Your Women’s History Month Reading List

March marks Women’s History Month, a time dedicated to celebrating and honoring the oft-overlooked contributions made by women since the founding of the United States. This year, we’ve rounded up several titles by women authors whose works reflect rē•spin’s core pillars. These inspiring reads allow us to recognize womanhood on an individual level. It’s time to acknowledge the significance of Women’s History Month and the impact women have had on American society. 

What is more important than a relationship with — and true understanding of — ourselves? In “The Way of Integrity,” author Martha Beck presents readers with a four-stage process for finding integrity, emotional healing, and a sense of purpose. Often, we are subconsciously affected — physically, mentally, and emotionally — by connections in our lives and the motions that go along with these relationships. We can be plagued by people-pleasing habits. And we can remain in relationships that feel stale and stagnant, and the negative habits that go hand-in-hand with these factors. Thus, we become out of touch with ourselves.

Not this Women’s History Month. Beck provides readers with the tools necessary for recognizing and understanding the internal signs given off by our bodies. This way, we can learn what we truly need instead of what’s dictated to us by society. 

When it comes to nourishing our bodies, we want to ensure that we’re providing ourselves with a balanced lifestyle. Nicole Berrie, founder of the lifestyle brand Bonberi, uses her cookbook “Body Harmony” to tell the story of her transition from a party-centric lifestyle in her teens and twenties to a balanced life and career in wellness today. The book brings readers a combination of advice and guidance and delicious plant-based recipes to help us nourish ourselves daily.

Berrie tackles plant-based cooking, intuitive eating, non-toxic self-care rituals, and more throughout the book. It also contains more than 50 vegan recipes, ranging from soups and salads to juices, smoothies, and grain-based dishes. These recipes help ensure that we’re well-fed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Tunde Oyeneyin, the beloved Peloton instructor, is candid about her struggles with self-confidence and weight. Oyeneyin ultimately found an outlet through fitness. She pursued a career that helped empower others to find their strength in the same way Oyeneyin was able to unlock her own. She’s continued her mission to motivate others in her debut book, “Speak: Find Your Voice, Trust Your Gut, and Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.”

Oyeneyin has translated her signature “Tunde-isms” into a book that gives readers insight into her experience with adversity and grief. It depicts the ebbs and flows of her journey of growth and self-confidence. In her memoir-meets-guide, she strives to advise readers on how to “live a life of purpose, on purpose” through the acronym SPEAK: Surrender, Power, Empathy, Authenticity, and Knowledge. Through lessons in body image, loss, and love, Oyeneyin gives us the groundwork to create a new, joyful life while working on our mind, body, and spirit to discover our inner strength.

Writer and poet Cole Arthur Riley, creator of Black Liturgies, serves as the spiritual teacher in residence at Cornell University’s Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. 

In her debut book, “This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us,” Arthur Riley reflects on her journey to finding her spirituality today. She looks back on stories of her family from childhood. She examines how they helped awaken her mind and shape her spirituality through beliefs and actions. In her novel, she ponders life’s big questions about spirituality. This provides readers a space to reflect on stories of the past, and allows our spirits to explore various facets of faith. 

Part of our journey of giving back includes reaching out to younger generations. The late Patricia C. McKissack encapsulated the joys of giving back in her book “What Is Given from the Heart,” illustrated by April Harrison.  

The story follows a mother and her son, James, who have been facing adversity and hardships. During a church service, the reverend announces that a family has lost their belongings in a fire. James questions how he can donate but doesn’t believe he has anything worth giving away. McKissack’s book perfectly captures compassion at every age and the importance of passing this gift to a new generation.

Alexandra Elle provides a memoir-meets-guide with “After the Rain: Gentle Reminders for Healing, Courage, and Self-Love.” In it, she gives readers a window into her profound journey toward self-love.  

In life, we face a winding road of experiences from acceptance to healing, love, loss, and everything in between. Elle shares glimpses of her past with the reader as she explores her childhood, painful relationships, and being a young mom and single parent. All of these instances led her to where she is today — with a career centered on both passion and purpose. Readers can embrace and adopt their new self-love practice through Elle’s guide, perfect for Women’s History Month. It encourages us to open ourselves up to eternal beauty and self-love.