by Karen Karbo
“Rachel Maddow: The Rolling Stone Interview,” Janet Reitman (Rolling Stone, June 14, 2017)
COCO CHANEL
Coco Chanel: A Biography, Axel Madsen (Bloomsbury, 1990)
Chanel and Her World: Friends, Fashion, and Fame, Edmonde Charles-Roux (Vendome Press, 2005)
Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life, Lisa Chaney (Viking, 2011)
The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume, Tilar Mazzeo (Harper, 2010)
MARTHA GELLHORN
Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life, Caroline Moorehead (Henry Holt & Co, 2003)
Hemingway & Gellhorn, directed by Philip Kaufman (HBO, 2012)
Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn, Caroline Moorehead (Henry Holt & Co, 2006)
Travels With Myself and Another: A Memoir, Martha Gellhorn (Viking, 1978)
SHONDA RHIMES
“Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About ‘Angry Black Woman’ Flap, Messy Grey’s Anatomy Chapter and the ‘Scandal’ Impact,” Lacey Rose (The Hollywood Reporter, October 17, 2014)
“Shonda Rhimes on Power, Feminism, and Police Brutality,” Robbie Myers (ELLE, September 23, 2015)
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes (Simon & Schuster, 2015)
EVA PERÓN
Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Perón, John Barnes (Grove Press, 1978)
Evita: In My Own Words, Eva Perón (Mainstream Publishing, 1997)
Evita: The Real Life of Eva Perón, Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996)
Perón and the Enigmas of Argentina, Robert Crassweller (W. W. Norton & Company, 1987)
HELEN GURLEY BROWN
Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown, the Woman Behind Cosmopolitan Magazine, Jennifer Scanlon (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman, Brooke Hauser (Harper, 2016)
I’m Wild Again: Snippets From My Life and a Few Brazen Thoughts, Helen Gurley Brown (St. Martin’s Press, 2000)
Not Pretty Enough: The Unlikely Triumph of Helen Gurley Brown, Gerri Hirshey (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)
Sex and the Single Girl: The Unmarried Woman’s Guide to Men, Careers, the Apartment, Diet, Fashion, Money, and Men, Helen Gurley Brown (Bernard Geis Associates, 1962; reprinted Barricade Books, 2003)
EDIE SEDGWICK
Edie: An American Biography, Jean Stein with George Plimpton (Knopf, 1982)
Edie: Girl on Fire, David Weisman and Melissa Painter (Chronicle Books, 2006)
“Happy Birthday, Edie Sedgwick,” Lynn Yaeger (Vogue, April 20, 2015)
ANGELA MERKEL
Angela Merkel: The Authorized Biography, Stefan Kornelius (Alma Books, 2013)
Angela Merkel: A Chancellorship Forged in Crisis, Alan Crawford and Tony Czuczka (Bloomberg Press, 2013)
Angela Merkel: Europe’s Most Influential Leader, Matthew Qvortrup (The Overlook Press, 2016)
“The Quiet German,” George Packer (New Yorker, 2014)
BILLIE JEAN KING
Billie Jean, Billie Jean King with Frank Deford (Viking, 1982)
Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports, Susan Ware (The University of North Carolina Press, 2011)
A Necessary Spectacle: Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Tennis Match That Leveled the Game, Selena Roberts (Crown, 2005)
Pressure Is a Privilege: Lessons I’ve Learned From Life and the Battle of the Sexes, Billie Jean King and Christine Brennan (LifeTime Media, 2008)
JANE GOODALL
Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters, the Later Years, Jane Goodall, edited by Dale Peterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001)
In the Shadow of Man, Jane Goodall (Houghton Mifflin, 1971)
Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, Dale Peterson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006)
My Friends, the Wild Chimpanzees, Jane Goodall (National Geographic Society, 1969)
VITA SACKVILLE-WEST
Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West, Matthew Dennison (St. Martin’s Press, 2015)
Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, Nigel Nicolson (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973)
Sissinghurst: Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden, Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven (St. Martin’s Press, 2014)
Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910–1921, edited by Mitchell A. Leaska (Viking, 1990)
Vita: The Life of V. Sackville West, Victoria Glendinning (Alfred A. Knopf, 1983)
ELIZABETH WARREN
Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) | Twitter
A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren (Metropolitan Books, 2014)
This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class, Elizabeth Warren (Metropolitan Books, 2017)
“The Outsider,” Glenn Thrush and Manu Raju (Politico Magazine, March/April 2015)
MARGARET CHO
I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, Margaret Cho (Riverhead, 2005)
I’m the One That I Want, Margaret Cho (Ballentine Books, reprint 2002)
“Shaved and Savage: Has Comedian Margaret Cho Finally Gone Too Far?” Ann Friedman (The Guardian, November 3, 2015)
AMELIA EARHART
20 Hrs., 40 Min.: Our Flight in the Friendship, Amelia Earhart (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928; reprinted National Geographic Adventure Classics, 2003)
East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart, Susan Butler (Da Capo Press, 1997)
The Fun of It: Random Records of My Own Flying and of Women in Aviation, Amelia Earhart (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1932; reprint edition Academy Chicago Publishers, 1977)
The Quotable Amelia Earhart, edited by Michele Wehrwein Albion (University of New Mexico Press, 2015)
FRIDA KAHLO
The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, Carlos Fuentes (Abrams, 2005)
Devouring Frida: The Art History and Popular Celebrity of Frida Kahlo, Margaret A. Lindauer (Wesleyan University Press, 1999)
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Hayden Herrera (HarperCollins, 1983)
Frida Kahlo: Face to Face, Judy Chicago (Prestel, 2010)
Frida Kahlo: The Paintings, Hayden Herrera (HarperCollins, 1991)
Kahlo, Andrea Kettenmann (Taschen, 2015)
NORA EPHRON
Crazy Salad and Scribble Scribble: Some Things About Women and Notes on the Media, Nora Ephron (Vintage, 2012)
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, Nora Ephron (Knopf, 2006)
I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections, Nora Ephron (Knopf, 2010)
Nora Ephron: The Last Interview and Other Conversations, Nora Ephron (Melville House, 2015)
“Seeing Nora Everywhere,” Lena Dunham (New Yorker, June 28, 2012)
She Made Me Laugh: My Friend Nora Ephron, Richard Cohen (Simon & Schuster, 2016)
DIANA VREELAND
“The Cult of Diana,” Amy Fine Collins (Vanity Fair, November 1993)
Diana Vreeland, Eleanor Dwight (William Morrow, 2002)
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland and Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt (Glass Studio, 2011)
Diana Vreeland: The Modern Woman: The Bazaar Years, 1936–1962, edited by Alexander Vreeland (Rizzoli, 2015)
DV, Diana Vreeland (Knopf, 1984)
Empress of Fashion: A Life of Diana Vreeland, Amanda Mackenzie Stuart (Harper, 2012)
Diana Vreeland Memos: The Vogue Years, edited by Alexander Vreeland (Rizzoli, 2013)
KAY THOMPSON
Eloise: A Book for Precocious Grown-Ups, Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, reissue edition, 1969)
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“Eloise at 55: The Legacy of Kay Thompson,” NPR staff (Weekend Edition, NPR, December 4, 2010)
It’s Me, Eloise: The Voice of Kay Thompson and the Art of Hilary Knight, Jane Bayard Curley and Kay Thompson (The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 2017)
Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, Sam Irvin (Simon & Schuster, 2010)
“Oh Kay! Rex Reed Recalls Kay Thompson,” Rex Reed and New York Observer staff (New York Observer, July 20, 1998)
LAVERNE COX
“Laverne Cox: The G2 Interview,” Rebecca Nicholson (The Guardian, June 14, 2015)
“Laverne Cox’s Most Revealing Interview Yet,” Melissa Maerz (Entertainment Weekly, June 10, 2015)
“The Transgender Tipping Point: Laverne Cox Talks to TIME About the Transgender Movement,” Katy Steinmetz (TIME, May 29, 2014)
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
The Destruction of Hillary Clinton, Susan Bordo (Melville House, 2017)
Hard Choices: A Memoir, Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2014)
Living History, Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Clinton, Carl Bernstein (Knopf, 2007)
Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, Dinesh D’Souza (Regnery Publishing, 2016)
JANIS JOPLIN
Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin, Myra Friedman (William Morrow & Company, 1973)
Love, Janis: A Revealing New Biography of Janis Joplin with Never-Before-Published Letters, Laura Joplin (Villard, 1992)
Pearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin, Ellis Amburn (Warner Books, 1992)
Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Alice Echols (Metropolitan Books, 1999)
LENA DUNHAM
“Downtown’s Daughter,” Rebecca Mead (The New Yorker, November 15, 2010)
“Is It Evil Not to Be Sure?: An Excerpt from Lena Dunham’s College Diary,” Lena Dunham (Lenny, May 17, 2016)
“Lena Dunham Is Not Done Confessing,” Meghan Daum (The New York Times Magazine, September 10, 2014)
Not that Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s “Learned,” Lena Dunham (Random House, 2014)
CARRIE FISHER
Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) | Twitter
“Carrie Fisher Opened Up About Her Demons—And Knew She Wouldn’t Have a Hollywood Ending,” Joe Mozingo, Soumya Karlamangla, and Richard Winton (Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2017)
Postcards From the Edge, Carrie Fisher (Simon & Schuster, 1987)
Shockaholic, Carrie Fisher (Simon & Schuster, 2011)
The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press, 2016)
Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher (Simon & Schuster, 2008)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KAREN KARBO is the author of multiple novels, works of creative nonfiction, and a memoir. Her genre-bending Kick-Ass Women series includes Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life; How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living; How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great; and the international best seller, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman. Her novels, Trespassers Welcome Here, The Diamond Lane, and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me, were named New York Times Notable Books, as was her memoir, The Stuff of Life. Her work has also appeared in Elle, Vogue, Outside, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Condé Nast Traveler, Salon, Slate, and other magazines. Recently she was selected as one of 24 authors for the inaugural Amtrak Residency. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, an Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, and a winner of the General Electric Younger Writer Award. Karen and The Man of the House (her partner of 16 years) live with their three dogs in Portland, Oregon.
READING GUIDE
What are Karen Karbo’s criteria for being termed a “difficult woman.” Do you agree? If not, why not? (Don’t be afraid to be difficult!)
How would you define a “difficult woman”?
Have you ever had to choose between being true to yourself or being accepted and loved?
Do you live your life on your own terms or give in, change your opinion, oblige others both in your career and in your personal life?
Did you ever dare to break the rules? If so, which rule(s) did you break? If not, which rule or rules do you wish you had broken?
What is your definition of a heroine?
What do you think it means to be female?
Have you ever held yourself back from giving a “smart” answer, or being “overly” competitive?
Does the word ambitious mean different things when applied to a man or a woman? What about the words passionate, outspoken, opinionated, and persistent?
If you could choose three women profiled in this book (alive or dead) with whom you could have dinner, who would you choose?
Were any of the women in this book role models for you when you were growing up? Why?
Are there any women in the book you do not admire? Why?
Of the 29 iconic women included, with whom do you identify the most? Which one do you wish you could be? Why?