Please can you recommend entertaining books by feminists?

[StealthPolarBear]

Not books about feminism as such (although I'd be happy with that) just a few good reads.

[FeministRant]

Anything by Margaret Atwood. I've just finished The Heart Goes Last, which I really enjoyed.

[StealthPolarBear]

Oh hang on is that fiction ? Id prefer non fiction if possible. Sorry shold have mentioned. I'll have a look though.

[Blerg]

Following. I was going to ask this too, though interested in fiction and non fiction.

Women in entertainment with feminist types themes in their books:
Tina Fey, Bossypants (I love this one)
Amy Poehler,Yes Please (didn't get on with it)
Caitlin Moran, How to be a Woman - I know lots of people on MN don't like her, but I do.

Lena Denham and Mindy Kaling also but haven't read.

[StealthPolarBear]

Thank you. Read the caitlin moran one and enjoyed it

[MuseumOfCurry]

The Feminine Mystique.

[StealthPolarBear]

Just Googled and that looks really good. Suspect little has changed since the 1960s. I wonder if she or anyone else has written a follow up.

[StealthPolarBear]

Thanks everyone. Lots to look into!

[EmpressTomatoKetchup]

I thought the Lena Dunham book was a clever satire. But it isn't.

Anything by Caitlin Moran is a winner in my book, she is hilarious, passionate, witty.... even her Sali Hughes make up vids were quite funny.

[Blerg]

Empress really?! I don't really know her or her work at all but always appears with those listed so I put her too. Is she awful?

[Childrenofthestones]

"A God Who Hates" by Wafa Sultan.
A woman that set the Arab/Muslim world alight by simply having the nerve to stand up to a man on TV in a debate when he talked over her for the umpteenth time telling him to shut up as she hadn't finished talking.😱. Growing up in Syria under the severly patriarchal system there where she, as a qualified doctor, head of department at Allepo's main hospital she still had to seek the permission of her unqualified secondary educated brother before she could leave the house. Her determination to be independent and bravery at standing up to the system were amazing, also her description of the dynamics of Arab/Muslim men and women sheds light on the
Cologne rapes and assaults.

[EmpressTomatoKetchup]

bleurg she just seems so self obsessed. She admits this too and is unapologetic about. I suspect the book is targeted for the teen selfie obsessed market. Shame really, she's a sort of poster girl for young feminists but is a real let down.

[StealthPolarBear]

Stones that sounds amazing. I'll be ordering that plus others on this thread later

[SenecaFalls]

I'm re-reading Blanche Wiesen Cook's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Highly recommended.

[BrillianaHarvey]

The Feminine Mystique blew my mind when I read it. So little has changed.
Were one to be feeling mischievous, one could mention the term 'busywork' on one of the perennial threads here about paid employment vs housewifery: light blue touch paper and retire.
Also everyone should have read The Female Eunuch.

[LineyReborn]

Backlash by Susan Faludi is a cracking read.

[MuseumOfCurry]

Is the Lena Dunham book even worth reading? She strikes me as a vapid post-(post?)-feminist. I really like Girls but that's strictly for its entertainment value (high).

[ladybagpuss]

There's a book called Bad Feminist by a US writer, Roxanne Gay. It's interesting, she's had a complex life and writes very honestly about the negotiation of life and feminism, and of being a Black woman and a large woman. I'd love someone to discuss the book with so if you get it, give me a shout!

[notagiraffe]

How To Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ is a classic.
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
In Search of Our Mother's Gardens - Alice Walker
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions - Gloria Steinem


Those are all old school feminist classics. I'd love some recommendations for modern feminist essays.

[notagiraffe]

Naomi Wolf's Misconceptions about how a woman's status dissolves within her marriage, workplace and society as soon as she has a baby is really depressing but I found it horrifically accurate on the way men take control of the finances while the woman is on maternity leave and create a chasm. Even if it's grim, every woman should read it and take action against what happens.

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

Can't believe no-one has mentioned Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine - popular book about neuroscience from a feminist perspective and very, very entertaining.

[LineyReborn]

Oh and nothing by Camille Paglia.

[russetbella1000]

Yes Delusions of Gender...
Also, It's old and fiction but the Women's room Marilyn French good...

[LineyReborn]

Susie Orbach's Fat is a Feminist Issue is also a fascinating read.

[rockcake]

Your Mother Should Have Told You by Zoe Rene would be one of my top picks v little book deals with big issues, she's a feminist but not an angry one which makes for a much easier read , more fun.

[PerspicaciaTick]

A Room of Ones Own by Virginia Woolf is a hybrid of non-fiction and fiction based on lectures to women's colleges at Cambridge.

Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon is also an interesting look at what makes great literature and the obstacles that women writers face.