To celebrate International Women’s Day this 8th of March, we’ve selected some truly brilliant titles that explore different facets of womanhood—from iconic acting careers and the history of abortion care, to thought-provoking fiction and, of course, some Virginia Woolf! This year’s International Women’s Day campaign “Give To Gain” focuses on the power of support, collaboration and sharing success. We therefore hope these books unite and inspire everyone to feel empowered, informed, and motivated to keep striving for gender equality.
AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs
By Gina Gershon
Akashic Books | 9781636142814 | Hardback | £23.99 | Out Now
Gina Gershon offers cautionary (and often hilarious) tales of surviving the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, revealing how she learned to become an AlphaPussy.
From a wayward California girl growing up in the heart of the porn-born San Fernando Valley, Gina Gershon found herself on a journey that has been anything but traditional. Along the way, she had to learn how to spot the toxic types—in both her personal life and her career—and figure out how to dodge, outsmart, or hustle her way through. From the Valley to the slums of Beverly Hills to New York City, she was confronted with shady characters and sketchy situations, all the while fighting to protect her autonomy as a woman and as an actress with a decidedly unconventional path.
AlphaPussy is a collection of true stories that explore themes of experience, survival, and the art of figuring it out as you go. They include strange encounters with celebrities and film directors such as Paul Verhoeven, Tom Cruise, Sharon Stone, Prince, Jennifer Tilly, Sylvester Stallone, David Mamet, Bob Fosse, and so many others. Often hilarious, usually cautionary, and almost always wrapped in absurdity, Gershon’s tales explore how she found herself through bad decisions, awkward moments, and cringe-worthy encounters that somehow gave rise to survival skills. Gershon stresses that while it can be important to listen to others, it’s more important to listen to oneself. To trust your gut. In a world full of bullies, predators, and people trying to tell her who she was, or who she should be, it was crucial for Gershon to become an AlphaPussy: a woman who navigates through this perilous jungle of a world with personal agency and responsibility.
Good Woman: A Reckoning
By Savala Nolan
The Indigo Press | 9781911648710 | Paperback | £12.99 | Out Now
A raw and lyrical exploration of the confining expectations of womanhood, from a writer Roxane Gay calls “vibrant and thoughtful”.
Across time and location, women were raised to be agreeable and “good.” Hyper-visible as sexual objects but invisible as full people. Living in a physical world created by men for men. Taking on the ultimate role of birth-giver and caretaker, yet seeing it remain an unsung act, even as it’s a God-like creation. Only in midlife did Nolan begin to realise she was capable of living outside these cages of conditioning so insidious that they’re nearly invisible.
Good Woman elegantly probes the knotty conditions themselves, the costs of adhering to them, and what happens when one refuses to comply. The twelve stunning and unforgettable essays blend memoir, reportage, and history to create a collection that is alternately bold, brash, and explosive, and ravishingly tender, sensual, and joyous. Nolan takes aim at big and old ideas, and she does not miss. Hers is a testimony to witness and to savour.
On Being Ill (New Edition)
By Virginia Woolf et al.
The New Menard Press | 9781068680441 | Paperback | £15.99 | 15th May 2026
Brand new edition and selection of non-fiction and poetry, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s essay, written exactly a 100 years ago.
The subtle complexities of Virginia Woolf’s essay “On Being Ill” continues to resonate for a new generation of readers today. On Being Ill is a valuable book for everybody who wants to connect with illness through art and literature and look at it from a different perspective. Woolf’s original essay was first published exactly 100 years ago in 2026. In this collection contemporary authors reflect on this poignant work.
Women’s History New York Map
By Allison C. Meier, Photographs by Anna Morgowitz
Blue Crow Media | 9781912018017 | Folded Map | £9.95 | Out Now
An in depth women’s history of New York plotted onto a map.
Across New York City’s five boroughs, this map highlights sites that honour women who shaped its history — from early settlers and suffragists to artists, reformers and activists. Written by Allison C. Meier with original photography by Anna Morgowitz, it invites you to explore the monuments, memorials and places that celebrate the women whose work and courage helped build, challenge and transform the city.
Mrs Jekyll
By Emma Glass
Cheerio Publishing | 9781917283106 | Paperback | £9.99 | 19th March 2026
Atmospheric and lusciously told, Mrs Jekyll reframes Stevenson’s classic story of human duality in the present day.
Schoolteacher Rosy Winter is dying. But, beyond the homeopathic remedies, the dinner party obligations, the snatched whispers on wards and in staffrooms, a force —murderous, feminine, feverish — is stirring within her. A story of power and powerlessness, light and dark, life and death, Mrs Jekyll embraces the paradoxes and paroxysms of modern womanhood, in a story every bit as gripping as the original.
Don’t Breed on Me: A Short History of Abortion
By Madeline Waugh Quasebarth
PM Press | 9798887441788 | Paperback | £15.99 | 24th March 2026
An energetic and defiant look at the history of abortion, rooted in global history, folklore and scholarship.
Humans have always loved to fuck! Don’t Breed on Me: A Short History of Abortion is a defiant, funny, and unflinching dive into the millennia-long story of abortion — a practice as old as humanity and as contested as ever. From medieval Europe to Ming Dynasty China, from women enslaved in the American South to German nuns smuggling herbs, abortion has always been here. And so have the people who provided it. Rooted in global history, folklore, and fierce scholarship, Quasebarth’s book is as joyful as it is furious. She opens with a bang and doesn’t let up, threading together ancient remedies (like crocodile dung pessaries), feminist saints, lost abortifacients, and the enduring power of reproductive autonomy.
Want to meet a medieval Italian surgeon who secretly performed abortions in a city that banned women from medicine? Or a Qing Dynasty widow who casually asks her lover for “red flower medicine” after a scandalous affair? Or a granny midwife dedicated to ensuring reproductive control for herself and her community? They’re here, and so are dozens of stories like them — buried, distorted, or erased by colonialism and patriarchy. Don’t Breed on Me is not just a book about abortion — it’s a call to remember, reclaim, and reframe. For students, activists, and anyone with a uterus (or who knows someone with one), this book is both an accessible introduction and a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice.
I Still Am A Woman, Pissed-Off & Curious
By Su Friedrich
Seven Stories Press | 9781644215005 | Paperback | £35 | 26th March 2026
Acclaimed filmmaker Su Friedrich takes us on an intimate and visually rich autobiographical journey as she describes a trip she took through North and West Africa in 1976 at the age of 21.
In 1976, Su Friedrich, the experimental filmmaker and visual artist known for exploring themes of identity, gender, and personal narrative through avant-garde cinema, embarked on a transformative six-month solo trip through nine countries in North and West Africa.
Through her letters, diary entries, and images captured in black and white on her 35mm Olympus, she documented her day-to-day encounters with the people she meets from Algeria to Morocco (during the Western Sahara War), Burkina Faso to Nigeria (during a coup). Friedrich not only weaves a rich tapestry of Africa in the mid-1970s, but she also imbues each page with her thoughts, feelings, and discoveries. She travels south through the Sahara by hitching rides on trucks and recalls her surprise when she appeared in the central market of a town and was quickly invited to stay at the home of one of the curious locals. Thirty-nine years later, Friedrich has unearthed her journals, photographs and letters and has constructed a record of her discoveries on a journey that will resonate with readers who love to travel and fans with wanderlust.
