As a voracious reader, I’m always in the market for a good book, especially ones that touch on women’s issues. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a preliminary — and by no means comprehensive! — list of books/websites/magazines that are essential for any feminist.
Of course, please help me build this list by leaving comments on missing items!
BOOKS (NONFICTION)
The War on Choice, by Gloria Feldt
Abortion & The Politics of Motherhood, by Kristin Luker
The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan
How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America, by Cristina Page
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, by Inga Muscio
Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
The Vagina Monologues, by Eve Ensler
Mothers & Motherhood: Readings in American History, by Rima D. Apple and Janet Golden (eds)
The Women & War Reader, by Lois Ann Lorentzen adn Jennifer Turpin (eds)
Against Our Will, by Susan Brownmiller
The Female Circumcision Controversy, by Ellen Gruenbaum
Human Rights & Gender Violence, by Sally Engle Merry
The Woman’s Bible, by Eizabeth Cady Stanton
Women’s Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader, by Bert B. Lockwood (ed)
Full Frontal Feminism; The Purity Myth; Yes Means Yes; He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut, all by Jessica Valenti
The Color of Water, by James McBride
In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, by Alice Walker
Women, Race and Class, by Angela Davis
BOOKS (FICTION)
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
Push, by Sapphire
The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (or anything by Toni Morrison, for that matter)
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange
MAGAZINES/NEWS SITES
BLOGS
Thank you so much! The list is updated with your suggestions
This is most definitely a working list in progress, so holler with any more you’d like to see!
No prob! I have tons of other suggestions too. Here are a few additional must-reads in my mind:
Fiction:
Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
NonFiction:
Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker
Thank you very much for your suggestions, Nikita. Will add to the list!
To clarify: I was referring to Alice Walker’s absence from the non-fiction section.
No Bell Hooks, Angela Davis or Alice Walker? At least Feminism for Everybody should be on this list.