I Need Recommendations!

Posted on by Lizzi

I do indeed. Specifically for my feminism/women reading list. I have recently compiled reading lists of the books I most want to read out of the huge list I have on GoodReads, and realised that I actually don’t have that many on feminism/women/gender. This is an area that I find fascinating and I feel like I haven’t read enough on it.

Here is the list I have so far:

  • Animal by Sara Pascoe
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
  • Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
  • I Call Myself a Feminist by Victoria Pepe
  • Girls Will be Girls by Emer O’Toole
  • Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
  • The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar (own a copy)
  • Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic after Thirty Years by Annette R. Federico and Sandra M. Gilbert (own a copy)
  • The Second Sex by Simone du Beauvoir (own a copy)

As you can see I’ve got a mix of classics and more modern stuff. Honestly I’d rather read more modern stuff (say, since 1980) so recommendations in that bracket would be very much appreciated!

Also I must ask that no one recommend Caitlin Moran to me – I have read two of her books and didn’t really get along with them… sorry.

I look forward to hearing about some amazing books!

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(image: urbantabloid.com)

Published by Lizzi

12 thoughts on “I Need Recommendations!”

  1. This looks like a good list! Are you looking specifically for non-fiction? I know of other non-fiction books, but I haven’t read them… Or are you open to fiction, too?

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  2. OK, I know mostly the standard books in the area, and haven’t read much of the recent stuff:
    Roxane Gay: Bad Feminist (I’ve only read fragments from it, though, so it’s a bit cheeky of me to recommend the whole book)
    Erica Jong: Fear of Flying – a classic novel about women’s sexual desires
    bell hooks: Ain’t I A Woman?
    Naomi Wolf: The Beauty Myth
    Susan Faludi: Backlash
    Michele Roberts – pretty much any of her novels, but with particular fondness for The Book of Mrs. Noah and Reader, I Married Him.

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  3. A totally non-scientific list based on what I can see on my bookshelves: Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy, Germaine Greer, Elaine Showalter, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, Living Dolls by Natasha Walter, Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny, The Women’s Room by Marilyn French, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Helene Cixous, Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach, The Edible Woman/The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Judith Butler.

    Some of these are from my TBR so I’ve no idea what they’re like but the ones I’ve read are all thought-provoking, whether you agree with them or not – happy reading 🙂

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  4. That’s a pretty good list you’ve got there. I particularly enjoyed Emer O’Toole’s book; she’s very good at bridging the academic/popular divide. If you want to go hardcore there’s Gender Trouble by Judith Butler but it’s rooted in academia and hard going (her writing style’s convoluted).

    If you read any YA, Shappi Khorsandi’s forthcoming novel Nina Is Not Ok is excellent on women and sexuality.

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    1. Glad to hear you enjoyed the O’Toole – I’m very keen to read that one. I’ve read a bit of Judith Butler but don’t necessarily want to go full academic as you say. I don’t generally read YA but I’ll take a look at Khorsandi – she’s very smart. Thank you!

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  5. What a wonderful project! It isn’t exactly a feminist book, but I would highly recommend Jane Robinson’s ‘Bluestockings’. Here are some more random suggestions from my 2016 reading list; I hope some of them take your fancy!

    – ‘Moments of Truth: Twelve Twentieth Century Women Writers’ – Lorna Sage
    – ‘Embroideries’ – Marjane Satrapi
    – ‘A Very Great Profession: The Women’s Novel 1914-1939’ – Nicola Beaumont
    – ‘The Well of Loneliness’ – Radcliffe Hall
    – ‘A Woman’s Place: 1910-1975’ – Ruth Adam
    – ‘Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present’ – Lisa Appignanesi
    – ‘The Woman Novelist and Other Stories’ – Diana Gardner
    – ‘City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London’ – Judith R. Walkowitz
    – ‘A Literature of Their Own: British Women Writers: Charlotte Bronte to Doris Lessing’ – Elaine Showalter
    – ‘The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980’ – Elaine Showalter

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    1. Thank you Kirsty – what a wonderful list! I read about A Very Great Profession (possibly on your blog??) and thought it sounded great. I’ll take a look at the others too. 🙂

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  6. What a wonderful list! I don’t really have anything to add (I’m after recommendations too) but I am about to read the rest of Animal so I look forward to reading what you think of it.

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