These three books illuminate the indomitable strength of women and girls—both fictional and real—in the face of daunting challenges.

A People’s History of Heaven: Longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner award for Fiction, Mathangi Subramanian’s novel tells a story of a graffiti artist, a transgender Christian, a blind dancer, and the queer daughter of a hijabi union leader who come together to wage war on the bulldozers that would bury their homes in a slum called Heaven in Bangalore, India.

“This is a book to give your little sister, your mother, your best friend, yourself, so together you can celebrate the strength of women and girls, the tenacity it takes to survive in a world that would rather have you disappear.” —Nylon

Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights:  In this memoir, you’ll meet Dovey Johnson Roundtree—the groundbreaking civil rights attorney, soldier, and minister—the unforgettable trailblazer we should all know more about, a woman who “proved . . . a single individual can turn the tides of history,” as Michelle Obama said.

“Part moving memoir, part inspiration to resist, Mighty Justice is a must-read.” —Ms. magazine

Ordinary Girls: Jaquira Díaz writes a fierce and eloquent memoir of her challenging girlhood and triumphant coming of age in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach. She maps a way out of despair toward love and hope to become her version of the girl she always wanted to be.

“I kept thinking about how this book might be the first time a queer Latina, a queer Afro-Latina, sees herself in a book, and how that would have been important to me growing up,” Jaquira said of her debut, one of last year’s hottest books.