Books I Carry With Me

What books do I carry with me? Let’s start with the practical. Three years ago I packed myself up and moved across the country. I took very little, leaving the bulk of my things (including a lot of books) in storage, took only what was absolutely necessary. That included a small number of books. I had to bring the books I could not live without, the books whose support I thought I might need when landing in a new place.

Most of the books I brought were ones I’ve read many times, books I hold inside, and carry with me. Books I know so well that I think in them. Books I use over and over again to inspire my writing, to remind myself of what I know, to hold a mirror up to my own life.

Here is a list of fifty books that are dear to my heart, precisely because they kicked my ass in some major intense way when it needed to be kicked, or showed me I wasn’t alone when I felt deeply alienated, or helped me understand something I really needed to understand.

Links are to Goodreads. If you have a question about a book, or want trigger warnings, you can also feel free to ask me about it.

Sister/Outsider by Audre Lorde
No Mercy by Patrick Califia
Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua
On Lies, Secrets, and Silence by Adrienne Rich
The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricote
Waist High in the World by Nancy Mairs
Medicine Stories by Aurora Levins Morales
A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voight
Pushing the Limits ed by Shelley Tremain
Talking Back by bell hooks
Growing Beyond Survival by Elizabeth Vermilyea
Diesel Fuel by Patrick Califia
The Marrow’s Telling by Eli Clare
House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein
Ceremonies by Essex Hemphill
Enter Password: Recovery by Elly Bulkin
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
Keeping Slug Woman Alive by Greg Sarris
Missed Her by Ivan Coyote
Martian on the Playground by Claire Sainsbury
Fire, by Kristin Cashore
Whipping Girl by Julia Serano
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Safety Planning with Battered Women by Jill Davies
A Map to the Next World by Joy Harjo
After Silence by Nancy Venable Raine
Getting Home Alive by Aurora Levins Morales and Rosario Morales
Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman
This Bridge Called My Back ed by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
The Deep End by Chris Crutcher
Kissing God Goodbye by June Jordan
S/he by Minnie Bruce Pratt
Loving in the War Years by Cherrie Moraga
The Burning Pen, ed by M. Christian
The Persistent Desire ed. by Joan Nestle
The Survivor’s Guide to Sex by Staci Haines
Nevada by Imogen Binnie
The Alchemy of Race and Rights by Patricia J. Williams
Exile and Pride by Eli Clare
Diving Into The Wreck by Adrienne Rich
Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine
Seeking Safety by Lisa Najavitz
Nearly Roadkill by Kate Bornstein and Caitlin Sullivan
Thinking Class by Joanna Kadi
My Dangerous Desires by Amber Hollibaugh
The Collected Poems by Audre Lorde
Blood and Silver by Patrick Califia

These are books I read as an adult. (I’d need a whole other list for books that shaped me as a child.) Many of these books came with me as I traveled, or I quickly realized that I needed to have them again. These are books that gut-punch me in ways that I need it, hold up the mirrors I ache for, inspire me to be brave. I consider them essential texts that have shaped me, and continue to shape me.

Tagged: essential texts, gut-punching books, reading, teachers