I thought I could’ve saved Karen Carpenter’s life had we been friends. But after slogging through this biography, I can’t imagine being friends with the woman Randy Schmidt depicts.

If, as Andy Warhol said, "buying is much more American than thinking," then fashion journalist Avis Cardella is one of the most American women you'll ever meet.

When Hilary Thayer Hamann self-published Anthropology of an American Girl in 2003, she achieved an inordinate amount of success for any novel, let alone a self-published one. Now Random House is publishing a revised version of the visionary work.

Paralyzed with fear after an abusive relationship and nearly 30 with no accomplishments, artist Belle Yang feels like a failure. She moves back home to practice calligraphy and recoup, but she finds it hard to identify with her immigrant parents' traditional ways.

This deeply personal story of feminist activist and political leader Ayaan Hirsi Ali is part family history and part thesis on the impact of Islam on women. The result is a must-read memoir more enlightening than many books assigned in liberal-arts classes.