The Best Women Biographies & Memoirs 2025

1. Trafficked

The haunting, unforgettable memoir that took the UK by storm, Trafficked is a gripping first-hand account of a young woman who survived the horrors of human trafficking. Sophie Hayes, a young, educated English woman, was spending an idyllic weekend in Italy with her seemingly charming boyfriend. But the day of her return home, he made it clear she wasn't going anywhere. Punching and shouting at her, he threatened to kill her adored younger brothers if she didn't cooperate to help him pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars he'd racked up in debts. Over the next six months, Sophie is forced to work as a prostitute in a country where she didn't speak the language, nobody knows her whereabouts, and escape seems impossible. She struggles to survive, constantly at the mercy of her boyfriend's violent moods and living in fear of being killed by any of her customers. When a life-threatening illness lands her in the hospital, Sophie has a chance to phone her mother and escape--if her boyfriend doesn't get to her first. Chilling and captivating, Trafficked is one of the first memoirs to present a stunning personal look at the criminal human sex trafficking trade and bring this disturbingly widespread abuse to light.

Trafficked (Paperback)

2. Pre-Owned Brass Diva : The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman 9780520229426

9780520229426. New condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 542. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 542 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white. Broadway star Ethel Merman's voice was a mesmerizing force and her vitality was legendary, yet the popular perception of La Merm as the irrepressible wonder falls far short of all that she was and all that she meant to Americans over so many decades. This marvelously detailed biography is the first to tell the full story of how the stenographer from Queens, New York, became the queen of the Broadway musical in its golden age. Mining official and unofficial sources, including interviews with Merman's family and her personal scrapbooks, Caryl Flinn unearths new details of Merman's life and finds that behind the high-octane personality was a remarkably pragmatic woman who never lost sight of her roots. Brass Diva takes us from Merman's working-class beginnings through the extraordinary career that was launched in 1930 when, playing a secondary role in a Gershwin Brothers' show, she became an overnight sensation singing "I Got Rhythm." From there, we follow Merman's hits on Broadway, her uneven successes in Hollywood, and her afterlife as a beloved camp icon. This definitive work on the phenomenon that was Ethel Merman is also the first to thoroughly explore her robust influence on American popular culture.

ISBN: 9780520229426 Condition: New Hard cover Language: English Pages: 542 Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 542 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white. Broadway star Ethel Merman's voice was a mesmerizing force and her vitality was legendary, yet the popular perception of La Merm as the irrepressible wonder falls far short of all that she was and all that she meant to Americans over so many decades. This marvelously detailed biography is the first to tell the full story of how the stenographer from Queens, New York, became the queen of the Broadway musical in its golden age. Mining official and unofficial sources, including interviews with Merman's family and her personal scrapbooks, Caryl Flinn unearths new details of Merman's life and finds that behind the high-octane personality was a remarkably pragmatic woman who never lost sight of her roots. Brass Diva takes us from Merman's working-class beginnings through the extraordinary career that was launched in 1930 when, playing a secondary role in a Gershwin Brothers' show, she became an overnight sensation singing "I Got Rhythm." From there, we follow Merman's hits on Broadway, her uneven successes in Hollywood, and her afterlife as a beloved camp icon. This definitive work on the phenomenon that was Ethel Merman is also the first to thoroughly explore her robust influence on American popular culture.

3. Pre-Owned State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation (Hardcover 9781572842663) by Melissa Isaacson

9781572842663. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Hard cover. Language: English. Pages: 320. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 320 p. Set against a backdrop of social change during the 1970s, State is a compelling first-person account of what it was like to live through both traditional gender discrimination in sports and the joy of the very first days of equality-or at least the closest that one high school girls' basketball team ever came to it. In 1975, freshman Melissa Isaacson-along with a group of other girls who'd spent summers with their noses pressed against the fences of Little League ball fields, unable to play-entered Niles West High School in suburban Chicago with one goal: make a team, any team. For Missy, that turned out to be the basketball team. Title IX had passed just three years earlier, prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs or activities, including athletics. As a result, states like Illinois began implementing varsity competition-and state tournaments-for girls' high school sports. At the time, Missy and her teammates didn't really understand the legislation. All they knew was they finally had opportunities-to play, to learn, to sweat, to lose, to win-and an identity: they were athletes. They were a team. And in 1979, they became state champions. With the intimate insights of the girl who lived it, the pacing of a born storyteller, and the painstaking reporting of a veteran sports journalist, Isaacson chronicles one high school team's journey to the state championship. In doing so, Isaacson shows us how a group of "tomboys" found themselves and each other, and how basketball rescued them from their collective frustrations and troubled homes, and forever altered the course of their lives. Special educational materials for classrooms are available from Agate Publishing.

Pre-Owned State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation (Hardcover 9781572842663) by Melissa Isaacson

4. Pre-Owned Fashions of the First Ladies Coloring Book (Paperback) 0486418685 9780486418681

From Martha Washington to Jill Biden, 47 of the nation's First Ladies grace the pages of this entertaining and informative coloring book. Presidents' wives, daughters, and other relations who served as official White House hostesses appear here in finely detailed, ready-to-color line drawings. Many of the First Ladies are depicted in their inaugural gowns -- others model less formal attire. Illustrations include Dolley Madison, shown in a gown of Chinese silk brocade; Mary Todd Lincoln, dressed in a rich velvet; Grace Coolidge in a sleeveless frock; Jacqueline Kennedy in a two-piece print outfit; Nancy Reagan in a woolen ensemble; and many others. Fact-filled captions complete this stylish collection, offering colorists and history buffs alike insights into the lives of the women who shared in one of the most demanding and visible roles in American public life.

Title: Fashions of the First Ladies Coloring Book Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 0486418685 EAN: 9780486418681 Author: Sun, Ming-Ju CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

5. Pre-Owned Cloris (Paperback) 075822964X

9780758229649. Pre-Owned: Good condition. Trade paperback. Language: English. Pages: 287. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 287 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white. Film and television darling Leachman tells her life story through the challenges of her stellar career, all while raising five children. She also discusses her many famous friends in the entertainment industry as well as in the political arena.

Title: Cloris Book Format: Illustrated ISBN10: 075822964X Author: Leachman, Cloris CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

6. Pre-Owned America's First Ladies Coloring Book (Paperback) 0486269515 9780486269511

They're the women who helped shape America -- presidential wives, daughters, and other female relatives, who served as official hostesses in the White House and often acted as advisers to the President. Forty-seven ready-to-color illustrations depict these noteworthy women in authentic settings in Washington, D.C., and around the globe. Also included are informative captions about all of these interesting and prominent public figures -- from Martha Washington and Mary Todd Lincoln to Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, and Jill Biden.

Title: America's First Ladies Coloring Book Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 0486269515 EAN: 9780486269511 Author: Franz, Leslie; Foley, Tim CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.

7. Pre-Owned The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician (Paperback) 1909609781 9781909609785

When British-born Elizabeth Blackwell earned her medical degree in America in 1849 there was an international outcry. Few at the time would have disagreed with the actress Fanny Kemble's remark - "What, trust a woman doctor - never " Yet by the time Dr Blackwell died in 1910 there were hundreds of women practising medicine on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks in no small part to her courage and determination. This is a remarkable story, and one by no means confined to medicine. It embraces slavery, the women's rights movement, the American Civil War and Elizabeth's personal tragedy (she lost an eye in Paris) - as well as a fascinating cast of characters from Abraham Lincoln to Florence Nightingale. Using a treasure trove of primary sources, the book reveals how Elizabeth Blackwell's pioneering efforts helped to fundamentally change the status of women in the West. 'Julia Boyd resists the temptation to turn Blackwell into one of those old-fashioned feminist icons of the 1970s... the result is thorough and, above all, thoughtful.' - The Guardian 'One can only hope that this excellent biography of an excellent doctor will help garner Blackwell the renown she has always deserved.' - New England Journal of Medicine 'Julia Boyd's superb biography reveals B as a complex, tenacious and often frustrating character whose extraordinary single-mindedness changed our world.' - Victorian Geek

Title: The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Woman Physician Book Format: Paperback ISBN10: 1909609781 EAN: 9781909609785 Author: Boyd, Julia CONDITION - GOOD - Pre-Owned - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include 'From the library of' labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included.