It’s Women’s History Month and a few weeks ago I also finished both Enola Holmes’ movies on Netflix which made me giddy for strong female leads. I’ve compiled a short list of the most memorable females in books and why they’ve still stuck with me.

1. Alana from Vaughan and Staples’ Saga comics because that’s one woman (with wings) that I’d never want to cross on the battlefield of interstellar war or in love whether it’s her husband Marko or her daughter Hazel.
2. Hazel from Schwartz’s Anatomy and newly published sequel Immortality because women surgeons in the 1800s. Her ingenuity and stickwithit attitude empowers all women in science.
3. Josie from Sepetys’ Out of the Easy because she wanted a way out. Her mother’s way was not going to be her way but she learned from those women in the brothel and others around her just the same.
4. Lisbon sisters from Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides because you can’t get more memorable than the desperation, one girl at a time, to try to leave their life in suburbia. This is hands-down one of my all-time most memorable books. I even named my dog after one of the girls.
5. Naomi from Perez’s Out of Darkness because the braid on the cover is emblematic of her struggles making her way through life after the death of her mother and dealing with her abusive stepfather while keeping an eye on her twin siblings and falling for Wash. There are scenes from the book that I replay in my featuring Naomi’s quiet strength.
6. Susie Salmon from Sebold’s The Lovely Bones because her death is what led to the pain and heartbreak readers experienced that she could only but watch from a distance. A life cut short is often grounds for being remembered long after the death.
7. Coco from Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier manga series because her insistence on needing to become a witch and her delightful problem-solving skills were about to fracture the relationship with the other girls in the atelier, until they realize how pure of heart Coco is, with a side of goofiness.
8. Mattie from Donnelly’s A Northern Light because being close to a murder is a scary thing, but her uplift from just a farmgirl to self-education is inspiring.
9. Laura from Jordan’s Mudbound because the delicate balance of being raised in the city to moving to mud country was enough to tear her in two. The quiet desperation and decisions she makes are not always perfect but quintessentially human.
10. Anya Balanchine from Zevin’s All These Things I’ve Done because having a target on your back is hard enough, but keeping what’s left of your family together while trying to run an illegal chocolate empire is even more difficult. She’s got spunk.

Of course, this is just a handful. I might actually have to go back and create more lists of memorable women because there are too many to choose from.