The 20+ Must-Read Feminist Books

Coming to life through a series of “Happy Hour” conversations and one-on-ones Chatzky conducted with women across the country, Women with Money delves into the one conversation the majority of females find most difficult: money.

The book is filled with spot-on information and outlines a fantastic three-part plan and tangible solutions for women to get paid what we deserve, become inspired to start or grow businesses, invest for tomorrow, make our money last, use our money to secure relationships, raise independent, confident children, care for aging parents, and more.

Create your own ideal life and build your self-esteem with these positive daily affirmations. These very wise words have the power to touch our hearts, build confidence, make us laugh, and alleviate our stress―all while realizing the vast potential life has to offer.

Becca Anderson, bestselling author of The Book of Awesome Women, serves up a memorable and inspirationalbanquet of positive self-affirmations, delicious bon mots, quips, and unforgettable quotes from movie stars, musicians, politicians, and women writers. Everyone from Malala to Madonna to Michelle Obama weighs in on the meaning of life with badass wit and timeless wisdom.

This delightfully dishy gathering of gal pals is like having a heart-to-heart with 200 of your closest friends. Garrulous girls and loquacious ladies of from every walk of life unleash their wicked wit in this humorous and enlightening compilation and tell it like it is.

Topics include What the World Needs Now, Love Hurts, Lost Love, and Are Men Really Necessary and cover sex, personal ads, blind dates, break ups, weddings, and the prerequisites for the perfect kiss. Sidebars include quizzes, love and sex bucket lists and topics like “Size Really Does Matter,” and “Cry Me a River, The Weepiest Romantic Movies Ever.”

Wait, there’s more–true tales about wild women of yore that entertain as much as they enlighten. From Anais Nin to Lily Tomlin, from Amy Bloom to Dorothy Allison, from Drew Barrymore to Chrissy Teigan and beyond, there’s no shortage of sass, sarcasm, or sizzle and a few shocks along the way!

Throughout the entire history of Hollywood women have been revolutionizing, innovating, and shaping how we make movies. Yet their stories are rarely shared. This is what film reporter Alicia Malone wants to change. Backwards and in Heels combines research and exclusive interviews with influential women and men working in Hollywood today, such as Geena Davis, J.J. Abrams, Ava DuVernay, Octavia Spencer, America Ferrera, Paul Feig and many more, as well as film professors, historians and experts.

Think of Backwards and in Heels as a guidebook, your entry into the complex world of women in film. Join Alicia Malone as she champions Hollywood women of the past and present, and looks to the future with the hopes of leveling out the playing field.

As we shake off the last traces of a major patriarchal hangover, women are coming into their own. In the 21st Century, all women can fully embrace their fiery fempower and celebrate their no-holds-barred individuality. It is time to acknowledge the successful women of the world.

From the foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to today’s women warriors from sports, science, cyberspace, city hall, the lecture hall, and the silver screen, The Book of Awesome Women paints 200 portraits of powerful and inspiring role models for women and girls poised to become super women of the future.

Alicia Malone is determined to grow the conversation about both the lack of women behind the scenes and in the history books through her own book, The Female Gaze. In the mini-essays written by female film critics, discover brilliantly talented and accomplished women filmmakers, both world renowned and obscure, who have shaped the film industry in ways rarely fully acknowledged.

The Feminist Financial Handbook provides real motivation and resources for real women who may be struggling―not only those who have already accumulated wealth. In this book, author Brynne Conroy provides actionable tips for women in business to overcome these obstacles without dulling the visceral experience of the real-life struggles women face as they try to master their money management and their lives.

Because women’s experiences don’t exist in a vacuum relegated to their gender, the handbook explores financial issues with anecdotes and perspectives of women of different races, sexual orientations and abilities.

Whether you want to learn more about general financial planning principles, like saving or earning a higher income, or delve into issues that disproportionately affect women, like the wage gap or the long road to economic recovery after experiencing domestic violence, The Feminist Financial Handbook has stories and advice from women who have been there, worked through the struggle, and achieved personal success.

Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Once Again to Zelda and Behind Every Great Man, presents a fascinating collection of biographical vignettes of dozens of older women who have excelled, inspired and achieved. Learn how these women changed their respective fields of art, politics, science, mathematics, media, literature, activism, education, and more.

From actresses, yoga teachers and folk artists to business women, prime ministers, monarchs and authors, these exceptional women will illustrate that women can achieve anything, no matter their age.

Still I Rise takes its title from a work by Maya Angelou and it resonates with the same spirit of an unconquerable soul: a woman who is captain of her fate. Just as Invictus brought solace to generations, so does Angelou’s contemporary classic. Still I Rise embodies the strength of character of the inspiring women profiled.

Each chapter will outline the fall and rise of great women heroes who smashed all obstacles rather than letting all obstacles smash them. The book offers hope to those undergoing their own Sisyphean struggles. Intrepid women heroes are the antithesis of the traditional damsels in distress: rather than waiting for the prince, they took salvation into their own hands.

Sara Joseph Hale, authoress of Mary had a Little Lamb, convinced Lincoln to launch a national day of thanks, while Anna Jarvis persuaded President Wilson to initiate a day in tribute of mothers. Estee Lauder revolutionized the cosmetics industry. The tradition of these Mothers of Invention continued when, compliments of knitter Krista Suh, the heads of millions were adorned with pink, pussy-cat ears in the largest women’s march in history.

Women Who Launch is filled with inspiring true stories of women activists, artists, entrepreneurs who launched some of the most famous companies, brands, and organizations today and changed the world. It is at once a collection of biographies and a testament of female empowerment. These women who launched prove, in the words of Rosie the Riveter, “We can do it!” Find motivation in your career and life with the amazing history of women entrepreneurship, activism, and leadership.

An expert at helping her clients pivot and put their best foot forward, it was now time to focus on her own second act. She committed herself to opening her heart and mind and bringing uplifting experiences into her life-even as it turned upside down.

From tap lessons at her daughter’s dance school to a mid-life Bat Mitzvah ceremony, from running a half-marathon to seeking help from beyond the grave, from traditional talk therapy to consulting the angels, her journey covered all the bases as she juggled owning a business, the kids’ new schedules, and dating all over again in the age of texts and Tinder. Sometimes, the show must stop before it can go on. In Intermission, Mindie provides an inspirational guide to kick-starting your life that will resonate with women everywhere facing big life changes.

Kitty’s subsequent arrests and record number of force-feedings while in prison put her on a path of dedicated radical activism, leading her across the ocean to New York City, where she joined Margaret Sanger in advocating for birth control. Telling a new story of the women’s movement in light of new and often shocking revelations, Death In Ten Minutes (3/5/19) asks the question: Why has the life of this incredible woman, and the violence of the suffragettes, been forgotten? And, one hundred years later, why are women suddenly finding themselves under threat again?

But, Jane Austen: The Secret Radical has displayed Jane Austen from a different angle.

It is a brilliant and well-read book by Helena Kelly who shows how Jane Austen was deliberately using her novels – commenting on the larger issues of the day, including slavery, feminism, contemporary currents of political totalitarianism, and the hypocrisy of the Church of England.

The Secret Radical is an illuminating reassessment of the life and work of Jane Austen that shows how she has been misapprehended for the past two centuries. and how inflammatory, daring, and truly radical a writer she was.