books

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.”

I’m behind on this, but I also just finished Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, which I’ve been touting as one of the best books I’ve ever read (I think thanks to a recommendation from Maya – thanks Maya!).  Hilton Als wrote, “it’s a book about becoming, both mentally and physically – about what it takes to shape a self, in all its completeness and disarray.” My version: queerness + family + theory + marriage + bodies + sex, etc. So damn good, I highly recommend to the entire Feministing fam.

Alexandra: On Sam’s recommendation, I just started Christina Crosby’s A Body, UndoneI’m also reading What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwall, a pretty stunning reflection on desire set in the queer underground of Sofia.

Maya: These days, reading for strictly pleasure is a far-off dream as my bedside table is piled high with books to read as research for my book on gender bias in medicine. But thankfully, many of them have been pleasurable–if enraging. A couple of the more accessible ones I’ve read lately include Harriet Brown’s Body of Truth: How Science, History, and Culture Drive Our Obsession With Weight—and What we Can Do About It and Joanna Kempner’s Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health.

 

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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