35+ of Your Favorite Feminist Books
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
