2026 Reading Challenge

Listopia > Activism Book Lists

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëA Room of One’s Own by Virginia WoolfThe Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Best Feminist Books
2,520 books — 3,525 voters
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeA People’s History of the United States by Howard ZinnThe Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerNickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Social Justice: Books on Racism, Sexism, and Class
2,129 books — 1,536 voters

Silent Spring by Rachel CarsonA Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo LeopoldThe Lorax by Dr. SeussThe Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanDesert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Best Environmental Books
1,072 books — 1,201 voters
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi KleinA People’s History of the United States by Howard ZinnSocialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism! by Todor BombovThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckFahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Best Progressive Reads
1,063 books — 710 voters

Socialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism! by Todor BombovThe Da Vinci Code by Dan BrownAngels & Demons by Dan BrownThe Communist Manifesto by Karl MarxBlack Fire by William Kely McClung
Underground Knowledge (fiction and nonfiction)
1,348 books — 637 voters
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le GuinAnarchism and Other Essays by Emma GoldmanV for Vendetta by Alan MooreChomsky On Anarchism by Noam ChomskyThe Conquest of Bread by Pyotr Kropotkin
Anarchist books
470 books — 372 voters

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee1984 by George OrwellAnimal Farm by George OrwellThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerThe Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Books for and About Activists
327 books — 307 voters
The House Divided by J.B. ManheimThe Communist Manifesto by Karl MarxThe Shock Doctrine by Naomi KleinAnimal Farm by George OrwellThe Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton
Recommended Political Reads
414 books — 138 voters

Sister Outsider by Audre LordeBlack Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill CollinsAin't I a Woman by bell hooksSister Citizen by Melissa V. Harris-PerryFeminist Theory by bell hooks
Black Feminist/Womanist Studies (nonfiction)
129 books — 108 voters
Debt by David GraeberGriftopia by Matt TaibbiA People's History of the United States by Howard ZinnThe Big Short by Michael LewisA Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
Occupy Wall Street
87 books — 88 voters

Hunger by Roxane GayHomegoing by Yaa GyasiThe Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany HaddishOn Tyranny by Timothy SnyderAl Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken
Trevor Noah's Literary Guests
264 books — 85 voters
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia WoolfA Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary WollstonecraftThe Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth GaskellThe Subjection of Women by John Stuart MillThe Autobiography of Margaret Sanger by Margaret Sanger
Early Feminists
187 books — 78 voters

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan KunderaDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. DickThe Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XThe Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos CastanedaLakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
1968 - The year that rocked the world (fiction and nonfiction)
236 books — 77 voters
Mind Fields by Julia FultonWrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe by Karl WigginsThe Legend of Haverton Beck by Carol Ann MooreAnxiety by Danny WinterTWAS The Year 2020 by Karl Wiggins
Books that Shift Your Way of thinking
43 books — 60 voters

The Color of Law by Richard RothsteinThe New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca SklootMedical Apartheid by Harriet A. WashingtonWhen Affirmative Action Was White by Ira Katznelson
Breaking Brown Book Reads
98 books — 55 voters
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) by Carol TavrisThe Tipping Point by Malcolm GladwellMade to Stick by Chip HeathThe Struggle for the People’s King by Hajar YazdihaIn Defense of Animals by Peter Singer
Rhetoric and strategy of social change
133 books — 51 voters

Corrections in Ink by Keri BlakingerOrange Is the New Black by Piper KermanLeaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough30 Years Behind Bars by Karen GedneyPrisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
Women's prison memoirs
68 books — 50 voters
V for Vendetta by Alan MooreParable of the Sower by Octavia E. ButlerThe Wrath of Leviathan by T.C. WeberThe Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le GuinSleep State Interrupt (1) by T.C. Weber
Fight the Power! Activism in fiction
70 books — 49 voters

Buses Are a Comin' by Charles PersonMaking A Difference by James L. HechtThe Soul Whispers Poetry by Vikki KoplickSacred Animal Activism by Vikki KoplickBorn Free by Joy Adamson
Activist memoirs
182 books — 41 voters
Buses Are a Comin' by Charles PersonA Place at the Nayarit by Natalia MolinaAnd a Voice to Sing With by Joan BaezOutlaw Woman by Roxanne Dunbar-OrtizHouse of Diggs by Marion Orr
Sixties Memoirs & Biographies (nonfiction)
175 books — 38 voters

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-GarciaRon's Big Mission by Rose BlueSmoky Night by Eve BuntingSit-In by Andrea Davis PinkneyThe Book Itch by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Black Lives Matter - Kids!
176 books — 31 voters
Ruthless. Heartless! Loveless. by Holly StarWoody Notes, and Heat Sneaking up Fast by Danny WinterAnxiety by Danny WinterSourdough by Diane Lee MoomeyNo Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay
Best Underground-ish Poetry
21 books — 20 voters

In Search of the Return by Joshua RaymondI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya AngelouDeath of Innocence by Mamie Till-MobleyBorn a Crime by Trevor NoahBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Celebrate diversity with these recommended books from One World
18 books — 16 voters
Untenrum frei by Margarete StokowskiDer kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen by Alice SchwarzerSprache und Sein by Kübra GümüşayDie Wand by Marlen HaushoferUnlearn Patriarchy by Lisa Jaspers
Feminismus auf Deutsch
79 books — 13 voters

Campaign Battle by Snapshot SystemsNew Power by Jeremy HeimansBe The Change by Gina MartinGood Guide to Campaigning and Influencing by Brian LambThis Is an Uprising by Mark Engler
Campaign reads
129 books — 9 voters
Wonder Woman by Laurie Halse AndersonSuperman Versus The Ku Klux Klan by Rick BowersBlack by Kwanza OsajyefoLove Is Love by Marc AndreykoBitch Planet, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
Superheroes, Comics, and Social Justice
117 books — 6 voters

Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward E. BaptistCaste by Isabel WilkersonThe Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du BoisBlack Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier
Frontline Stereo Podcast
18 books — 3 voters
From Here to Equality by William A. Darity Jr.The Great Influenza by John M. BarryReparations by Duke L. KwonThe Debt by Randall RobinsonShould America Pay? by Raymond A. Winbush
Books on Reparations by African-Americans
6 books — 3 voters

Strategic Action for Animals by Melanie JoyFor the Prevention of Cruelty by Diane L. BeersStriking at the Roots by Mark HawthorneCulture and Activism by Elizabeth CherryVoices for Animal Liberation by Brittany Michelson
Animal Rights Activism (Non-Fiction)
89 books — 3 voters
Dian Fossey by Diane PhelpsI am Jane Goodall by Brad MeltzerJoan Procter, Dragon Doctor by Patricia ValdezThe Girl Who Thought in Pictures by Julia Finley MoscaWho Is Temple Grandin? by Patricia Brennan Demuth
Children's Books of Inspiring Women in Zoology
34 books — 2 voters

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