Illustration from WOMEN IN SCIENCE by Rachel Ignotofsky
Nonfiction science books written by women deserve more recognition. But without a good resource to reference for recommendations, many of these books will continue to go unrecognized. With the help of the internet, I am creating an ongoing and updated list that will connect readers with more diverse science books. As the list grows, I will organize them into different fields of science.
This page is under construction! Want to help? Suggest a book that isn’t on the list, or contact me to write a guest review for a book that has not yet been reviewed.
Science Books by Women
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Spineless by Juli Berwald
Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt
Chrysalis by Maria Sibylla Merian
The Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling
Eye of the Shoal by Helen Scales
Shaped By Wind and Water by Ann Haymond Zwinger
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science and the World by Rachel Swaby
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Only Woman in the Room by Eileen Pollack
The Dragon Behind the Glass by Emily Voigt
The Girls Guide to a Life in Science by Rohini Godbole et al
The Madame Curie Complex by Julie Des Jardins
In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall
Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life by Georgina Ferry
A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg
Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory by Emily Monosson
Moments from My Life by Dr. Mae Jemison
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Nobel Prize Women in Science by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock by Evelyn Fox
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
Storm in a Teacup by Helen Czerski
Women in Science: Then and Now by Vivian Gornick
Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine
Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor by Hali Felt
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
Sightings by Brenda Peterson and Linda Hogan
The Only Woman in the Room by Eileen Pollack
