The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

 An eye-opening fictionalized glimpse at the largely secretive society of Afghanistan. This story takes place during the first years of the 20th century when girls and women faced extreme limitations and ends with the advent of a era under King Amanullah when women's rights appeared set to expand. The main characters are two women, related but from different time periods whose lives describe the horrific reality of a country that relegates women to a life that places them in the category of slaves. Each woman struggles to rise above her seemingly doomed status. Compelling and poignant.

How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

 A wonderful story about an 85 year old woman who awakens to a new world of possibility as she meets a grandson she did not know existed, travels to the Antarctic to delve into the world of penguins, and opens up to a young female scientist to reveal the horrible sorrows she faced as a young person during WW2.

Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict

 I was shocked and disturbed as I read this historical fiction about Rosalind Franklin, a female scientist who works over many years in the fifties to unravel the mystery of DNA. According to the author who carefully researched her work, the three men who later won the Nobel prize "stole" some of Dr. Franklin's significant work. I can believe this although, reading a few accounts on Google about the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, Rosalind is not generally even credited for her work. The author is a lawyer so I imagine she knows what she can suggest in her books. I will be interested to see if this denouement is taken up by others in the know.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

 I enjoyed this book immensely. It brought the creation of the OED to life in a delightful blend of history and fiction. Esme is the main fictional character, and at age six already hides for hours below the work table in the Scriptorium, "a place for writing" listening intently to the men including her father who were reviewing the words being considered for inclusion in the first edition of the multi-volume OED. Esme develops a passion for the words, collecting scraps of paper with discarded or lost words which she saves and savors. Her story unfolds in the context of Victorian era Oxford, the Suffrage movement, and World War 1, and explores the inherent bias of the OED as created by men who did not include words that were reflective of language used by women and the poor. This narrative brims with life, describing the time period with assurance, and the characters both real and imagined carry the narrative forward energetically and engagingly.