By Phil Borges
111 pages; Universe

Every page of photographer and humanitarian Phil Borges's Women Empowered (Universe) is an affirmation. With global support from CARE, these teachers, journalists, sex workers, activist nuns—from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Bangladesh, and beyond—are the world's little-known heroes, vaulting over gender barriers and triumphing daily over soul-sapping repression and violence. Writes Madeleine K. Albright in her introduction, "This is a book about hope, based on reality." What could be more powerful than that?