Feministing Reads: What We’re Reading

Each month, we round up the books our crew is reading. That post is my favorite source for book recommendations. This month, we also asked readers to tweet us about what they’re reading, some of which we’ve include below. Check out what’s on everyone’s bedside table!

Dana: I just finished Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts (don’t miss Abigail’s lovely review) and am in the middle of Aesthetic Justice: Intersecting Artistic and Moral Perspectives (ed. Pascal Gielen and Niels Van Tomme). The latter is a selection of essays by artists and academics that draws on everything from the Ecuadorian constitution to Zoe Beloff’s staging of The Days of the Commune during Occupy to contemplate how art might come to terms with political violence, question normative understandings of justice, and imagine alternatives for a more just future.

Jacqui: I’m currently making my way through francine j. harris’ second book of poetry, Play Dead, but I just finished reading Fatimah Asghar’s debut poetry chapbook, After. It’s a striking and incredibly memorable collection of work that deals with family, language, and trauma–specifically sexual assault. In her own words: “I wrote the book that I wish I had had when I was going through it, the thing I needed in order to say that my body was mine and no one else’s.”

Courtney: Thanks to the recommendation of Alexandra, or more accurately her dog @margotreads, I have *just* started the first book in the Elena Ferrante series: My Brilliant Friend. I’m not far enough in to even tell you what it’s about, but Ferrante’s website says: “Through the lives of… two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her protagonists, the unforgettable Elena and Lila.”