Female Author Book List

Jessica Pin
2 min readAug 22, 2021

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This is a response to Naval Ravikant’s list of >170 recommended books, not one of which is by a woman

I will add to this list as I hear of more books. All are non-fiction and about science, engineering, medicine, psychology, or business. So far, Willful Blindness and Mindset are my favorites that I have read (all read books are marked with *).

A few books on this list do pertain to women’s issues. Some are specifically on how bias leads to substandard healthcare for women. But why shouldn't men read about problems that affect women? Surely they care about their mothers, wives, and daughters?

  1. Margaret Heffernan Willful Blindness*
  2. Carol Dweck Mindset*
  3. Mary Roach Bonk,* Stiff*
  4. Lucy Cooke Bitch*
  5. Caroline Criado Perez Invisible Women*
  6. Jennifer Doudna A Crack in Creation*
  7. Bethany McLean The Smartest Guys in the Room, All the Devils Are Here
  8. Sheryl Sandberg Option B,* Lean In
  9. Esther Perel Mating in Captivity*
  10. Liz Wiseman Multipliers
  11. Maria Konnikova The Biggest Bluff
  12. Hannah Fry Hello World, The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything
  13. Wednesday Martin Untrue*
  14. Zoe Chance Influence Is Your Superpower
  15. Francesca Gino Rebel Talent
  16. Katy Mack The End of Everything
  17. Soraya Chemaly Rage Becomes Her*
  18. Laura Huang Edge
  19. Angela Saini Inferior*
  20. Cathy O’Neal Weapons of Math Destruction
  21. Elinor Cleghorn Unwell Women
  22. Julia Galef The Scout Mindset
  23. Cordelia Fine Delusions of Gender
  24. Leah Feldman Barrett How Emotions Are Made
  25. Arianna Huffington Thrive
  26. Angela Duckworth Grit
  27. Molly Maloof The Spark Factor
  28. Barbara Tversky Mind in Motion
  29. Alyson McGregor Sex Matters
  30. Annie Duke How to Decide, Thinking in Bets
  31. Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities
  32. Jennifer Eberhardt Biased
  33. Katy Milkman How to Change*
  34. Kim Scott Radical Candor
  35. Laura Major What To Expect When You’re Expecting Robots
  36. Peggy Orenstein Girls and Sex,* Boys and Sex*
  37. Emily Balcetis Clearer, Closer, Better
  38. Gina Rippon The Gendered Brain
  39. Rosabeth Moss Kanter Think Outside the Building
  40. Becky Smethurst A Brief History of Black Holes
  41. Steffanie Strathdee The Perfect Predator
  42. Glennon Doyle Untamed
  43. Susan Cain Quiet
  44. Brene Brown Daring Greatly,* Dare to Lead
  45. Susan Fowler Whistleblower
  46. Maya Dusenbery Doing Harm
  47. Giulia Enders Gut
  48. Nicole Forsgren Accelerate
  49. Abigail Shrier Irreversible Damage
  50. Rose George Nine Pints
  51. Kate Manne Down Girl
  52. Elizabeth Wurtzel Bitch
  53. Mahzarin Banaji Blindspot
  54. Sue Lloyd-Roberts The War on Women
  55. Jennifer Block Everything Below the Waist
  56. Gabrielle Jackson Pain and Prejudice
  57. Renee Engeln Beauty Sick
  58. Margot Lee Shetterly Hidden Figures
  59. Kate Moore The Radium Girls
  60. Amanda Montell Wordslut
  61. Sue Johnson Hold Me Tight
  62. Dr. Laurie Mintz Becoming Cliterate*
  63. Betty Dodson Sex by Design
  64. Mary Jane Sherfey The Nature and Evolution of Female Sexuality
  65. Rachel Gross Vagina Obscura
  66. Melanie Mitchell Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
  67. Laura Bates Men Who Hate Women
  68. Riane Eisler The Chalice and the Blade
  69. Virginia Woolf The Beauty Myth, Vagina
  70. Susan David Emotional Agility
  71. Mari Ruti The Age of Scientific Sexism
  72. Catherine Price The Power of Fun
  73. Mary Ann Seighart The Authority Gap
  74. Chaminde We Should All Be Feminists

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Jessica Pin

Getting clitoral neural anatomy included in OB/GYN textbooks. It was finally added for the first time in July 2019. BME/EE @WUSTL