Now for a few words about women

March is known for St. Patrick’s Day, March Madness and the Ides of

March, but many don’t realize that it is also Women’s History Month.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Women Change America.”

Since its beginnings in 1978 -- with a Women’s History Week started

by an education task force in Sonoma County -- the celebration grew

into a National Women’s History Week in 1981. In 1987, due to the overwhelming response across the nation, Congress created National

Women’s History Month.

In honor of this celebration, we would like to recommend some

excellent reading about some outstanding American women. Janann

Sherman’s “No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase

Smith,” part of the Rutgers series on women and politics, sounds like

pretty dry reading. But Sherman’s exhaustive research of

congressional papers and interviews has resulted in a fascinating and

readable book. Smith served in Congress from 1940 to 1972 as a

representative and senator from Maine, the first woman to serve in

both houses. She was also the first senator to denounce Sen. Joseph

McCarthy, and she was the first woman to have her name placed in

nomination for president by either of the major parties.

Another terrific biography -- actually an autobiography --

presents a woman in government, only this time in the executive

branch. Madeleine Albright served as the United States’ ambassador to

the United Nations under President Clinton, and later was unanimously

approved by Congress to serve as secretary of state. In “Madam

Secretary: A Memoir,” Albright gives a thorough, but witty account of

her life as a Czechoslovakian refugee who earned a doctorate from

Columbia and went on to serve both the academic world and the world

of politics and international relations.

Two famous American writers have also published recent

autobiographies.

Poet and novelist Marge Piercy writes with candor about a horrible

early life in a tough Detroit neighborhood, followed by a wild and

peripatetic adulthood. She peppers these events with charming

vignettes of the many cats she has befriended. In “Sleeping with

Cats: A Memoir,” Piercy describes how she has become the “cat lady”

of her small Cape Cod town. The book offers some reflections on

creativity and aging and the celebration of the present.

Maya Angelou’s “A Song Flung Up to Heaven” is the final part of

her autobiographical series, which began with “I Know Why the Caged

Bird Sings.” In it, she tells of the devastation wrought by the

deaths of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, which threw her into

complete isolation from the world. The book ends with her recovery

and coming full circle to begin writing the groundbreaking, “I Know

Why the Caged Bird Sings.”

There are just so many fascinating famous and infamous women whose

lives are as interesting as any novel. Why not take some time this

month to read a little about one of them? The reference staff at the

library can offer some reader’s advisory service and direct you to

well-written books about women in different endeavors who have,

indeed, changed America.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Sara Barnicle. All titles may be

reserved from home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

https://www.newportbeach library.org. For more information on the

Central Library or any of the branch locations, please contact the

Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.