The most recommended books about feminist

Who picked these books? Meet our 37 experts.

37 authors created a book list connected to feminists, and here are their favorite feminist books.
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Book cover of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

tammy lynne stoner Author Of Sugar Land

From my list on queer books across time & genre.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a serial mover, living in 18 cities in three countries (so far) ā€“ though that has settled down (kinda) now that my lady and I find ourselves with three kids + a fish, kitten, and 100-pound dog. Wherever we land, we single-handedly support the entire local restaurant industry. My debut novel was lucky enough to do well and has inspired a short film, which will hopefully usher it down the long road to TV seriesā€¦ 

tammy's book list on queer books across time & genre

tammy lynne stoner Why did tammy love this book?

As with most of Dorothy Allison's work, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure lives in the dramas and intersections around abuse and anger and hope, fueled by her gritty, emotional lyricism. With this explosive, unapologetic narrative about herself and her ā€œtrashā€ family, Two or Three Things has the southern pacing that creeps up and swallows you. And in it we really learn who Allison is: a gritty, rugged, loving survivor in the truest sense.

By Dorothy Allison,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Two or Three Things I Know for Sure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next.

Illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure tells the story of the Gibson women -- sisters, cousins, daughters, and aunts -- and theā€¦


Book cover of Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes

Seth Rosenfeld Author Of Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power

From my list on spies and radicals.

Why am I passionate about this?

Seth Rosenfeld is an independent investigative journalist and author of the New York Times best-seller Subversives: The FBIā€™s War on Student Radicals, and Reaganā€™s Rise to Power. As a staff reporter for The San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Chronicle, he specialized in using public records and won national honors including the George Polk Award. Subversives, based on thousands of pages of FBI records released to him as a result of several Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, won the PEN Center USAā€™s Literary Award for Research Nonfiction Prize, the Society of Professional Journalistsā€™ Sunshine Award, and other honors.

Seth's book list on spies and radicals

Seth Rosenfeld Why did Seth love this book?

This gem of narrative non-fiction tells the improbable story of an utterly impoverished immigrant woman who married into one of the wealthiest ā€œestablishmentā€ families of New York City and became one of the nationā€™s most prominent radical activists in the early 1900s. The unlikely marriage of Rose Pastor and Graham Stokes made many national headlines -- and attracted attention from federal agents. Hochschild brings this odd couple to life in all their ups and downs, introduces us to their circle of famous fellow activists, and illuminates their fights for social justice, struggles that remain relevant to this day.

By Adam Hochschild,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Rebel Cinderella as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time.

Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of eleven. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society.

Together,ā€¦


Book cover of The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights

Theresa Kaminski Author Of Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Women's Rights

From my list on 19th-century womenā€™s rights activists.

Why am I passionate about this?

My expertise: I specialize in writing about scrappy women in American history. I started with a trilogy of nonfiction history books about American women in the Philippine Islands who lived through the Japanese occupation during World War II. Then I found a biographical subject that combined the fascinating topics of war and suffrage, so I wrote Dr. Mary Walkerā€™s Civil War: One Womanā€™s Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Womenā€™s Rights. The next woman who grabbed my attention was a big name in Hollywood in the 20th century. Queen of the West: The Life and Times of Dale Evans is due out in 2022. 

Theresa's book list on 19th-century womenā€™s rights activists

Theresa Kaminski Why did Theresa love this book?

Wickendenā€™s three agitating friends were Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Coffin Wright, women who likely first connected through their work on the underground railroad. Of this estimable trio, Tubman remains the most well-known to history as the formerly enslaved woman who regularly risked her life to guide enslaved people out of bondage before and during the Civil War. Seward, the wife of Lincolnā€™s secretary of state, used her wealth and power to fight for the rights of Blacks and women. Wright, a Quaker, was the sister of Lucretia Mott, and the two of them helped plan the first womenā€™s rights conference, held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Wickenden skillfully excavates existing source material to craft this compelling group biography.

By Dorothy Wickenden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Agitators as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the intimate perspective of three friends and neighbors in mid-nineteenth century Auburn, New York-the "agitators" of the title-acclaimed author Dorothy Wickenden tells the fascinating and crucially American stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, the early women's rights movement, and the Civil War.

Harriet Tubman-no-nonsense, funny, uncannily prescient, and strategically brilliant-was one of the most important conductors on the underground railroad and hid the enslaved men, women and children she rescued in the basement kitchens of Martha Wright, Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, wife of Governor, then Senator, then Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Harriet worked forā€¦


Book cover of No Rules: A Memoir

Rita Dragonette Author Of The Fourteenth of September

From my list on the Vietnam War era by women writers.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always been fascinated by the role of women in war: men may be on the front lines, but women deal with its impact and often struggle to have equal standing. I was inspired by stories told by my mother who was a nurse in World War II and participated in surgery under gunfire and helped liberate a POW camp in Germany. Yet, no one wanted to hear from her because she was ā€œjust a nurse.ā€ Fast forward to Vietnam where women were still being marginalized. I wrote The Fourteenth of September to even the playing field by telling a story that was largely based upon my own experience in college during l969-1970.

Rita's book list on the Vietnam War era by women writers

Rita Dragonette Why did Rita love this book?

When a girl is stuck between generations in the early days of feminism:

A classic coming-of-age memoir of the early ā€˜70s, where a 16-year-old who thinks she has it all figured out, hits the road. She is forced to learn fast as she encounters dropouts, draft dodgers, and communal living, all the while running up against the sexism that masqueraded as freedom and love as she discovers by trial and error, the liberated woman she wants to be.

By Sharon Dukett,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked No Rules as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this coming-of-age memoir, Sharon takes you with her on a nail-biting adventure through the early 1970s after leaving her sheltered home life at sixteen years old to join the hippies. Yearning for freedom, she lands in an adult world for which she is unprepared, and must learn quickly in order to survive.

As Sharon navigates the US and Canada-whether by hitchhiking, bicycle, or the back of a motorcycle-she experiences love and heartbreak, discovers whom she can and cannot trust, and awakens to the growing women's liberation movement while living in a rural off-grid commune. In this colorful memoir, sheā€¦


Book cover of The Soul of a Woman

Alicia M. Rodriguez Author Of The Shaman's Wife: A Mystical Journey of Surrender and Self-Discovery

From my list on women seeking to design an authentic life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My career as an executive and leadership coach led me to recognize the cost of living in misalignment to what holds meaning for us. This incongruence leads to stress, illness, organizational failures, and a lack of honest connection. My work as a coach, and now designing bespoke, restorative experiences and retreats in Portugal, is to hold space for courageous conversations around meaning, purpose, and human connection. My writing has inspired others to be unapologetic about the life they desire and deserve.

Alicia's book list on women seeking to design an authentic life

Alicia M. Rodriguez Why did Alicia love this book?

Allende is one of my sheroes in the writing world. Her ability to depict the unseen world of intuition and address the passion that stokes the inner fires of women is unmatched. Her life is an extraordinary journey of love, loss, and resilience during difficult political times in Chile.

In this book, she gives voice to women everywhere who have been oppressed, and they still rise to care for themselves and those they love while striving for the lives they deserve. Calling herself a feminist, she shares how her defiant character was pathologized and, ultimately, how that led her to stand up for herself and other women.

It is both an individual and a collective story about the role of women in the world then and today.

By Isabel Allende,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Soul of a Woman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Long Petal of the Sea comes ā€œa bold exploration of womanhood, feminism, parenting, aging, love and moreā€ (Associated Press).

ā€œThe Soul of a Woman is Isabel Allendeā€™s most liberating book yet.ā€ā€”Elle

ā€œWhen I say that I was a feminist in kindergarten, I am not exaggerating,ā€ begins Isabel Allende. As a child, she watched her mother, abandoned by her husband, provide for her three small children without ā€œresources or voice.ā€ Isabel became a fierce and defiant little girl, determined to fight for the life her mother couldnā€™t have.

As a young womanā€¦


Book cover of The Women's Room

Karen Martin Author Of Dancing the Labyrinth

From my list on rediscover womenā€™s power.

Why am I passionate about this?

In 1995 I performed with the Womenā€™s Circus (Australia) at the 4th International Conference and Forum on the Status of Women in Beijing. Our show was called Leaping the Wire and presented thirteen womenā€™s stories from Amnesty International through physical narrative. My story was about a Brazilian woman who had been shot and killed for identifying the police who had rounded up her son and a group of his friends. The Brazilian women expressed their gratitude that I had told their story when they could not. I believe womenā€™s stories are important to be told, to be shared, and I made a commitment to make our stories accessible, first through theatre, and now through my novels.

Karen's book list on rediscover womenā€™s power

Karen Martin Why did Karen love this book?

I read this book over thirty years ago and despite not returning to it, count it as having a significant impact on my work. It is an emotionally charged and powerful book, and I remember being incredibly angry, and sad, and passionate for change. It introduced me to feminism and feminist literature. It shone the light on the need to hear womenā€™s voices in the public realm.

By Marilyn French,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Women's Room as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A landmark in feminist literature, THE WOMEN'S ROOM is a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today, this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely.

'Today's "desperate housewives" eat your heart out! This is the original and still the best, a page-turner that makes you think. Essential reading' Kate Mosse
'They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine' Jenni Murray
'Reading THE WOMEN'S ROOM was an intense and wonderful experience. It is inā€¦


Book cover of The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840 to 1866

Susan Higginbotham Author Of The Queen of the Platform: A Novel of Women's Rights Activist Ernestine Rose

From my list on nineteenth century feminists in their words.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a writer of biographical historical fiction, with some of my novels set in medieval and Tudor England, others set in nineteenth-century America. In researching my books, I try to immerse myself in my charactersā€™ world, and that means reading primary sources, such as newspapers, periodicals, letters, diaries, and memoirs. I especially like to read my charactersā€™ own words. Fortunately, the nineteenth-century feminists featured in this list left a lot of words behind them!

Susan's book list on nineteenth century feminists in their words

Susan Higginbotham Why did Susan love this book?

What list of nineteenth-century feminists would be complete without the movementā€™s grand dames, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton? This book, the first of a six-volume series, takes us to the early days of their friendship and alliance. Not only is this collection a testimony to the enormous amount of energy and organization expended by these two reformers, but it also reminds us of their human side.

Some of my favorite moments include Stanton bragging about the birth of her first daughter (and fifth child): ā€œI laid on a lounge about 15 minutes, and alone with my nurse & one female friend, brought forth this noble girl,ā€ and Anthony grumbling about her decision to give up the ā€œBloomerā€ outfit adopted by a number of women reformers, ā€œI have let down some of my dresses and am dragging around with long skirts.ā€

By Ann D. Gordon (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840-1866 is the first of six volumes of The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The collection documents the lives and accomplishments of two of America's most important social and political reformers. Though neither Stanton nor Anthony lived to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, each of them devoted fifty-five years to the cause. Their names were synonymous with woman suffrage in the United States and around the world as they mobilized thousands of women to fight for the right to a political voice.

Opening when Stanton wasā€¦


Book cover of Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment

Radhika Natarajan Author Of Hear Our Voices: A Powerful Retelling of the British Empire Through 20 True Stories

From my list on why imperial history matters today.

Why am I passionate about this?

I first became interested in the history of the British Empire as an undergraduate. Understanding this history helped me relate my parentsā€™ experiences growing up in a postcolonial nation with the history of the United States, where I grew up. As an academic historian, my research and teaching emphasize connectionsā€”between disparate places, between the past and present, and between our personal experiences and those of people born in distant times and places. My first childrenā€™s book allowed me to translate my scholarly work for a young audience. I hope this list of books that inspire my approach to history encourages your own investigations of imperialism and its pasts!

Radhika's book list on why imperial history matters today

Radhika Natarajan Why did Radhika love this book?

Claudia Jones was a Black Trinidadian woman who moved with her family to Harlem during its Renaissance. Her experiences seeking work radicalized her, and she joined the Communist Party. In 1952, the United States government deported her, and because the colonial government of Trinidad wouldnā€™t accept her due to her political commitments, they sent her to Britain.

There, she became the editor of the West Indian Gazette, which brought together global and local news. Jones was one of the first people I chose for my book because her life experience and writing show us that solidarity is never a flattening of identity. Instead, it is reaching beyond ourselves to find a connection in shared struggle.

By Carole Boyce Davies (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Claudia Jones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Claudia Jones, intellectual genius and staunch activist against racist and gender oppression founded two of Black Britonā€™s most important institutions; the first black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Times and was a founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival. This book makes accessible and brings to wider attention the words of an often overlooked 20th century political and cultural activist who tirelessly campaigned, wrote, spoke out, organized, edited and published autobiographical writings on human rights and peace struggles related to gender, race and class. ā€œClaudia Jones was an iconic figure who inspired a generation of black activists andā€¦


Book cover of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good

Marcus McCann Author Of Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path

From my list on new writing on sex and sexual politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a journalist, lawyer, and writer, I've been thinking and writing about state regulation of sexuality for 20 years. Political writing about sex can easily fall into orthodoxy; whether conservative or liberal, each side has its expected talking points. When I began investigating ways of thinking about public displays of sexuality in Park Cruising, I returned to the cache of sex-positive writing of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of it was invigorating, and some stale. So I sought out new writing about sex and sexuality, and I was richly rewarded. These books are just the tip of the iceberg; there's a feast of contemporary writing and thinking. So much to think through and explore!

Marcus' book list on new writing on sex and sexual politics

Marcus McCann Why did Marcus love this book?

adrienne maree brown taught me a lot about the lineage of sex-positive writing from the 1970s to today.

The book offered me a useful corrective to views of sexual politics which so often ignore and silence liberatory writing by Black women. This book reminded me that you cannot tell the story of sex-positive feminism without Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, or Fran White. But brown isnā€™t here to scold you ā€“ this book is a joyful read.

By adrienne maree brown,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Pleasure Activism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls ā€œpleasure activism,ā€ a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joanā€¦


Book cover of Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life

Kendra Allen Author Of The Collection Plate: Poems

From my list on finding inspiration and motivation.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a person who reads solely for pleasure regardless of research, I make it a mission while writing to read books I actually enjoy on topics I wanna learn more about. I chose the books on this list because Iā€™m also a person who reads multiple books at once in various genres, it keeps me honest; aware of holes and discrepancies in my own work and pushes me towards some semblance of completion. All the writers on this list do multiple things at once and I admire their skill and risk in coupling creativity with clarity.

Kendra's book list on finding inspiration and motivation

Kendra Allen Why did Kendra love this book?

What bell hooks has shown me about the possibility of personal narrative and memoir writing is endless because she consistently shows that your story is never-ending. But mostly bell hooks likes to hurt me on purpose. This is my favorite memoir by her because it centers on two of my favorite topics: words and whirlwind romance that refuses to interfere with the words at stake, and I knew this book would be one I would return to in order to figure out my own priorities once I read, ā€œIā€™m willing to give up everything I love if it means I wonā€™t be crazy.ā€

By bell hooks,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Wounds of Passion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œbell hooksā€™s brave memoir of struggling to find her own work, love, and independence.ā€ ā€•Gloria Steinem
With her customary boldness and insight, brilliant social critic and public intellectual bell hooks traces her writerā€™s journey in Wounds of Passion. She shares the difficulties and triumphs, the pleasures and the dangers, of a life devoted to writing. hooks lets readers see the ways one woman writer can find her own voice while forging relationships of love in keeping with her feminist thinking. With unflinching courage and hard-won wisdom, hooks reveals the intimate details and provocative ideas of the life path she carvedā€¦


Book cover of Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Book cover of Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes
Book cover of The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights

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