We celebrated Women’s History Month in March. If you’re like me, you might have missed it (along with St. Patrick’s Day, the first day of spring, and my sister’s birthday) with everything else that’s been going on.

The last day we visited our local library before it closed, there was a display by the registration desk full of books by women, and I picked up two. Oftentimes, when I “impulse buy” at the library, I have to return the books before I get to read them. These days are not like other days, and I am stuck indefinitely with the books I picked up on that last visit. I’ve slowly been making my way through them.

Bossypants, by Tina Fey, is a memoir, and I’ll be the first to admit that my sense of humor doesn’t always intersect with the SNL gang. Typically I have one of three reactions to SNL/Fey humor: I laugh, I don’t get it because I grew up in a cultural black hole that was homeschooling in a sheltered home in the 80’s and early 90’s, or I cringe.

This book bore out my previous experience. With humor, Fey speaks to the unique experience of being a woman. Among the stories of her life growing up and her comedy career are bits of wisdom that will make you nod and laugh.

When people say, “You really, really must” do something, it means you don’t really have to. No one ever says, “You really, really must deliver the baby during labor.” When it’s true, it doesn’t need to be said.

I don’t know what I expected from the book, but I enjoyed it. I appreciate the ability of a good memoir to plop us into someone else’s shoes, and this one did just that.

The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, by Anne Helen Peterson, was not what I expected at all. It’s a critical, thoughtful work that takes different women who have risen to fame for one reason or another and have become flashpoints because of their inability or unwillingness to toe the line when it comes to acceptable femininity.

The one chapter that felt like it didn’t belong was the one about Caitlyn Jenner. I realize the author chose Jenner to fill a particular role in her book, but it didn’t work for me. Jenner may have been in inner turmoil about her identity for her whole life, but she was still living with all the privilege of being a white male up until very recently. While she may no longer have male privilege, she still has the privilege of wealth that prevents her situation and experience from being relatable.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this: it was about pop culture, but it was an intelligent dialogue about women and their role in our world, the way they are interpreted, reflected, treated, and presented by the media. The book sometimes made me uncomfortable, but it also stretched me to think in new ways.