Whenever I do a book event at a bookstore, I like to buy something while I’m there. Most often, of course, it’s a book. This week, I returned to One More Page in Arlington, Virginia, which is basically my happy place. They sell chocolate and wine alongside their books and it’s a rare visit when I don’t leave with some form of all three. This time, the wine was a bubbly called Sauvage, the chocolate was a rather large and fancy take on a peppermint patty, and the book was Pamela D. Toler’s WOMEN WARRIORS.

Subtitled “An Unexpected History,” Pamela’s fabulous nonfiction look at women warriors through the ages earned a rave from Booklist, which called it “thoroughly delightful, personable, and crucially important.” It’s newly out in paperback., which is why it was at the top of my to-buy list, and also why Pamela herself is today’s #read99women guest.

Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian, Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of eight books of popular history for children and adults. Her newest book is Women Warriors: An Unexpected History. Her work has appeared in Aramco World, Calliope, History Channel Magazine, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and Time.com.

For her #read99women choice, Pamela recommends a book called EIGHTY DAYS, which also happens to be one of my favorite nonfiction reads of the past few years. “On November 14, 1889, Nelly Bly, reporter for the popular newspaper The World, sailed from New York on the trip that would make her famous: an attempt to travel around the world in less than eighty days. Eight and a half hours later, unknown to Bly, the literary editor of the monthly magazine, The Cosmopolitan, boarded a westbound train in a reluctant and largely forgotten attempt to beat Bly around the world. Matthew Goodman tells their story.”

Read the full review here.