Distaff Refrain

Perhaps fallout from Women’s Year, 2013, this oblation of assertive books published in the last few months by women bicyclists, having eclipsed spinning classes and met incredible challenges, truly impresses. They evidence gender equality that suffragettes over a century ago would have gratefully cheered.

Anna Brones, The Culinary Cyclist, 2nd Edition, Illustrated by Johanna Kindvall, Microcosm Publishing, 2015 (96 pp). Speaks to caffeine capers and vegan lifestyles. Brones will also release Hello, Bicycle: An Inspired Guide to the Two-Wheeled Life, Ten Speed Press, (192 pp) in late Spring.

Anika Ledlow and Elly Blue, Cycletherapy: Grief and Healing on Two Wheels (Journal of Bicycle Feminism), Elly Blue Publishing, 2016 (128 pp). Sociologist Ledlow teams with Portland, Oregon activist Blue for an inspiring series of self help essays. Focusing on nonfiction, Blue adds to her past titles, Bikenomics and Everyday Bicycling, and publishes other feminists.

Emilie Bahr, Urban Revolutions: A Woman's Guide to Two-Wheeled Transportation, Microcosm Publishing, 2016 (192 pp). Activist and urban planner in New Orleans shares joys of getting around by bike.

Helen Lloyd, A Siberian Winter's Tale: Cycling to the Edge of Insanity and the End of the World, Take On Creative, 2015 (262 pp). If you ever wondered what it takes to ride frozen wastes at -50°F, ask Helen. Imagine chains would freeze solid, so bikes must be belt driven.

Juliana Buhring, This Road I Ride: Sometimes It Takes Losing Everything to Find Yourself, W. W. Norton & Company, 2016 (208 pp). Buhring shares her story of setting the Guinness World Record for fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle, 18,000 miles in 152 days.

Kasia Szewczyk, The Ride to Read, self published, 2015, (180 pp). Memories of a charity ride that was aimed at raising literacy awareness.

Lucy Roberts, Bicycle Odyssey - Around the World in 800 Days, self, 2015 (308 pp). Intrepid vegan author begins a group bicycling adventure and ends alone after 30,000 miles.

Marie Madigan, A Slow Tour Through France: From Avignon to Saint-Malo by Bicycle (Mostly), Wood Sorrel Books, 2015 (242 pp). Author survives misadventures across French countryside.

Réanne Hemingway-Douglass, Two Women Against the Wind: A Tierra del Fuego Bicycling Adventure, Cave Art Press, 2015 (121 pp). Trek with the only women ever to bike the 300 miles across one of planet's least known and most dramatic landscapes.

Sarah Hallenbeck, Claiming the Bicycle: Women, Rhetoric, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America, 2015, Southern Illinois University Press (240 pp). Scholarly discourse examines historic gender struggles.

Selene Yeager and Stacy Sims, ROAR: How to Match Your Food and Fitness to Your Unique Female Physiology for Optimum Performance, Great Health, and a Strong, Lean Body for Life, Rodale Books, 2016 (256 pp). Coming out this summer, title says it all.

Suze Clemitson, Ride the Revolution: The Inside Stories from Women in Cycling, Bloomsbury Sport, 2015, (320 pp). Voices of women who’ve triumphed riding bikes.