Aspirational Bookshelf for Women's History Month
By Editing Without Ego
By Editing Without Ego
This list was curated from my (much longer) "aspirational" list of books I'd love to read in 2021. Most books I put on my running list are by women and center women in their narratives anyway, and I specially curated this version of the list for Women's History Month! You'll enjoy this list especially if you gravitate toward stories about LGBT+ women, music, and feminist theory.
Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World (Three Rivers Press)
Rosalind Miles
$17.00 $15.81A comprehensive study of everything you were never taught about women throughout history.
Tomboyland: Essays
Melissa Faliveno
$14.95 $13.90This collection of essays explores the author’s experience as a Midwesterner grappling with the otherness of queer gender and desire in a culture that has prescriptive norms dictating who she is supposed to be, and with questions of class as she travels away from the land that raised her.
Feel Free: Essays
Zadie Smith
$19.00 $17.67Essays by accomplished novelist and essayist Zadie Smith.
Bingo Love Volume 1: Jackpot Edition
Gabby Rivera, Gail Simone, et al.
$14.99 $13.94A comic book series about teenage girls who meet at a bingo game at church and fall in love in the 1960’s.
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
Priya Parker
$18.00 $16.74Parker presents a critique of the ways people come together, and offers a new perspective on how to make gatherings more meaningful
Olivia on the Record
Ginny Z Berson
$18.95A recounting of the joys and pitfalls of creating new spaces and outlets for women and lesbians to share art and resources during the 60’s and 70’s feminist movements. Written by one of the founders of the exemplary Olivia Records.
She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan
$24.00 $22.32An analysis of the wide-reaching cultural impact of Lauryn Hill's groundbreaking 1998 album.
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon
$20.00 $18.60This 800-page tome has a central lesbian relationship and a woman-centric fantasy universe.
Freshwater
Akwaeke Emezi
$16.00 $14.88An autobiographical novel by an Igbo-Tamil writer from Nigeria, this book draws on Igbo religion, imagery and language to discuss mental health from a non-Western perspective. Edited by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Social Creature
Tara Isabella Burton
$16.00 $14.88A psychological thriller focusing on a central prince(ss) and the pauper relationship, where our “pauper” protagonist has a dark past and a vested interest in maintaining her new, lavish life.
A Menopausal Gentleman: The Solo Performances of Peggy Shaw
Peggy Shaw
$33.54Peggy Shaw has written several solo acts about butch existence, and the scripts are compiled here into a single volume.
Other Girls Like Me
Stephanie Davies
$16.95 $15.76Autobiographical lesbian feminist theory exploring the complexities of growing up as a gay girl.
Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (-20th Anniversary)
Madeline D Davis and Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy
$58.74Drawing upon the oral histories of 45 women, it is the first comprehensive history of a working-class lesbian community.
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa
$17.00 $15.81The debut memoir by genre-defying musician, Dessa.
To Throw Away Unopened: A Memoir
VIV Albertine
$24.95 $23.20A ”gaping wound” of a memoir about English punk/counterculture pioneer Viv Albertine, former member of the girl group The Sits. The memoir spotlights her relationship with her mother.
Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
Soraya Chemaly
$18.99 $17.66A compilation of stories on the power women can harness in an emotion usually reserved for men.
If you're a woman or woman-aligned individual who is also a writer, activist, or creative entrepreneur, please check out my Bookshop storefront and my mission-driven copywriting and editing business, Editing Without Ego!