through the last few years. —Erica Ezeifedi
Task #16: Read a queer picture book
One Day in June by Tourmaline
Trans artist and activist Tourmaline wrote Marsha, a phenomenal biography of icon Marsha P. Johnson that was released in 2025. It made a big splash, but many haven’t heard of the picture book companion for young readers, One Day in June. It’s a bright, colorful book about how Marsha P. Johnson’s joyful spirit helped shape the movement for LGBTQ+ rights and how we celebrate Pride today. —Susie Dumond
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