We consulted 22 “Best Feminism” book lists and came away with 379 different titles, 67 of which appeared multiple times. The books range in subject matter, tone, genre, and time period in which they were written. There are broader historical books and personal memoirs. Serious looks at difficult problems and humorous observations of the everyday life of a woman. Fictional stories and non-fiction accounts. Whatever your mood, there is a book here to fit it.
The Top 67 Feminism Books of All Time
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The 312 Additional Books Appearing on a Single List
- #GIRLBOSS, by Sophia Amoruso
- A Chair for My Mother
- A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
- A Life’s Work
- A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
- A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
- A Step from Heavenby An Na
- A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
- A Voice From the South, by Anna Julia Cooper
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle
- Ahn’s Anger
- Aishah: The Beloved of Mohammed
- Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
- All-American Girl by Meg Cabot
- Alt Ed by Catherine Atkins
- American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer
- Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery by M. Evelina Galang
- Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
- Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
- Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby
- Antigone
- Appetites: Why Women Want, by Caroline Knapp
- Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- Ash by Malinda Lo
- Babygate: How to Survive Pregnancy and Parenting in the Workplace by Dina Bakst, Phoebe Taubman, and
Elizabeth Gedmark - Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
- Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
- Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an
- Beneath My Mother’s Feet by Amjed Qamar
- Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught
- Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women
- Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerilla Girls’ Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes
- BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine.
- BLACK FEMINIST POLITICS FROM KENNEDY TO OBAMA,’ BY DUCHESS HARRIS
- BLACK GIRLS ARE FROM THE FUTURE,’ BY RENINA JARMON
- Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman by Michele Wallace
- Black Women’s Manifesto; Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female, by Frances M. Beal
- Black, White, and in Color by Hortense Spillers
- BLACKS,’ BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS
- Blue Tights by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Blueberries for Sal
- Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela
Davis - Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Third Edition, by Gloria Anzaldua
- Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero by Kate Larson
- Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
- Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, by Jean Kilbourne
- Celine by Brock Cole
- Choir Boy by Charlie Anders
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
- Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
- Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism (Live Girls)
- Come on, Rain!
- Cress Delahanty by Jessamyn West
- Crossing Stones by Helen Frost
- Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, edited by Alfeda Duster
- Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone
- Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block
- Daring To Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967 – 1975 by Alice Echols
- Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
- Debbie Harry Sings in French by Meagan Brothers
- Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference’ by Cordelia Fine
- Demonic Grounds: Black Women and Cartographies of Struggle by Katherine McKittrick
- Diary of a Mad Housewife (a novel), by Sue Kaufman
- Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition
- Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole
- Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
- Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics
- El Lector by William Durbin
- Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby
- Ella Echanted by Gail Carson Levine
- Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work Is Done, by Susan J. Douglas
- Estrella’s Quinceañera by Malin Alegria
- Feminism and Islam: Legal and Literary Perspectives
- Feminism and Pop Culture, by Andi Zeisler
- Feminist Edges of the Qur’an
- Fires In The Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith
- Flygirl by Sherri Smith
- For the Win by Cory Doctorow
- Forever by Judy Blume
- Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel
- Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East
- Gender Hierarchy in the Qur’ān: Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein - Gendering the Middle East: Emerging Perspective
- Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity’ by Robert Jensen
- Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music, by Marisa Meltzer
- Graceling by Kristin Cashore
- Gravity by Leanne Lieberman
- Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Humanby
Alexander G Weheliye - Hairs/Pelitos
- HE’S A STUD, SHE’S A SLUT AND 49 OTHER DOUBLE STANDARDS
- Homegirls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Barbara Smith
- Homosexuality in Islam: Islamic Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims
- Honey I Love
- How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time, by Kara Jesella
and Marisa Meltzer - How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
- How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- I Love Dick, Chris Kraus
- I Wonder
- Imani All Mine by Connie Rose Porter
- In Our Mother’s House
- In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs.
- Infidel’ by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Inside the Gender Jihad: Women’s Reform in Islam
- Intercourse
- Into the Go-Slow by Bridgett M. Davis
- Islam Women and Gender Justice
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- It’s Not What You Expect by Norma Klein
- Izzy, Willy-Nilly by Cynthia Voigt
- Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire, by Merri Lisa Johnson
- Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
- Just One Day by Gayle Foreman
- Keeping You a Secretby Julie Anne Peters
- Laboring Women by Jennifer Morgan
- Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
- Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution by Jill Johnston
- Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
- Living my Life, by Emma Goldman
- Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality And Intimacy by Tricia Rose
- Lucy the Giant by Sherri Smith
- Luna by Julie Anne Peters
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP
- Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
- Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
- Mare’s War by Tanita S. Davis
- Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match
- May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt
- Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, by Alix Kates Shulmans
- Men in Charge?: Rethinking Authority in Muslim Legal Tradition
- Middlemarch
- Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians
- My Little Island
- My Mother My Self
- Never Wholly Other: A Muslima Theology of Religious Pluralism
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Night Flying by Rita Murphy
- No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
- Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966 – 1978 by Adrienne Rich
- One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Opening the Gates, Second Edition: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing
- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
- Out of the House of Bondage by Thavolia Glymph (recommended by Tahanesi Coates, this one’s at the top
of my list to read) - Parable of the Sower
- Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
- Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Courtney E. Martin
- Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty, by Christine Heppermann
- Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject
- Pomosexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender & Sexuality, edited by Carol Queen, Lawrence
Schimel and Kate Bornstien - Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rightsby Katha Pollitt
- Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism
- Qur’an and Woman:Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective
- Rampant by Diana Peterfreund
- Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, by Azar Nafisi
- Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari’ah in the Modern Age
- Revenge by Taslima Nasrin
- Riding In Cars With Boys
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
- Rookie Yearbook One edited by Tavi Gevenson
- Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown:
- Saint Joan of Arc by Vita Sackville-West
- Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem and the Confidence Gap by Peggy Orenstein
- SEX – Whores and Other Feminists, edited by Jill Nagle
- Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism, by Patrick Califia-Rice
- Sex Education by Jenny Davis
- Sexual Ethics in Islam: Feminist Reflections on the Qur’an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence
- Simply Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Sisterhood Is Powerful
- Sisters of the Yam: Black Women And Self-Recovery by bell hooks
- Skin Trade by Ann duCille
- Skip Beat! By Yosiki Nakamura
- Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, by Leora Tanenbaum
- Sold by Patricia McCormick
- Some Of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays by June Jordan
- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women
- Starstruck by Rachel Shukert
- Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie
- Stone Butch Blues (novel), by Leslie Feinberg
- Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
- Strangeland
- Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn ‘Arab?, Gender, and Sexuality
- Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
- Tales Of The Lavender Menace: A Memoir Of Liberation, by Karla Jay
- Taste of Power by Elaine Brown
- Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
- The Apple Pie That Papa Baked
- The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
- The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Body Project, by Joan Jacobs Brumberg
- The Book of Jezebel: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things, edited by Anna Holmes
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Boy Who Cried Fabulous
- The Cider House Rules
- The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni by Nikki Giovanni
- The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
- The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities
- The Doll’s House, (play), by Henrik Ibsen
- The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King
- The Essential Ellen Willis, edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz
- The Essential Feminist Reader (Modern Library Classics) Edited by Estelle B. Freedman
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- The Golden Notebook
- The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists
- The Guardian Princesses
- The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
- The Hidden Face of Eve, Nawal El Saadawi
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- The House You Pass on the Way by Jaqueline Woodson
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism and Fascism by George Bernard Shaw
- The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities (Third Edition),edited by Joan Z.
Spade and Catherine G. Valentine - The Little House
- The Lorax
- The Maggie B
- The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues by Angela Davis
- The Member of the Weddingby Carson McCullers
- The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
- The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It by Jo Ann Gibson Robinson
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
- The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader by Joan Nestle
- The Place of Tolerance in Islam
- The Plain Janes by Cecil Castelluci and Jim Rugg
- The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology edited by Nathalie Handal
- The Quilt and Other Stories
- The Red Tent
- The Rhyming Season by Edward Averett
- The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
- The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
- The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home, Arlie Hochschild
- The Secret History of Wonder Womanby Jill Lepore
- The Secret Under My Skin by Janet McNaughton
- The Sex Which Is Not One
- The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol Adams
- The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake
- The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie (of Black Girl Dangerous)
- The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds
- The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought
- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyleby Avi
- The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights In Islam
- The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb
- The Wise Old Woman and Her Secret
- The Women’s Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press
- The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. by Ruth Rosen
- The Year They Burned the Books by Nancy Garden
- The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories,by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers
- Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay
- Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume,
- Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
- TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK,’ BY LORRAINE HANSBERRY
- Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
- Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson
- Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 by Deborah Gray White
- Toward a New Psychology of Women, by Jean Baker Miller
- Transgender History Edited by Susan Stryker
- Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce
- Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms, by Lisa Bryn Rundle, edited by Lara Karaian and Allison
Mitchell - Two Queens of Baghdad
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
- Uncommon Faith by Trudy Krisher
- Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution by Laurie Penny
- Vagina by Naomi Wolfe
- Virginity or Death!: And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time, by Katha Pollitt
- Voices by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
- We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists, by Melody Berger
- We Sinful Women: Contemporary Feminist Urdu Poetry
- Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block
- Weevils in the Wheat
- What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
- What Makes a Baby
- What Will It Take to Make a Woman President by Marianne Schnall
- When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, by Paula J. Giddings
- When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to Present by Gail Collins
- When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune by Lori Aurelia Williams
- When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright
- Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, by Susan J. Douglas
- Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, by Julia Serano
- White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages
- Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
- Wide Sargasso Sea
- Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Women
- Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
- Women and Madness: Revised and Updated, by Phyllis Chesler
- Women and Power in Native North America, by Laura F. Klein (Author) and Lillian A. Ackerman (Editor)
- Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam
- Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism Through Literature
- Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender
- Women in the Qur’an, Traditions, and Interpretation
- Women of Color and Feminism by Maythee Rojas:
- Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity
- Women, Islam and the State
- Words of Fire Collection, edited by Beverly Guy-Scheftall
- Working Out Egypt: Effendi Masculinity and Subject Formation in Colonial Modernity, 1870–1940
- YELL-Oh Girls!, by Vickie Nam
- Yes Please by Amy Poehler
- Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell
- Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
- Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
The 22 “Best Feminism” Book Lists Arranged by Publish Date