Not Oprah’s Book Club: Feminist Book Gift Guide

I know, you’re already sick of holiday gift guides, but I promised (and a feministing reader suggested) so I’m delivering. These are my top five books to buy your feminist gals and guys:
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom
This is an oldie but a goodie. Northrup—both an MD and a feminist guru—elucidates the links between our bodies, minds, and hearts in a way that makes even the most devoted of western medicine fanatics go “Ooooooooh, so that’s why that happens.� A great gift for a little sister or mentee, or even a mom who doesn’t seem to realize why she gets super sick every time the holidays hit (um, she’s taking care of everyone else but herself.)
Composing a Life
Another oldie but goodie. In this little book, the whole darn complicated world of women’s lives are laid bare. Bateson—an anthropologist and the daughter of Margaret Mead—follows the lives of a few fascinating friends to uncover the day-to-day choices, feelings, and struggles that women face. I wish someone would write an updated version…
The Daring Book for Girls
This is the buy for the little gals in your life. Feminist moms and downright cool ladies, Peskowitz and Buchanan, wrote this response to The Dangerous Book for Boys. It includes all kinds of activities for daring girls, including everything from how to put your bun up with a pencil to negotiating a fair salary. Word.
The Complete Stories Flannery O’Connor
People don’t read enough short stories. Period. O’Connor is the master of them—funny, surprising, the guts of humanity laid out in 12 pages. Don’t let your favorite reader sleep on the old masters.
The Dispossessed
If you don’t think of yourself or your beloveds as people who can get down with science fiction, think again. Ursula K. LeGuin is an amazing, feminist writer who creates wild imaginary worlds that make for perfect consideration of our contemporary gender politics.
*Jess and I won’t be mad if you buy our books for someone special: Full Frontal Feminism and Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, respectively.
Next up, Learning to Drive by Katha Pollitt and then Trappings by Two Girls Working.