Rad Women Worldwide: Artist and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History written by Kate Schatz and illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl (Ten Speed Press, 2016, 104 pp. $15.99)

Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl, the same female writer-illustrator team behind New York Times best-seller Rad American Women A-Z, are telling more stories of heroines through dramatic tales and bold papercut illustrations. They chose 40 outstanding female role models from 31 countries, all nicely mapped out on the interior cover. Produced with young readers in mind, the book has a matte embossed cover with Brazil’s Marta kicking a soccer ball, Mexico’s Frida Khalo looking contemplative, and Pakistan’s Malalal Yousafzai raising a victory sign—indicative of the unusual and outstanding cast of characters profiled within.

Six Car Lengths Behind an Elephant: Undercover & Overwhelmed as a CIA Wife and Mother by Lillian McCloy (Bordertown Publishing, 2016, 240 pp., $13.95)

Alameda resident Lillian McCloy has written a memoir about her life as the wife of a deep cover CIA employee, Frank, a charming and gregarious gentleman who is gone—a lot. Clandestine meetings, repeated uprootings, absence upon absence, constant unpredictably, cover stories and fake companies: It’s the stuff of espionage novels. But Lillian, no fan of travel, can’t breathe a word of any of it as her husband’s job takes them to exotic locales. McCloy uses her humor, wit, and resolve deftly to keep a healthy perspective on just what she has gotten herself into.