What's your favourite feminist book?

By Emma Regan

The IFN book club has been running for 5 years, and in that time we’ve read a lot of books! We come together once a month to read feminist theory, novels that explore gender and some inspirational biographies by feminist writers. Many of these books act as jumping off points for us to discuss our feminism and experiences, while others have educated us to think and talk about the intersections of discrimination faced by others.

Take a look at the list of books we’ve read in the past. Is your favourite feminist book among them? If not, please let us know in the comments. We’re always looking for that next book. Speaking of which, our book for next month is Ain’t I a woman? by bell hooks. We’ll be meeting to discuss it on the 9th of March in Buswell’s Hotel on Parliament street at 7pm. New members are always welcome and we look forward to meeting you for feminist fun and chat!

Books we’ve read:

2014 & 2015

·         A Girl is a Half-formed thing by Eimear McBride

·         Yes Please by Amy Poeler

·         Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

·         Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny

·         Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill*

2012 & 2013

·         Bossypants by Tina Fey

·         Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

·         Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

·         Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

·         Hedda Gabler (& A Doll's House) by Henrik Ibsen

·         Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution by Rachel Moran

·         The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

·         The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

·         The Feminist Mystique by Betty Freidan

·         Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy

·         Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

·         The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*

·         Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

·         Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine

·         The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler

·         Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman

·         Kicking and Screaming by Ivana Bacik

·         Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

·         The Lolita Effect by M G Durham

·         Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

·         Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital by Catherine Hakim

·         Saints & Sinners by Edna O’Brien

·         Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

2010 & 2011

·         Sisters by June Levine

·         Backlash by Susan Faludi

·         The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

·         How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

·         The Woman’s Room by Marilyn French

·         I Don’t: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squires

·         Tete-A-Tete: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley

·         The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti

·         Reclaiming the F word: The New Feminist Movement by Catherine Redfern and Kristin Aune

·         Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novel by Jean Rhys

·         Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter

Suitable for teenage readers*