Feminist Reads

... Read Boys & Sex Summary

... Read Breasts and Eggs Summary

Breath, Eyes, Memory is a novel by Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat, first published in 1994. The book is semi-autobiographical: like the protagonist, 12-year-old Sophie Caco, Danticat herself was born in Haiti but moved to the United States at a young age. She has since written several novels and short stories about Haiti, immigration, and the complex ways that one’s identity is formed by where they are from and where they now live. The novel... Read Breath, Eyes, Memory Summary

... Read By Any Other Name Summary

... Read Cat Person Summary

Cat’s Eye is a 1988 coming-of-age novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood that centers on Elaine Risley, a successful painter who is returning to Toronto for a retrospective show of her work. Throughout the novel, she has vivid recollections of her childhood and adolescence in the city during the postwar years—particularly of her friendship with Cordelia, who persecuted her in a way that had an indelible impact on her life. The novel was a finalist... Read Cat's Eye Summary

... Read Cemetery Boys Summary

Published in 2018, Circe retells the story of the eponymous Greek mythological figure. The novel is also popular among the online BookTok community. Although traditionally viewed as a heartless, savagely beautiful witch who lures sailors to their deaths, the Circe of Madeline Miller’s imagining is quite different. This Circe is a multidimensional, flawed, and empathetic character struggling to find meaning and worth in her immortal life. Through Miller’s detailed and honest first-person narrative, which takes... Read Circe Summary

... Read Confessions of the Fox Summary

... Read Cranford Summary

Crow Lake is a 2002 Canadian bildungsroman set in a rural farming community in northern Ontario. It is author Mary Lawson’s debut work and earned her the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the UK McKitterick Prize. The novel focuses on the Morrison siblings, who are orphaned when their parents are killed by a logging truck. Kate, the second-youngest member of the family, narrates the novel in first person. Her narrative alternates between the... Read Crow Lake Summary

Dawn, a 1987 science fiction novel by Octavia Butler, is the first installment in the Xenogenesis (or Lilith’s Brood) trilogy. The story takes place in a near-future, postapocalyptic world. The protagonist, Lilith Iyapo, is one of the few human survivors left after a nuclear war and must help an alien race, the Oankali, repopulate Earth. The novel explores themes of Otherness as a Social Construct, Women of Color in Leadership Roles, and The Human Desire... Read Dawn Summary

... Read Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions Summary

... Read Declaration of Sentiments Summary

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, also known as Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences, is a 2010 work of feminist nonfiction by British psychologist and philosopher Dr. Cordelia Fine. Through an intensive but accessible review of neurological and sociological studies, the book debunks the idea that men and women have different brains. Nominated for numerous awards upon its publication, it went on to become a bestseller... Read Delusions of Gender Summary

Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad is a memoir published in 1998 by the Somali model, author, and activist Waris Dirie and author Cathleen Miller. The book recounts Dirie’s harrowing life story, from her roots as a member of a nomadic family and the abuses she suffered as a child to her rise to international fame as a fashion model, an ambassador and advocate for women's rights, and an author. The novel... Read Desert Flower Summary

... Read Detransition, Baby Summary

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (1982) is a hybrid form of prose poetry, autobiography, ethnography, criticism, and fictional experiments. Cha was a Korean American visual artist, poet, and filmmaker. She was tragically murdered only a week after the book was published. The book went out of print for several years before interest in Cha’s work was revived in the 1990s by feminist authors, such as Norma Alarcón. Cha’s work was honored with an exhibition including... Read Dictee Summary

... Read Dinners With Ruth Summary

“Diving into the Wreck” is the title poem of Adrienne Rich’s 1973 National Book Award-winning collection. A 94-line, ten stanza free verse poem, the work encompasses Rich’s thematic concerns of radical feminism and art and examines how gender functions within the larger context of culture, literature, and oral tradition.Rich’s mid-career poem came about during a period of intense change in her life. While her earlier poems had been more traditional in form and topic, over... Read Diving into the Wreck Summary