Riot Recommendation

35+ of Your Favorite Feminist Books

S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

This Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Feminist Icon Cross-Stitch by Anna Fleiss and Lauren Mancuso.

FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH puts a new spin on smashing the patriarchy. Featuring inspiring bios and embroidery patterns of empowering sayings and trailblazing women—like Gloria Steinem, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Beyoncé—this book is a celebration of everyone’s favorite lady heroes. With an introduction on modern feminism and instructions on the basics of cross-stitch, FEMINIST ICON CROSS-STITCH is perfect for veteran crafters who have already knit their own pussy hats and those who are new to the craftivism game. As the book says, the future is female—so start cross-stitching and let these powerhouse women inspire you to make herstory!

Books that strengthen our resolve and inspire us to protest, dismantle the patriarchy, or celebrate the women who made waves before us and those who lead us today—all are so necessary right now. Cheeky or sober, entertaining or educational, we asked you to tell us your favorite feminist books and you answered! Here are more than 35 of your favorites:

Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Lost Innocence, Modern Day Slavery and Transformation by Barbara Amaya

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by H.M. Parshley

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Feminist Baby by Loryn Brantz

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Woman’s Bible by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

They Went Whistling: Women Wayfarers, Warriors, Runaways, and Renegades by Barbara Holland

The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage edited by Cathi Hanauer

The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti

Queer, There, and Everywhere : 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

Feminist Frontiers by Verta Taylor, Nancy Whittier, Leila J. Rupp

Herland and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Sex Object by Jessica Valenit

Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

The Art of Blessing the Day by Marge Piercy

Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks

Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros

Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Wifework by Susan Maushart

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