Let's go girls. Who run the world?
If you gravitate toward stories driven by strong women—whether fierce fictional heroines or trailblazing real-life icons—you’re a Leading Lady Reader. At Bookfinity, we know you look for books that empower, inspire, and spotlight the resilience, brilliance, and complexity of women across generations and genres.
This fall, discover a powerful lineup of new releases that celebrate the many facets of womanhood. From poignant memoirs and bold nonfiction to sweeping novels about love, identity, and legacy, these reads are packed with heart, strength, and unforgettable female voices. Your next empowering page-turner is waiting.
November New Releases
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
by Margaret Atwood
How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from the author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures.
'Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.'
Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents - entomologist father, dietician mother - Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It gets more forlorn.'), but also thrilling and beautiful.
From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking seminal moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel year that spawned Cat's Eye to the Orwellian 1980s Berlin where she wrote The Handmaid's Tale. In pages bursting with bohemian gatherings, her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and major political turning points, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood actors and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
As we travel with her along the course of her life, more and more is revealed about her writing, the connections between real life and art - and the workings of one of our greatest imaginations.
I, Medusa
by Ayana Gray
From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine.
The first edition hardcover will feature stunning sprayed edges, a premium dust jacket with foil, and a gorgeous custom-stamped case--while supplies last!
"Ayana Gray brings her fresh, dynamic storytelling to one of the most monstered, maligned, and misunderstood women of Greek myth, imagining all the girls that Medusa was and could have been."--Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Ariadne
Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home.
In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy's promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered.
When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--not as a victim, but as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth.
Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart's deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.
Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen's Unsung Characters
by Adriana Trigiani - Sarah MacLean - Eloisa James - Elinor Lipman - Audrey Bellezza - Karen Dukess - Emily Harding - Nikki Payne - Diana Quincy - Adriana Trigiani
Celebrate Jane Austen's classic novels with this short story anthology starring forgotten characters as they experience their own happy endings.
In honor of her 250th birthday, eight authors have come together with wildly imaginative reboots of the lives of several of Jane Austen's minor characters. Written with plenty of love and wit, these clever stories star everyone from Pride and Prejudice's snobbish Caroline Bingley to the modern descendant of Sense and Sensibility's Eliza Williams and much more. Blurring genres and taking us across the oceans, Ladies in Waiting is a heartfelt celebration of Jane Austen and her timeless masterpieces.
On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of Us Women Astronauts
by Valerie Neal
The definitive history of all 61 American women astronauts that's perfect for fans of The Six eager for more
Sally Ride became a household name as the first American woman in space, but scores of equally impressive women have also left their mark in space. On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts spans 45 years and 61 astronauts to share the epic journeys of women who made space for themselves in a male-dominated field.
Valerie Neal, emerita curator from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and expert on human spaceflight, interviewed many of the US women astronauts to bring their experiences to life. She offers a culturally insightful history of their achievements, the challenges they've faced, and their distinctive stories. Collectively, they've completed more than 100 space shuttle missions and more than 30 long-duration stays on the International Space Station and Russian Space Station Mir, and they continue to prove themselves in present-day space exploration efforts.
The book includes 50 black-and-white photographs to complement the historical account. With its sweeping look from the first women astronauts to Christina Hammock Koch, assigned to the first crewed Artemis mission around the Moon, there is no comparably thorough book on America's women astronauts. On a Mission is an inspiring tribute to unsung women's history.
You Could Do Damage Too
by K C Mills
From USA Today bestselling author K.C. Mills comes a scorching romance about a ruthless crime boss who discovers his greatest weakness may be the woman he vowed to protect--a gripping tale of power, protection, and the kind of love that breaks all the rules.
"You Could Do Damage Too weaves a delicious tale of romance, arranged marriage, and family secrets. The character development, storytelling, and romance showcase K.C. Mills's talent and the power of her stories. This is a must read!" --DANIELLE ALLEN, USA Today bestselling author of Curvy Girl Summer
In a world where power and survival intertwine, Nari--a resilient former foster child--finds herself unexpectedly married to Kincaid Akel, a ruthless businessman with a complicated past.
What begins as a calculated arrangement transforms into a passionate and dangerous journey of love, loyalty, and survival. Kincaid's fierce devotion to Nari is matched only by his willingness to eliminate anyone threatening her safety. But when the shadows of their past--including Nari's criminal father, Eli Manchester--begin to close in, their marriage is tested in ways neither could have imagined.
Pregnant and caught between her husband's dark world and her own search for identity, Nari must decide how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the life they're building together. With enemies lurking and secrets threatening to destroy everything, Kincaid and Nari must trust each other completely . . . or risk losing everything they've fought so hard to create.
The Merge
by Grace Walker
A thrilling and ominously prophetic debut set in a world when Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary--and highly controversial--procedure in which two people's consciousness can be combined to exist in one body.
How far would you go to never say goodbye?
Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer's. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can't bear to see her mother's mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world's first experimental merging process for Alzheimer's patients, in which Laurie's ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia's healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.
Soon Amelia and Laurie join the opaque and mysterious group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.
An exhilarating, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, The Merge is a personal story of love, family, and sacrifice, as well as a thought-provoking examination of the limits of control, resistance, and freedom in our modern world.
October New Releases
Bad Bad Girl
by Gish Jen
The award-winning author of The Resisters returns with an engrossing, blisteringly funny-sad autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .
Gish's mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid--far more loving to than her real mother--is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: "Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!" Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name--Agnes--but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, "Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot." Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail--never to return.
Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain--"Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!"--as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.
Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.
Heart the Lover
by Lily King
"Lily King has written another masterpiece. This book overflows with her brilliance and her heart. We are so lucky." --Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love
You knew I'd write a book about you someday.
Our narrator understands good love stories--their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.
In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.
Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.
Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
Hunting Ava
by Kiki Swinson
In an unforgettable portrait of Southern scheming, greed, and brutality a high-end criminal turned suburban mom in hiding must fight against the dangerous fallout from her corrupt past and escape a calculated enemy hell-bent on revenge.
She was once the best luxury car thief in the game. But Ava Frost paid a high price when her children were stolen. Forced to confront her ruthless ex-boss, Nick, she uncovered his devious silent partner in the kidnapping: her seemingly loving, seemingly wealthy husband, Kevin. Now Ava is making a new life with her children several states away from her former suburban life. She's also struggling to help her young son heal from their traumatic ordeal. So, when her soon-to-be ex-husband pressures her to return his part of the ransom, Ava pushes back . . . hard.
Along with a secret life insurance policy Kevin took out on her, Ava soon realizes she's worth way more to him dead than alive. And when she learns he's set Nick's vengeful sister and her murderous gangster husband on her trail, she must go up against an overwhelming enemy who will never stop hunting her--or her kids . . .
Fighting may be your last move . . .
Now with the odds against her and time running out, Ava must marshal all her resources and formidable skills to defend everything she's fought to save. But when one last dangerous twist causes her plans to irrevocably crash-and-burn, she'll battle tooth and claw to put her pursuers on the run--straight into a trap so treacherous even she may have no chance to survive . . .
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution
by Amanda Vaill
America's Founding Era reconsidered through the lives of two women as formidable as, and in some respects stronger than, the men they loved, married, and mothered.
Angelica and Elizabeth Schuyler, born to wealth and privilege in New York's Hudson Valley during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were raised to make good marriages and supervise substantial households. Instead they became embroiled in the turmoil of America's insurrection against Great Britain--and rebelled themselves, in ways as different as each was from the other, against the destiny mapped out for them.
Glamorous Angelica, who sought fulfillment through attachments to powerful men, eloped at twenty with a war profiteer and led a luxurious life, first in Paris, then in London, charming Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the Prince of Wales. Eliza, one year her junior, too candid for flirtation and uninterested in influence or intrigue, married a penniless illegitimate outsider, Alexander Hamilton, and devoted herself to his career. But after his appointment as America's first Treasury Secretary, she was challenged by the controversies in which he became involved, not the least of which was the attraction that grew between him and her adored sister.
When tragedy followed, everything changed for both women: one deprived of her animating spirit, the other improbably gaining a new, self-determined life. "You would not have suffered if you had married into a family less near the sun," wrote Angelica to Eliza, "but then [you would have missed] the pride, the pleasure, the nameless satisfactions."
Drawing on deep archival research, including never-published records and letters, Amanda Vaill interweaves this family drama with its historical context, creating a narrative with the sweep and intimacy of a nineteenth-century novel. Full of battles and dinner parties, murky politics and transparent frocks, fierce loyalty and betrayals both public and personal, Pride and Pleasure brings two extraordinary American heroines to life.
The Irish Goodbye
by Heather Aimee O'Neill
In this debut, for fans of J. Courtney Sullivan and Mary Beth Keane, three adult sisters grapple with a shared tragedy over a Thanksgiving weekend as they try to heal strained family bonds through the passage of time.
It's been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher's boat: A friend's brother was killed, the resulting lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret. The eldest, Cait, still holding guilt for the role no one knows she played in the boat accident, rekindles a flame with her high school crush: Topher's best friend and the brother of the boy who died. Middle sister, Alice, has been thrown a curveball that threatens the career she's restarting and faces a difficult decision that may doom her marriage. And the youngest, Maggie, is finally taking the risk of bringing the woman she loves home to meet her devoutly Catholic mother. Infusing everything is the grief for Topher that none of the Ryans have figured out how to carry together.
When Cait invites a guest from their shared past to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves--and one another.
September new releases
A New New Me
by Helen Oyeyemi
From the award-winning, bestselling "literary pied piper" (The New York Times) who brought us Boy, Snow, Bird comes a masterful story that asks: What if the different sides of your personality had trust issues with each other?
New Day, New You!
Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There's a Kinga for every day: On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath.
Kingas A-G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life--between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion, and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic.
It's an arrangement that's not without its fair share of admin, grudges, and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.
How many versions of oneself can one self safely contain?
Marrow
by Samantha Browning Shea
A searing take on femininity and power, Marrow transports readers to a small island off the coast of Maine, where a coven has done the seemingly impossible.
The day Oona was kicked out of her mother's coven, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft that was her birthright. Years later, she's carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she could only become a mother, then--according to island lore--she will come into her magic.
But after years of being unable to carry a pregnancy to term, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised--and to her dark, enigmatic mother . . . a witch who gives childless women the chance to become mothers.
Oona returns under the cover of anonymity, hoping for an answer. But, despite a celebrity clientele and a long wait-list, there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power her mother commands?
Tender and intense, witchy and wise, and written in prose that glitters and seethes, Marrow is a gripping novel about the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, about what we must believe in order to imagine a future for ourselves, and what we must let go in order to fully live it.
Awake: A Memoir
by Jen Hatmaker
From Jen Hatmaker--beloved New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love podcast--a brutally honest, funny, and revealing memoir about the traumatic end of her twenty-six-year-long marriage, and the beginning of a different kind of love story.
At 2:30 a.m. on July 11th, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade--urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationships--this seemed nothing less than total failure.
In Awake, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea--and how she made it to shore. In candid, surprisingly funny vignettes spanning forty years of girlhood, marriage, and parenting, Jen lays bare the disorienting upheaval of midlife--the implosion of a marriage, the unraveling of religious and cultural systems, and the grief that accompanies change you didn't ask for. And, drawing on all her resources--from without and from within--Jen dares to question the systems beneath the whole house of cards, and to reckon with the myths, half-truths, and lies that brought her to this point.
More than one woman's story, Awake is a critical analysis of the story given to all of us: the story of gender limitations, religious subservience, body shame, self-erasure. With refreshing candor, Jen explores a Midlife Renaissance--grieving what's lost, cherishing possibility, and entering the second half of life wide awake.
Having It All: What Data Tells Us about Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours
by Corinne Low
You're not imagining it: Women aren't getting a good deal at home or at work. We have the evidence to prove it. This book gives you the power to change it.
For women in America today, the promise of "having it all" is an ever-elusive carrot. Faced with unsustainable demands in every sphere, we are certainly doing it all--but at a steep cost. Research shows that biologically, culturally, and economically, we are on uneven playing ground, and one that drains us of our happiness. But that same data can empower us to make choices that will reclaim our time, our energy―and even our joy.
In Having It All, Wharton professor and economist Dr. Corinne Low unpacks the hidden factors that influence women's decision-making, and how the unintended consequences of these choices alter the course of our lives. From when and whether to get married and (or) have children to what type of career to pursue, whether to obtain an advanced degree to where to live--Dr. Low explores questions such as:
- What if there is no optimal time to "have a family" but rather a slew of different considerations at different life stages?
- What if we approached decisions around marriage and partnership as rigorously as we would an employment opportunity?
- What if we valued our time in dollars and cents, and structured our lives around choices that give us the greatest return on our investments?
For too long, women have been expected to accept labor-intensive solutions to systemic problems--optimize, lean in, work harder. But Dr. Low isn't suggesting women need to do more. In the tradition of bestselling books like Eve Rodsky's Fair Play and Emily Oster's Cribsheet, Having It All blends personal experience, research, and analysis to illuminate the complex decisions women face, and offers an evidence-based framework for creating a better, happier life. Consider it the essential economics textbook for life as a woman--but hopefully, a little more fun.
The Secret Book Society (Original)
by Madeline Martin
A captivating new historical novel from Madeline Martin, set in Victorian London about a forbidden book club, dangerous secrets and the women who dare to break free.
You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society...
London, 1885: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club--a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood and the courage to rewrite their stories.
Eleanor Clarke, a devoted mother suffocating under the tyranny of her husband. Rose Wharton, a transplanted American dollar princess struggling to fit the mold of an aristocratic wife. Lavinia Cavendish, an artistic young woman haunted by a dangerous family secret. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands' untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder.
As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent, but when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything.
Still Bobbi
by Bobbi Brown
"She didn't just change how people wear makeup--she changed how they see themselves" (Charlamagne tha God, for the Time 100 Most Influential People list). Bobbi Brown, beauty mogul and visionary, opens up in her first memoir about the true story: reinvention, resilience, and the power of staying real.
Bobbi Brown is a trailblazer in the beauty industry. A New York Times bestselling author of nine makeup tutorial books to date, she is the founder of both her namesake beauty brand, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and her four-year-old clean beauty brand, Jones Road. Recognized as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women in 2021, included in Forbes's "50 Over 50" list of Most Influential Women in 2022, and honored with the Glamour Woman of the Year Award, Bobbi's career has been nothing short of groundbreaking. In Still Bobbi, she shares her personal journey, including the integral relationships that inspired and emboldened her from a young age to pursue her creative vision despite numerous challenges--offering a heartfelt and inspiring memoir guaranteed to captivate readers of all ages.
In 1980, Bobbi Brown had a wild idea: real faces are beautiful. When makeup trends were about covering, contouring, and transforming, Bobbi blazed her own path, using makeup that accentuated a woman's natural beauty. In the process, she revolutionized the makeup industry. Bobbi's philosophy is part of who she is, and it's reflected in the way she lives her life. Real is better than fake. Simple is better than complicated. Family comes first. When real life throws you obstacles, maneuver and just figure it out. This hard-earned, deceptively simple wisdom is at the core of her new book, Still Bobbi.
Bobbi has authored many makeup books but has never written about her life...until now. Bobbi shares her story--a seemingly typical suburban girl who thrived socially but struggled academically and had a wonderfully complicated and glamorous mother. Bobbi navigated her childhood and discovered and refined her own view of beauty. She talked her way into New York's beauty and fashion scene in the 1980s, found the love of her life, built her namesake brand into a billion-dollar worldwide business, sold control of her namesake brand, only to build another juggernaut beauty brand--all while raising a family and remaining true to herself. In sharing a lifetime of intimate stories, hard-won practical wisdom, tips, and business savvy, Bobbi's transformational memoir urges readers to embrace their own potential and pursue their dreams with confidence and clarity of purpose.