Recs if you like The Search for Omm Sety...

I have been collecting (and reading) a long list of memoirs, autobiographies and biographies about women who had fascinating lives. I thought I might as well make it a list! A lot of them I have read and enjoyed, some are from my TBR. I am especially fascinated by 18th-19th century women's stories, so there will be a lot of those. And women from diverse backgrounds. Open to suggestions!

A list of books that fit the prompts for the 2026 Polymath Training Challenge. (Egypt / Sleep, dreams / Astronomy and space exploration / Gastronomy and foods / Interior design, furniture / Chemistry / Mines and mining / Exploration and explorers / Art and nature /Agriculture /Economics) plus the "choose 1" prompts (Microbiome / Chocolate and coffee / Cultural history / Boardgames and role-playing games / Linguistics / Ethology / History of science / Cosmetics / Empathy). Open to suggestions!

Polymath Training Challenge is a non-fiction reading challenge that has been running on a Hungarian book site for the past 11 years. Each year it has 12 categories that participants have to pick their own nonfiction reads for (incl. memoirs and biographies). I have discovered several amazing nonfiction books through this challenge, so I decided to make a list of the best, and most mind-blowing, of them so far.