I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman

Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay · 360 pages

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink, all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once l

My Body

Emily Ratajkowski · 237 pages

How to Be a Woman

Caitlin Moran · 313 pages

Though they have the vote and the Pill and haven't been burned as witches since 1727, life isn't exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? Caitlin Moran interweaves provocative observations on women's lives with l

Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape

Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti · 372 pages

In this groundbreaking new look at rape edited by writer and activist Jaclyn Freidman and ‘Full Frontal Feminism’ and ‘He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut’ author Jessica Valenti, the way we view rape in our culture is finally dismantled and replaced with a genuine understanding and respect for female sexual pleasure. Feminist, political, and activist writers alike will present their ideas for a paradigm sh

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Alice Walker · 397 pages

Whores and Other Feminists

Jill Nagle · 291 pages

Whores and Other Feminists is the first volume to examine sex work and the sex industry through the eyes of self-identified feminist sex workers - strippers, prostitutes, porn writers, producers and performers, dominatrices - and their allies. Comprising a range of voices from both within and outside the academy, this collection draws from traditional feminisms, postmodern feminism, queer theory,

Sex Object

Jessica Valenti · 214 pages

"Who would I be if I lived in a world that didn't hate women?" Hailed by the Washington Post as "one of the most visible and successful feminists of her generation," Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a memoir that Publishers Weekly calls "bold and unflinching," Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes on women's lives, f

Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black

bell hooks · 189 pages

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Amy Schumer · 336 pages

Amy Schumer, Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star, mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationship, and sex, and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is--a woman with the courage to bare her soul and stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh. Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this h

The Sadeian Woman

Angela Carter · 154 pages

Angela Carter turns concepts and assumptions about love and sex inside out with an original examination of Sade's ideas.

You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain

Phoebe Robinson · 285 pages

A hilarious and affecting essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson. Being a Black woman in American means contending with old prejudices and fresh absurdities. Robinson uses her trademark wit to explore examine our cultural climate and skewer our biases with humor and heart.

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 66 pages

Receiving a letter from a friend asking her how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist, Adichie responded with fifteen suggestions for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Her suggestions ranged from options for non-stereotyped toy options, to debunking myths that women are somehow biologically programmed to be in the kitchen instead of having a career. Adichie's lette

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"

Lena Dunham · 287 pages

"If I could take what I've learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine was worthwhile. I'm already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expens

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color

Cherrie L. Moraga, Gloria E. Anzaldua · 261 pages

This groundbreaking collection reflects an uncompromised definition of feminism by women of color. from Google Books

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence

Inga Muscio · 277 pages

An ancient title of respect for women, the word "cunt" long ago veered off this noble path. Inga Muscio traces the road from honor to expletive, giving women the motivation and tools to claim "cunt" as a positive and powerful force in their lives. With humor and candor, she shares her own history as she explores the cultural forces that influence women's relationships with their bodies. Sending o

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

Kate Bolick · 308 pages

"A single woman considers her life, the life of the bold single ladies who have gone before her, and the long arc of slowly changing attitudes towards women"--

The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure

Tristan Taormino, Constance Penley, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Mireille Miller-Young · 328 pages

Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

Angela Garbes · 256 pages

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Audre Lorde · 191 pages

A collection of fifteen essays written between 1976 and 1984 gives clear voice to Audre Lorde's literary and philosophical personae. These essays explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde's intellectual development and her deep-seated and longstanding concerns about ways of increasing empowerment among minority women writers and the absolute necessity to explicate the concept of difference—differe

Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions

Gloria Steinem · 406 pages

Steinem's most diverse and timeless collection of essays are found here, from the humorous expose "I Was a Playboy Bunny" to the moving tribute to her mother, "Ruth's Song." The satirical and hilarious "If Men Could Menstruate" is alone worth the price of admission.

Heroines

Kate Zambreno · 309 pages

"On the last day of December, 2009 Kate Zambreno began a blog called Frances Farmer Is My Sister, arising from her obsession with the female modernists and her recent transplantation to Akron, Ohio, where her husband held a university job. Widely reposted, Zambreno's blog became an outlet for her highly informed and passionate rants about the fates of the modernist "wives and mistresses." In her b

But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies

Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, Barbara Smith · 418 pages

Winner of the Outstanding Women of Colour Award, and the Women Educator's Curriculum Material Award. This ground-breaking collection provides a wealth of materials needed to develop course units on black women, from political theory to literary essays on major writers to work on black women's contributions to the blues. Bibliographies and a collection of syllabi provide readers with essential clas

Vamps & Tramps: New Essays

Camille Paglia · 532 pages

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Lindy West · 272 pages

Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible--like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you--writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but. From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jo