Book Recommendations

[Ashley]

I'd like suggest The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore.
It's a non fiction book that details the suprisingly feminist origins of Wonder Woman.

[Emma]

I think 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad would be an interesting choice. It's a short story collection about the trials and tribulations faced by larger women. I feel it would be a good way to check my privilege as a (relatively) skinny woman and gain some perspective.

[Elisa Santos]

I would like to recomend by a transgender and altough a fiction it draws from the experiences of the writter.

[Melissa]

It's already on the list, but I just read The Bell Jar for the first time and it's amazing! I wish I had read it five years ago. If you have not read it, please do- if you like audiobooks, there is a version out that's narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal that I found made the text very accessible and relatable.

I would love to read it as a group though and find out what other people think of it. :-)

[Michelle]

I would love to recommend Kirsty Eagar's Summer Skin. It's an Australian novel so I'm not sure of availability internationally (although the Book Depository is starting to sell more Aussie YA). It's a really smart and sexy feminist YA novel set at university. Eagar positively explores how women enjoy sex without being shamed, the relationship between sex and feminism and how porn has influenced expectations of sex. It's also interesting to see a sexual relationship in YA/NA that doesn't revolve around the first time. I finished a few weeks ago and just want to recommend it to everyone!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I didn't see it in the list so I will recommend The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson - a cerebral scholarly essay paired with personal memoir on gender, identity, and love.

[Eleonora]

I don't know if it has already been recommended, but Antigone by Sophocles is a great play about feminism.

[Cade]

Anything by bell hooks would be amazing. Also Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution; The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti; and Virgin: The Untouched History by Hanne Blank.

[Lauren]

I just came across this book on bookstagram and straight away thought of this book club: The Book of SHE: Your Heroine's Journey into the Heart of Feminine Power by Sara Avant Stover :)

[Sophie]

Hi everyone! I'm going to add Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran to the table. It's not exclusively a book about feminism but a large chunk of the book is devoted to that topic, and she definitely goes into it in the other sections from what I've seen so far.

[Elli (The Bibliophile)]

I'm not sure if they've been mentioned yet, but I have a couple of recommendations: Girls will be girls by Emer O'Toole, Feminist Theory, From Margin to Centrr by bell hooks. I also really enjoyed My Life On The Road by Gloria Steinem, which someone else already mentioned (so, so good!)

[Gabrielle]

hello!
I am currently reading The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lapore. May I recommend that book?!
thank you

[Francesca Romana]

I've just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, it's a novel, a classic of American literature and it is beautiful. The female characters are what makes the book so great, they are complex, real and positive and I think everyone needs to read it!
It is also featured in the New York Public Library Books of the Century list.

[Cath]

What about Their Eyes Were Watching God?

[Gemma]

when I was at my RL Waterstones Book Club, was up for possible nomination. Its non-fiction but I thought it may be of interest to the group

[Ket]

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan

I'm listening to this right now and so far it's very good. About the (until this publication) unexplored-by-foreigners practice of disguising girl children as boy children in gender-segregated Afghanistan. Sometimes the boys are 'reverted' back to girls on puberty, and sometimes not. Themes include westernization, religious conservatism, feminism, war, women's rights, the academic study of closed societies, and gender identity.

[Vanessa]

Hey guys, do you think a possible group read could be Girl Up by Laura Bates? Might be a good one :)

[Macklin]

So Long a Letter A really interesting look at being a woman in Islamic Senegal.

[Charlott]

Macklin wrote: "So Long a Letter A really interesting look at being a woman in Islamic Senegal."

Really funny, I just came to the thread thinking about recommending this book. (In general I am quite excited to be finally able to participate in this wonderful bookclub, for it was not possible for me during the last month.)

Some other books I'd like to recommend:

fiction:

Nervous Conditions
The Joys of Motherhood
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives
Butterfly Burning
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins

poetry:

Coal
And Still I Rise
This Assignment Is So Gay: Lgbtiq Poets on the Art of Teaching
Head Off & Split

non-fiction:

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism
The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
Making Space for Indigenous Feminism
I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman
The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love & Fashion
Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class
You Feel So Mortal: Essays on the Body
Indigenous Women and Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture
Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work
To Live Freely in This World: Sex Worker Activism in Africa

May be I went a little bit overboard :D

[Jean]

I just found out about this book The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild in the new Feminist Frequency video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jko06... and it sounds amazing ^_^

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I just finished listening to Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West, which would be an excellent read about feminism through the topics of fat shaming, internet trolls, etc.

[Nicole]

Jean: on the topic of pop culture and marketplace feminism, We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement by Bitch Media's Andi Zeisler looks really great! The team at Bitch also has a really fantastic podcast called Popaganda which is worth listening to. And in one of the recent episodes Andi reads an excerpt from her book.

Jenny: And on the topic of podcasts, I just heard Lindy West read an excerpt from Shrill on the latest episode of a podcast called 2 Dope Queens! It was pretty funny though, bizarrely, I think I would prefer to read it myself than listen to her read it which is unusual for comedian memoirs. It felt a little more private--like looking into another introvert's head--than other comedy memoirs I've read. :)

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Nicole wrote: "I think I would prefer to read it myself than listen to her read it which is unusual for comedian memoirs. It felt more a little more private--like looking into an introvert's head--than other comedy memoirs I've read. :) ."

I totally get that. And I'm still mulling over whether I'd call it a comedy memoir. Sometimes publishers call books that when they actually mean "this is going to make you uncomfortable, so you might as well laugh at it." :)

[Ryan]

Hello, I just wanted to recommend a feminist book I think everyone here will find interesting. It's currently available for free today. It's called ALL WOMEN ARE WHORES, and despite the title, it's intelligently written and gives real solutions to problems in society like the female image in the fashion industry. I promise it's worth the read. You can get it for free here

[Sofia]

the house of hidden mothers The House of Hidden Mothers

[Lucile]

I would suggest a book but I don't know if it has been translated in English (I think I might have seen a copy of it in English on amazon but not really sure). It's called "Les hommes protégés" written by Robert Merle and it's a beautiful book, I might say it's a bit different from what we can read usually. Men that can reproduce are dying because a virus spreading on earth and women are about to take power. It's like all roles were changed and men became the new women of our actual world.

[Essie]

'Vinegar Girl' by Anne Tyler could be a good one. It's a reimagining of 'The Taming of the Shrew' which is pretty much all about the power dynamics between men & women.

[Erica]

My mother went to a women in leadership conference a while back and was given this book as pre-reading. The author spoke at the conference. Might be inspiring for women working in historically male-dominated professions or women trying to rise up in their career. I think reading about inspiring women who have fought their way through adversity is always a good read for us feminists :)

Fair Cop

[Hilsa]

My favourite book (and the only one I've properly read) by Andrea Dworkin is Pornography: Men Possessing Women
It's quite dense and academic and hard to read because it makes me so angry with the world, but god she is the best. It's opened my eyes and they cannot be shut now!
Highly highly recommend for a bit more in depth analysis of sexualization of women and the effects of porn on men and women (ie. how men treat women or their partners because of what they've seen. How women are expected to "fake it," how it can lead women to uncomfortable abusive situations, not demanding their own pleasure etc etc - and this was written over 35 years ago and since then porn has only become more and more graphic and abusive.)

Also Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference is looking very tempting. I think it would be a very interesting look into gender and sex.
I think having a bit more meaty, analytical books would be good to diversify the reading lists :)

[Sandra]

I don't know if anyone recommended it but I just started reading Rape: A South African Nightmare by Pumla Dineo Gqola. So far it is very informative. It is about rape, rape culture and how to fight against it in South Africa
Rape: A South African Nightmare

[John]

I'd like to recommend The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I think it's a good novel about Chinese women's experience of living within patriarchal society. Do check it out. :)

[Gabriel]

Hi all,

this book changed my life so I try to support it as much as I can
---

"Thirty-four-year-old Morgan is a dreamer, change maker and art lover. She is a feisty, slightly preachy, romantic feminist full of contradictions and insecurities. Morgan uncovers a world where women have the power, and where magic is no longer just a figment of her wild imagination. Sounds like a dream, but it may, in fact, turn into a nightmare.

The world of the Ahe'ey challenges and subverts her views about gender, genes, and nature versus nurture.

The strong and uninvited chemistry between her and the dashing Gabriel makes matters even more complicated. His stunning looks keep short-circuiting her rational mind."
---

I don't quite understand how Jamie makes it work, but Feminism, Romance and Fantasy just work perfectly in this fabulous world. I'm totally in love with my name sake Gabriel.

Gabe

[Angie]

Nicole wrote: "Weatherly wrote: "Not sure this club is into graphic novels, but Bitch Planet is just about my favorite comic/graphic novel I've read this year, and is feminist as all hell. (Even if it isn't chose..."

I LOVE Bitch Planet! I also wasn't into Sex Criminals. I tried so hard to see what everyone else seemed to be seeing, but... I just didn't.

[Nicole]

Angie wrote: "I LOVE Bitch Planet! I also wasn't into Sex Criminals. I tried so hard to see what everyone else seemed to be seeing, but... I just didn't."

Yeeeeaaah same. Sex Criminals felt really inauthentic and just generally off the mark for me in just about every way... But it would seem we are in the minority of people who feel that way :') hahah

[Jean]

Nicole wrote: "Angie wrote: "I LOVE Bitch Planet! I also wasn't into Sex Criminals. I tried so hard to see what everyone else seemed to be seeing, but... I just didn't."

Yeeeeaaah same. Sex Criminals felt really..."

I am so pleased to hear more people say this. I agree on both counts! Loved Bitched planet, gave up half way through Sex Criminals..

[Nicole]

Hah! It's nice to know there are at least a few of us out there! 😂

[Ket]

Regretting Motherhood by Orna Donath is a study of Israeli women who unequivocally regret being anyone's mother, and the conversation Donath is inviting readers to have about the ability for women to express regret/'choose' motherhood is just so good. The author is aware and thoughtful of motherhood in relation to trans experiences, and mothering choices historically and currently available to women of color, and this would be a great text for deepening an understanding of feminism past 'feminism is getting to choose to participate in society's current standards or not' to 'feminism is about dismantling and questioning society's current standards because those standards are innately and unavoidably oppressive as long as they represent a monolithic ideal.'

[Maddie]

Hi everyone! So this is perhaps not 100% the place for it but I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations about feminist (non-fiction) books that really delve into and discuss the word "feminist/feminism" and how it came to be. Maybe in a book about the history of feminism, but I'm not sure if there's any that deals with this specifically, so if anyone has any recomendations I would really, really appreciate it.

Some backstory on why I want to read about it: a lot of men in my life tell me they're "all for equality" but they can't call themselves "feminists" because they "hate the word" which is incredibly frustrating and I just don't have the tools to really address this particular issue and it's been driving me crazy.

Thank you!

[Ket]

Maddie wrote: "Hi everyone! So this is perhaps not 100% the place for it but I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations about feminist (non-fiction) books that really delve into and discuss the word "..."

A book tackling this from an academic perspective is What Is Feminism?: An Introduction to Feminist Theory by Chris Beasley. Looking at different iterations of feminism over time, it's a good book that references important figures in feminism, the difficulty of defining feminism, and key issues that different 'waves' of feminists centered in their political actions. Part history book, part feminist theory primer. If I'm remembering correctly, I do think that the origins of the term are discussed. One main thrust of this book comes to is that a discussion of 'feminism' as a whole would probably be better called a discussion of 'feminisms' - in the plural - since there are so many different movements and positions this word is applied to. It'd give you a good grounding in the knowledge you're after, but would probably be too dry to recommend to the men in your life giving you grief.

[Maddie]

Ket wrote: "Maddie wrote: "Hi everyone! So this is perhaps not 100% the place for it but I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations about feminist (non-fiction) books that really delve into and dis..."

Thank you so much for the suggestion, Ket! I'll be sure to check it out soon.

[Amy]

There’s also “No Turning Back” by Estelle Freedman which I remember enjoying in college. It’s been so long that I’d have to re-read to give a fair review, but you could look it up here on Goodreads and see what recent readers have said.

One tactic that can work in getting people to see the errors of their ways sometimes is to keep asking “why” in a neutral or puzzled voice (thank you for the tip, CaptainAwkward.com —bet you if you search that site there’s advice on your very question, now that I think of it!). For example:

I won’t use the word feminist because I hate that word.
Why do you hate it, it’s a word?
It means women are better than men.
That isn’t what it means. Why do you think that’s what it means?
Because I’ve been told that’s what it means.
Why do you think someone told you that?
Etc

[D]

Shameless by Nadia Bolz-Wever is a book I read recently and was a bit stunned by. It’s not explicitly Feminist but definitely deals with Feminist themes.

[Jass]

Three new novels by Peg Tittle - It Wasn't Enough, Impact, and Gender Fraud: a fiction. All very radfem, the first and last dystopian ...

Also, This is what happens, by chris wind. A sort of fictionalized memoir that traces the life of one woman to explore what happens ... why aren't there more famous women whatevers out there ...