11 Non-Fiction Books About Famous Women That You Should Read

DENVER, CO -OCTOBER 21: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai speaks at Denver South High School Friday, October 21, 2016. Yousafzai made a surprise appearance to the school which has enrolled quite a few refugees from around the world. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

6. I Am Malala

Malala Yousafzai turns 20 next year.

She also already has a Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2012, as her Nobel Prize biography tells it, she was shot in the head by the Taliban for trying to go to school, as it had been forbidden for girls to do so.

A year later, she not only recovered enough to go back to school, albeit in the United Kingdom, she also wrote a book. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban would be that book. (Yousafzai co-wrote this memoir with journalist Christina Lamb.)

However, the book doesn’t just recount her activism for girls’ education in Pakistan. It also includes some discussions of the politics and general climate in her native country.

Goodreads praises the book’s discussions of aspects of Yousafzai’s life and family that didn’t necessarily penetrate the news about her either when she was shot or when she won the Nobel Prize in 2014.

Additional reading may include the YA edition of this book, which some Amazon reviews praise as being more clearly laid out. It has the title of I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World, and includes additional photos.