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by Elizabeth Flock

“Arresting, deeply reported. . . . a patient reporter who embeds with her subjects long enough to write about their inner worlds with authority and nuance. . . . The Furies is deeply respectful of its subjects’ autonomy, including their self-justifications and mistakes. Flock largely withholds judgment, and her work is richer and more troubling because of it.” –Washington Post

Renowned journalist and author of The Heart is a Shifting Sea Elizabeth Flock investigates what few dare to confront or even imagine: the role and necessity of female-led violence in response to systems built against women.

In The Furies, Elizabeth Flock examines how three real-life women have used violence to fight back, and how views of women who defend their lives are often distorted by their depictions in media and pop culture. These three immersive narratives follow Brittany Smith, a young woman from Stevenson, Alabama, who killed a man she said raped her but was denied the protection of the Stand-Your-Ground law; Angoori Dahariya, leader of a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse; and Cicek Mustafa Zibo, a fighter in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria. Each woman chose to use lethal force to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them–government, police, courts–utterly failed to do so. Each woman has been criticized for their actions by those who believe that violence is never the answer.

Through Flock’s propulsive prose and remarkable research on the ground–embedded with families, communities, and organizations in America, India, and Syria–The Furies examines, with exquisite nuance, whether the fight for women’s safety is fully possible without force. Do these women’s acts of vengeance help or hurt them, and ultimately, all women? Did they create lasting change in entrenched misogynistic and paternalistic systems? And ultimately, what would societies in which women have real power look like?

Across mythologies and throughout history, the stories of women’s lives frequently end with their bodies as sites of violence. But there are also celebrated tales of women, real and fictional, who have fought back. The novelistic accounts of these three women provoke questions about how to achieve true gender equality and offer profound insights in the quest for answers.

Find it in our collection here.

This is the untold story of the women of the Zapatista movement and the roles they played in the guerrilla army.

Gathered by longtime community organiser Hilary Klein, the Zapatista women’s own recollections of their lives, struggles and critical involvement bring to light the tremendous transformation of gender roles that has occurred in this culture of revolution. Instructive for all who are committed to examining how existing grassroots alternatives to global capitalism can guide the way toward justice, equality and democracy.

Find it in our collection here.

Life Lessons from 29 Heroines who Dared to Break the Rules

by Karen Karbo

From Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Taylor to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and Lena Dunham, this witty narrative explores what we can learn from the imperfect and extraordinary legacies of 29 iconic women who forged their own unique paths in the world.

Smart, sassy, and unapologetically feminine, this elegantly illustrated book is an ode to the bold and charismatic women of modern history. Best-selling author Karen Karbo (The Gospel According to Coco Chanel) spotlights the spirited rule breakers who charted their way with little regard for expectations- Amelia Earhart, Helen Gurley Brown, Edie Sedgwick, Hillary Clinton, Amy Poehler, and Shonda Rhimes, among others. Their lives–imperfect, elegant, messy, glorious–provide inspiration and instruction for the new age of feminism we have entered. Karbo distills these lessons with wit and humor, examining the universal themes that connect us to each of these mesmerizing personalities today- success and style, love and authenticity, daring and courage. Being “difficult,” Karbo reveals, might not make life easier. But it can make it more fulfilling–whatever that means for you.

In the Reader’s Guide included in the back of the book, Karbo asks thought-provoking questions about how we relate to each woman that will make for fascinating book club conversation.

Find it in our collection here.

100 Tales of Extraordinary Women

by Elena Favilli

“To the rebel girls of the world: dream bigger, aim higher, fight harder, and, when in doubt, remember you are right.”

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls reinvents fairy tales, inspiring girls with the stories of 100 heroic women from Elizabeth I to Serena Williams. Illustrated by 60 female artists from every corner of the globe, this is the most-funded original book in the history of crowdfunding.

Find it in our collection in Juvenile Nonfiction here.

13 American Women Who Changed the World

by Chelsea Clinton

Chelsea Clinton introduces tiny feminists, mini activists and little kids who are ready to take on the world to thirteen inspirational women who never took no for an answer, and who always, inevitably and without fail, persisted.

Throughout United States history, there have always been women who have spoken out for what’s right, even when they have to fight to be heard. In this book, Chelsea Clinton celebrates thirteen American women who helped shape our country through their tenacity, sometimes through speaking out, sometimes by staying seated, sometimes by captivating an audience. They all certainly persisted.

She Persisted is for everyone who has ever wanted to speak up but has been told to quiet down, for everyone who has ever tried to reach for the stars but was told to sit down, and for everyone who has ever been made to feel unworthy or unimportant or small.

With vivid, compelling art by Alexandra Boiger, this book shows readers that no matter what obstacles may be in their paths, they shouldn’t give up on their dreams. Persistence is power.

This book features- Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Clara Lemlich, Nellie Bly, Virginia Apgar, Maria Tallchief, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges, Margaret Chase Smith, Sally Ride, Florence Griffith Joyner, Oprah Winfrey, Sonia Sotomayor-and one special cameo.

Find it in our collection in Juvenile Non-Fiction here.

Among the artifacts on display in Tracks & Traces: Reconstructing Chinese History in Southern Idaho is a ceramic liquor bottle, a remnant of the global trade networks that connected China to the United States in the early 20th century. Produced in the 1930s by the renowned Chinese distillery Wing Lee Wai, this bottle once held Ng Ka Pi—a potent variety of baijiu (“white spirit”) infused with the medicinal herb Wu Jia Pi.

The distillery Wing Lee Wai, which translates to “eternal fortune and fame,” was founded in 1876 by Wong Sing-hui in Nanhai, a district of Foshan, Guangdong, China. By the 1920s, the company had become one of China’s largest distilleries, exporting spirits to Chinese communities overseas, including those in Idaho. The bottle likely dates from between 1935 and 1940 as it’s label bears the distillery’s “Two Cranes” trademark, first registered in 1914, and an embossed marking reading “Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of this Bottle” which was a requirement introduced after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.

Liquor bottles like this one offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of Chinese immigrants in Idaho, where food and drink helped maintain cultural ties to their homeland. Whether it was enjoyed as a medicinal tonic or a social drink, Ng Ka Pi was likely familiar to many who lived and worked in Idaho’s mining camps, railroad towns, and small Chinatowns.

We invite you to visit Tracks & Traces in The Community Library’s foyer to see this artifact and others that reveal the history of Chinese immigrants in southern Idaho. The exhibit is on display now through the end of May.

On Loan from the Blaine County Historical Museum in Hailey, 2025.FIC.1.1.