Nathaniel Fried
The 9 best books every modern feminist should read as suggested by experts.
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#1 Melissa & Kasho
This book has a unique angle given that it is set in Italy in the 1950s and addresses timely topics including: sexual assault, emotional abuse, and the protagonist developing strength to stand up for herself by the end of the story.
Moreover, this book is unique because the main character, Melissa, finds confidence in herself through an unlikely source - a ghost. The ghost named Kasho teaches her how to stand up to her parents and her sexual assaulter. That being said, this book will inspire readers, as it demonstrates the strength women have and what they can accomplish when they have a strong sense of self-worth.
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Contributor: Camilla Chance from camillachance.com
#2 Trumping the Rape Culture and Sexual Assault
This book is more than a 'how to' for situational awareness and self-defense. It is a commentary on how women are portrayed in the media and how women respond to each other. This 'girl power' book was written to encourage unity among women, remain unafraid to challenge the good 'ol boy network and stand up for women's rights.
The author defied the United and International Olympic Committees when she learned that women were not allowed to bobsled as the sport was deemed to fast and dangerous, sleds too heavy. Allred petitioned the IOC and USOC, wrote the women's bobsled bylaws and fought for the inclusion of women in the Olympic Games. She is a 4th degree black belt and motivational speaker for women's rights.
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I’ve been to one of Alexandra Allred’s self defense classes. She is an expert on the subject. I’m so happy she wrote this book.
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Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Alex has done more for my confidence and healing than anyone else. She has not only taught me how to defend myself, but to do it with tempered measure and authority……even at age 60.
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Alex taught a group of us young ladies when I was in high school how to break a board with just our hands. It was a little scary and I was a bit apprehensive that I could actually do it, but the feeling that followed was such empowerment! I love Alex
#3 Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
This is a phenomenal book of essays by one of America's greatest feminist writers (and founder of Ms. Magazine). Steinem's undercover adventure as a Playboy Bunny in the 1960s is entertaining and highly relevant in today's Me Too culture. Her coverage of Linda Lovelace's role in Deep Throat is an eye-opening look at the porn industry in America. This book shows how far we've come in the last years, and how far we still have to go.
Last year, I took my dog-eared copy and placed in it my 8-year old's bookcase. Someday she'll read it; I hope by then she'll say I can't believe that it was like this, and I'm glad it's not anymore.
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Contributor: Moira Koch, co-founder bluebeardsoriginal.com
#4 Women Who Run With the Wolves
My life was changed when my friend lent me Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola-Estes.
Her poetic, well-researched book showered my life with meaning when I felt like a parched plant. At the time that I read it five years ago, I was always putting my creative projects on the back burner, not fully valuing how vital they were to my life as a woman. Reading her book helped me build confidence, find creative inspiration, and understand the history and lineage of why feminine power has been feared for so long.
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Contributor: Sara Giita Flores from saragiita.com
#5 Sex, Race, and Class
Spanning six decades, Selma James's work set a new political perspective for millions of unwaged women, redefining the working class to include sectors previously dismissed as marginal.
Feminism today is inter-sectional, and to have a conversation about feminism requires an understanding of class and traditionally marginalized groups.
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Contributor: Stephanie Pasvankias from PM Press
#6 Revolution at Point Zero
This volume collects forty years of research and theorizing on the nature of housework, social reproduction, and women’s struggles on this terrain—to escape it, to better its conditions, to reconstruct it.
For many years women were relegated to the home, in some parts of the world they still are. Housework, unpaid labor, and social reproduction are important topics when talking about feminism as they are frequently not spoken about, and highly influential.
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Contributor: Stephanie Pasvankias from PM Press
#7 Anarchy and the Sex Question
The Sex Question emerged for Goldman in multiple contexts as varied as women's suffrage, free love, birth control, the New Woman, homosexuality, marriage, love, and literature.
For Emma Goldman, the “High Priestess of Anarchy,” anarchism was “a living force in the affairs of our life, constantly creating new conditions,” but “the most elemental force in human life” was something still more basic and vital: sex.
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Contributor: Stephanie Pasvankias from PM Press
#8 Braided Lives
Marge Piercy turns her considerable skill and passion to the Fifties in this portrait of women in transition from repression to freedom. This new edition features a new introduction by the author.
Braided Lives is an enduring portrait of the past that has led to our tenuous present. In her new introduction to this edition, Marge Piercy reflects on both the most autobiographical of her novels, and the ongoing battles to ensure the hard-fought victories of the Sixties and Seventies, particularly around sex and reproductive rights.
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Contributor: Stephanie Pasvankias from PM Press
#9 Sisters of the Revolution
This curated selection of feminist speculative fiction seeks to expand the conversation about feminism while engaging the reader in a wealth of imaginative ideas.
Sisters of the Revolution seeks to expand the ideas of both contemporary fiction and feminism to new fronts. Moving from the fantastic to the futuristic, the subtle to the surreal, these stories will provoke thoughts and emotions about feminism like no other book available today.
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Contributor: Stephanie Pasvankias from PM Press
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I wasn’t sure I would like this book but I was told about it by someone who never leads me astray with literature, and she was on the money! This book is a fantastic novel. I sayed at home shut away for 3 days until I soaked up every word!
A wonderful author!
A poetic story of friendship, of giving your best to humanity, and of being inspired by kindness, strength and love.