Best Women's Biographies Books of 2025

The Light We Carry is an inspiring follow-up to Michelle Obama's bestselling memoir Becoming. In this book, the former First Lady shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today's highly uncertain world. Michelle offers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady. She encourages readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, Michelle explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility. This book is a rewarding blend of powerful stories and profound advice that will ignite conversations and inspire readers to recognize their own light.

Tell Me Everything: A Memoir by Minka Kelly is a powerful and page-turning story of triumph over adversity. The actress and philanthropist shares her life story, which was anything but easy, growing up with a single mother who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction. Despite the challenges, Minka persevered, reconnected with her father, and landed the role of a lifetime on Friday Night Lights. The book is an intricate portrait of a vulnerable yet resilient woman, and her story is a reminder that love and resilience are all we have in the end. This memoir is a heart-stopping debut and a unique contribution to the actor and entertainer biography genre.

Honey, Baby, Mine is a collection of personal conversations and reflections between Laura Dern and her mother, Diane Ladd. The book takes readers on an intimate journey through their lives as they discuss personal topics such as love, sex, marriage, art, ambition, and legacy. With family recipes, photos, and other mementos, the book is a celebration of the power of leaving nothing unsaid. The New York Times calls it a remarkable and memorable read, where the relationship between mother and daughter evolves with each conversation. Honey, Baby, Mine is a unique and touching book that will make readers want to start talking to the people they love the most.

I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan is an inspiring and humorous memoir by Katie Porter, who was elected to Congress in historically conservative Orange County, California. As a single mom and a progressive Democrat, she defied expectations and used her signature whiteboard to take on CEOs and corrupt government officials in Congressional hearings. The book offers a clear picture of what it’s like to serve in Congress and exposes the gaps between politicians’ press conferences and real people’s lives. Katie makes the case for consumer protection, corporate accountability, and anti-corruption reforms. Overall, this book is a witty and down-to-earth exploration of politics and a must-read for anyone interested in American politics and women's biographies.

Educated: A Memoir is an extraordinary and unforgettable memoir about Tara Westover, who grew up in a survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho and was kept out of school. This #1 New York Times bestseller follows her journey as she leaves her family to pursue an education, ultimately earning a PhD from Cambridge University. The book poses universal questions about love, betrayal, and growing up. Despite the singularity of Westover’s childhood, her story resonates with readers. This book is a must-read for anyone who values education and personal growth.

The Glass Castle is a memoir of Jeannette Walls that tells the story of her resilient and dysfunctional family. Her brilliant and charismatic father, when sober, taught them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. Her mother was a free spirit who didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. The Walls children learned to take care of themselves and eventually found their way to New York, while their parents chose to be homeless. The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of love, resilience, and redemption that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of family dynamics.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade • “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray LoveThis is how you find yourself.There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves. For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living. Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is. Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.

The Watchmaker's Daughter by Larry Loftis is a compelling biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II by turning her family's house into a hiding place for refugees. Despite losing most of her family and being sent to a concentration camp, Corrie managed to survive, forgive her captors and live the rest of her life as a Christian missionary. The book is a remarkable journey of faith and forgiveness, and it holds myriad lessons for readers today. This book is highly recommended for those interested in women's biographies and World War II nonfiction.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is a powerful and moving account of a young Jewish girl's life during the Nazi occupation of Holland. Anne and her family lived in hiding for two years, until they were betrayed and captured by the Gestapo. Through her diary, Anne offers a unique perspective on the horrors of war, human courage, and the frailty of the human spirit. The new edition of the book reveals even more depth to Anne's dreams, hardships, and passions. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in history, women's biographies, and human resilience.