Celebrating Women’s Voices: 100 Books that Explained or Changed Our World

In honor of the upcoming Centennial of the WNBA, National is compiling a preliminary list of “one hundred books by women that the WNBA community considers to be the most influential books penned by women.” This list, subtitled ‘100 Books to Read and Talk About’, will include works of fiction, poetry and memoir. Noting the absence of other types of non-fiction works, our Chapter Vice-President (and acting President) Marie Breaux contacted National; their response was that she had a wonderful idea, that a second list should be started and our Chapter is leading the charge.

Suggestions for either list can be sent via email to wnbaofnola@gmail.com .

Criteria for the first list can be found at the link above.

Criteria for the non-fiction list are:

1. Works of non-fiction;
2. Works that have garnered critical acclaim, including awards and honors; that have maintained a readership across generations, or for newer works, are engaging and appealing to a wide swath of the reading public; and/or have provided an impetus for significant change;
3. Writers that are American (by birth or by virtue of where the author has chosen to live); living or dead; writing in English.

Our non-fiction working list will eventually be sent to the other Chapters for their input. One master list of 100 books will emerge. We envision the list being a very important entity for preserving and promoting women’s voices.

• Teresa Tumminello Brader, Secretary