Women's History Month 2025 Reading List

One more themed month!  Reading feminist literature, in particular feminist speculative fiction.  Because at its core, speculative fiction is about using the lens of the imaginary to tell us things about the world we live in.  And women have a lot to say about the world we live in

Feel free to join in!

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"The Future" by Naomi Alderman, 2023

Alderman is of course most famous for "The Power", but I'm really excited for her latest work

"Ammonite" by Nicola Griffith, 1992

"Spear" by Nicola Griffith was one of my absolute favorite novels I read last year.  This one, about an isolated colony where a virus killed all male colonists, is supposed to be great as well

"The Stars are Legion" by Kameron Hurley, 2017

If female authors are underrepresented in scifi as a whole, that goes quintuply for military scifi.  I'm looking forward to this one

"The Shore of Women" by Pemela Sargent, 1986

Along with "The Female Man", probably one of the foundational texts of feminist scifi.  Should be great

"Womb City" by Tlotlo Tsamaase, 2024

Depressing Dystopic Afrofuturist Feminist Cyberpunk.  So, yeah, that.  If you don't know how much that combination of words makes me want to read that book, you don't know me at all

"The Refrigerator Monologues" by Catherynne M. Valente, 2017

Short fiction told from the perspective of the wives/girlfriends/etc. of superheroes.  I adore Valente, and this one should be fantastic

"Gods of Want" by K-Ming Chang, 2022 (short fiction)

The short story collection of one of the hottest names in Korean fiction right now.  Should be great

"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri, 1999 (short fiction)

Given the highest recommendation by a friend of mine whose taste I definitely trust, I have been looking forward to this one for a while

"Anti/Hero" by Demitria Lunetta, 2020 (young adult, graphic novel)
"Black Canary: Ignite" by Meg Cabot, 2019 (young adult, graphic novel)

I've said it before, the smartest thing that DC has done in decades is give basically every successful Young Adult minority or female author a chunk of change and say, "hey, write us a comic book.  Whatever you want to write"

"Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot" by Mikki Kendall, 2020 (nonfiction)

Exactly what it says in the title, the story of all sorts of marginalized feminist activists that get pushed out of the conversation, "For example, Kendall argues that mainstream feminist groups have left issues regarding hypersexualization of black girls to be handled by racial justice organizations."  A very important read

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So anyways, yup, see you this month!




Comments

  1. MattMarch 1, 2025 at 4:18 PM

    first and foremost: you gotta insert Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. I started my month with the first of its short stories and it. is. excellent. I'd probably finish the rest tonight if I didn't think they deserve a little room to breathe....

    Charlotte read Hood Feminism with her work book club 3? years ago and although it was a difficult read (basically a lot of "fuck all you white feminists") I remember the discussions we had every chapter were excellent. right now, in that vein, I'm looking at White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad.

    thoughts on this tentative list?
    Siren Queen
    Priory of the Orange Tree
    The Dispossessed (your girl Ursula K)
    Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer)
    The Power - Naomi Alderman
    The Water Outlaws - S.L. Huang
    The Winged Histories - Sofia Samar

    Does The Grace of Kings count as feminist literature or do I need to wait until May to read it? 🤔

    other than that, this may finally be the year I take on Handmaid's Tale.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NoahMarch 11, 2025 at 1:59 AM

      Oh man, didn't get notifications for these comments, weird

      "Her Body" has been on my list forever, ok. Moving it up. I'm the same way with short story collection! I want to run through them, but I also feel each story deserves a second to breathe before I move to the next

      I think that's a great list! There's a few I haven't read on there, but the ones I have I love (particularly interested to hear your thoughts on "The Power"). "The Dispossesed" is actually a lot more feminist than it appears as well, once you've read it I'm sure there's commentary online about how certain things would have been much more revolutionary then versus now

      As for "The Grace of Kings", I kinda make the hard and fast rule that the author should be female or nonbinary. It definitely leaves a lot of works off, plenty of good feminist works written by men. But I gotta draw the line somewhere, and you know . . . men have been doing ok for the last ::checks notes:: all of history. So they can take a backseat for a month, if necessary

      As for "The Handmaid's Tale" . . . it's stood the test of time for a reason, that's for sure. Absolutely holds up

      Delete
    2. NoahMarch 11, 2025 at 2:08 AM

      Side note, I read a book a bit ago whose moral was, among other things, "fuck all you white feminists" and I fucking loved it. But I can't recommend it that way, cuz they whole point of the book was that it *started* out as a standard white feminist story, plucky lady against the odds. And the realization that actually she's pretty damn privileged, and what gains she does make often come at the expense of racial minorities, and regardless the white men in charge don't really care about her, was super fucking fun

      But I can't recommend it that way because I want other people to have the same, "oh shit, this is not at all what I thought it was going to be about," moment. Hrm

      Delete
  2. MattMarch 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM

    oh and I have a ton of Catherynne M. Valente on my to-read shelf. what's your recommendation on a good place to start?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. NoahMarch 11, 2025 at 2:02 AM

      Good question! I've read 4 books of hers, and I will say that each of them was *completely* unlike the other 3, which was crazy. That girl has serious, serious range

      That said, I just put up that review of "The Refrigerator Monologues", and if you have even a passing knowledge of comics, I think it's required reading. Angry and subversive in the best way

      If you want something more haunting and meditative, "Deathless" is wonderful. Modern feminist retelling of classic Russian folklore, gorgeous prose

      And finally, if you want to just have some fun, "Space Opera" is a joy. Galaxy-wide Eurovision for the fate of humanity? What's not to like there?

      Delete

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