TOOL´s Ocean Women Library

Follow this featured list to get or share inspiration, and keep up with books about and/or written by women. Real stories of amaSEAng women - a collection of ocean women (often forgotten) way back in history - books reconnecting us to the sea - and ocean fiction by women.

Enjoy the collection, and reach out or comment below, if you have favourites you´d like to be featured!

Featured books in Inspiring Ocean Women:

• Under Water - How holding my breath taught me to live. A story of discovering fresh perspective, battling depression and transforming life through freediving (Claire Walsh)

• Woman at Sea - One woman´s battle with the elements onboard an Alaskan fishing boat, novel based on the author´s own experiences (Catherine Poulain)

• Soundings - The story of Marie Tharp, the remarkable yet unknown woman who mapped the ocean floor, one of the greatest achievements in modern cartography (Hali Felt)

• Voices in the Ocean - A journey into the wild and haugting world of dolphins (Susan Casey)

• Blue Water Women - Making the leap from landlubber to a life at sea (Gina de Vere)

• The Hungry Ocean - A Swordboat Captain´s Journey (Linda Greenlaw)

• The Ocean and Us - The main issues facing the ocean today, exclusively written by women experts providing new perspectives and solutions (Farah Obdullah)

• Ice Diaries - An Antarctic Memoir. The story of four months on the world´s most enigmatic continent - Antarctica, followed by travels to Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard (Jean McNeil)

• The Lady and the Octopus - How Jeanne Villepreux-Power invented aquariums and revolutionized marine biology (Danna Staaf)

• My Ship is So Small - The story of the first Atlantic solo-crossing by a woman sailor, in 1953 (Ann Davidson)

• One Girl One Dream - The amazing autobiographical account of the youngest ever solo circumnavigation of the earth, between the ages of 14 and 16 (Laura Dekker)

• Into the Planet - Awe-inspiring odyssey about cave diving icon Jill and her journey of exploration, resilience and self-discovery into the planet´s deepest depths (Jill Heinerth)

• Seaworthy - A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea - Sequel to The Hungry Ocean, (Linda Greenlaw)

• Wave Woman - The life and struggles of surfing pioneer Betty Winstedt (Vicky Heldreich Durand)

• The Sun is a Compass - A 4.000-mile journey into the Alaskan wilds (Caroline Van Hemert)

• The Lady and the Sharks - The engaging explorations and adventures of a remarkable woman, describing the fascinating tales about behaviour and physiology of sharks, fish and marine life - and the birth and growth of a major marine science laboratory (Eugenie Clark)

• Amazon Woman - Facing fears, chasing dreams, and a quest to kayak the world´s largest river from source to sea (Darcy Gaechter)

• Inside - One woman´s journey through the inside passage, 1.200 mile from Washington to Juneau, Alaska in an 18-foot sea kayak (Susan Marie Conrad)

• Rowing to Latitude - Journeys along the Arctic´s Edge, a memoir through life and more than 20.000 miles of Arctic and sub-Arctic areas (Jill Fredston)

• Swell - A sailing surfer´s voyage of awakening. Tales of sailing in high seas, solitude and surprises. (Captain Liz Clark)

• Rough Crossing - An Alaskan Fisherwoman´s Memoir, the story of life on a fishing boat as the only woman crew member (Rosemary McGuire)

• "Do You Go Out On The Boat Too, Luv?" - A collection of tales by extraordinary women living and working in the Gulf of Carpentaria gillnet fishery (Claudine Ward)

• Salt Story - Of sea-dogs and fisherwomen. Life as an apprentice fisherwoman, a way of life slowly dying as waters become politicized and fished out (Sarah Drummond)

• In search of the Woman Who Sailed the World - An ode to the first woman to circumnavigate the world, in 1776, disguised as a man onboard Bougainville. The mysteries and journeys of Jeanne Barret (Danielle Clode)

• The Polish Sailor Krystyna and Her Voyage - The life and journey of the first woman to sail around the world in 401 days, Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz (Cedrick Trivett)

• Anchor My Heart - Novel inspired by the author´s own experiences as marine engineer onboard merchant vessels, later going onshore as fleet superintendent for Maersk (Nyari Nain)

• Salt On Your Tongue - Women and the Sea. An ode to the ocean, a mix of memoir, social history and nature writing, navigating through generations of myths, shipwreck stories and folktales, of women drawn to the waves or waiting on the shores (Charlotte Runcie)

Featured books in Ocean Women through History:

• A Few Good Women - Memoirs of a WWII marine (Inga Fredriksen Ferris)

• A Kindred Spirit - The story of a female mariner on a mission to find the Iwo Jima survivor who signed her flag, while she was stationed in Hawaii during WWII (Maxine Cardinal Wehry)

• Woman, Captain, Rebel - The extraordinary true story of a daring Icelandic sea captain. Captain Thurídur Einarsdóttir was a controversial woman - this is the account of Iceland's most famous female sea captain who constantly fought for women's rights and equality—and who also solved one of the country's most notorious robberies. (Margaret Willson)

• Eyes Right - Confessions from a woman marine (Tracy Crow)

• The Discovery of Jeanne Baret - A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe (Glynis Ridley)

• On a Farther Shore - The life and legacy of Rachel Carson, whose 4th book Silent Spring transformed our relationship with the natural world, and pesticides damage to fish, birds & wildlife - eventually leading to banning of DDT (William Souder)

• Four Corners - A journey into the heart of Papua New Guinea. The three month solo trip navigated by dugout canoe and on foot, by the first woman traversing the whole country (Kira Salak)

• Polar Wives - The remarkable women behind the world´s most daring explorers. Portraits of the gifted sculptor Kathleen Scott; eccentric traveller Jane Franklin; spirited poet Eleanor Anne Franklin; Jo Peary, the first white woman to travel and give birth in the High Arctic; talented and determined Emily Shackleton; Norwegian singer Eva Nansen; and the author´s own mother, adventurer Marie Herbert, Karie Herbert. Illuminating the essential role the women played in supporting, publicizing, defending, and even financing their husbands’ expeditions. (Kari Herbert)

• The Female Marine - Or adventures of Miss Lucy Brewer (Lucy Brewer West)

• The Far Traveler - Voyages of a Viking Woman (Nancy Marie Brown)

• Seafaring Women - Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives (David Cordingly)

• Granuaile - Sea Queen of Ireland (Anne Chambers)

• Flying Cloud - The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman who Guided Her (David W. Shaw)

• A Thousand Ships - retelling the mythology of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women whose lives were impacted by the war (Natalie Haynes)

• Ocean Bound Women - Sisters sailing around the world in the 1880s. Intriguing first-hand narrative of circumnavigating the globe in the 19th century. Based on family documents stored in a seaman's chest, this book provides a scholarly account of the history of the Swedish sailing-ship Atlantic (1876–1911) and her crew. Part of the book is based upon a diary written by a Scandinavian woman, which stands as the uniting text for the years 1885–1887 (Anders Hallengren)

• Hen Frigates - Wives of Merchant Captails Under Sail. Through first-person accounts and maritime illustrations, a historian reconstructs the life of the courageous wives and daughters of sailing ship captains of the nineteenth century, who left everything behind to join their husbands at sea.(Joan Druett)

• A Pirate´s Life for She - Swashbuckling Women Through the Ages. The stories of 16 women who through the ages who sailed alongside—and sometimes in command of—their male counterparts. From ancient Norse princess Alfhild to Sayyida al-Hurra of the Barbary corsairs; from Grace O’Malley, who terrorized shipping operations around the British Isles during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; to Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of 1,400 ships off China in the early 19th century. Focusing on the reasons they became pirates, these are the remarkable stories of women who took control of their own destinies in a world where the odds were against them. (Laura Sook Duncombe)

• The Pirate Queen - In search of Grace O´Malley (Barbara Sjoholm)

• Bold in her Breeches - Women Pirates Across the Ages. (Jo Stanley)

• SHE Captains - Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. Long before women had the right to vote, earn money, or have lives of their own, "she captains" -- bold women distinguished for courageous enterprise on the high seas. From the warrior queens of the sixth century b.c. to the female shipowners influential in opening the Northwest Passage, She Captains brings together a real-life cast of characters. (Joan Druett)

• Grace O´Malley - Pirate Sea Queen of Ireland

• The Female Shipwright - In 1759, at the age of nineteen, Mary Lacy donned a pair of men's breeches, adopted the name of William Chandler, and went to sea. Her autobiography chronicles her sea-faring adventures and gives a fascinating insight into the hardships of ordinary sailors in the 18th-century Navy (Mary Lacy)

• The Lady Tars - The Autobiographies of Hanna Snell, Mary Lacy and Mary Talbot. The original text of three of the most remarkable naval biographies ever written. Women served as sailors in the Royal Navy as early as 1650. In general, few seamen (and even fewer sea-women) knew how to write. As a result, there exists no first-hand, autobiographical, accounts—with three exceptions. Three women—three lady tars—left memoirs of their experiences serving as men in the Royal Navy. 

• The Female Soldier - The surprising life and adventures of Hannah Snell. After being abandoned by her husband and losing her child, Snell assumed her brother-in-laws identity and set off in search of her husband. Boarding the sloop of war the Swallow in Portsmouth, Snell set sail to capture Pondicherry. Along the way she fought in many battles, sustaining multiple injuries, some of which made it difficult to keep her sex concealed. In 1750, she returned to London and told her story, setting down in The Female Soldier one of the most captivating military legends of all time, which went on to inspire generations of men and women alike.(Hannah Snell)

• Down The Nile - Alone in a Fisherman´s Skiff. Rosemary Mahoney was determined to take a solo trip down the Egyptian Nile in a small boat, even though civil unrest and vexing local traditions conspired to create obstacles every step of the way. (Rosemary Mahoney)

• A Fish Out of Water - From Seattle socialite to commercial fisherwoman - Hazel Stone´s fishing diaries from 1940´s Alaska. (Arlene Lockridge)

• A Voyager Out - The life of Mary Kingsley. Starting out as a conventional Victorian woman, Kingsley ended up travelling some of the most inhospitable regions of Africa, becoming one of the most celebrated travellers of the day. At the age of 31, she sailed on a cargo ship along the coast from Sierra Leone to Angola and then traveled inland from Guinea to Nigeria, studying African customs and beliefs. On her second journey, she ventured into remote parts of Gabon and the French Congo--the first European to do so. (Katherine Frank)

• The Flower Boat Girl - A novel based on the true story of Zheng Yi Sao, the 19th century Chinese woman who rose from sexual slavery and became the most powerful pirate in history. Then written out of history for a long time, because of her gener and the fact that she was an Asian pirate (Larry Feign)