Books These Feminists Read in 2011

So many sites, from news to retail, have a “top ten” list for 2011. Rather than write up the “top ten” feminist books or something like that, I thought I’d instead expand the field to write about what feminists are reading, or at least the two feminists who write for inContext. Here’s a list of ten books (chosen relatively at random) that Marina and Kate read in 2011:

1. The Green Zone (edition of Imperial Life in the Emerald City) by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Vintage, 2010): Read the book even if you’ve seen the movie. The film cannot remotely cover the ground the book does. As we watched the United States leave Iraq this past week, and witnessed the subsequent outbreak of violence, especially in Baghdad, the topic is all the more poignant and important.

2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Broadway, 2011): There needs to be more public discussion about the intricacies of medical care, when our bodies are our own and when they somehow become the property or domain of others. This book will start that conversation. Immortal Life is also a story that captures the divide between the average person and “big pharma,” which could just as easily be Wall Street or government.

3. The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (Random House, 2011): This is a timeless novel and beautifully written. The narrator, Natalia, is a young doctor who is poignantly influenced by her grandfather’s Balkan tales. She lives between the modern world and a mythical one that embraces a culture.

4. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco, 2010): I cannot say enough about this book, which flows like poetry. From the first page, your heart is drawn into this lyrical tale of friendship and art. It is a gift Patti Smith gives us as she shares her own experiences and a portion of the life of Robert Mapplethorpe. Stunning. If I had to pick one book off this list to have wash up on a deserted island with me, this would be it.

5. The Millennium Trilogy series by Steig Larsson (Knopf, 2010): The novels in this series include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is the heroine of all three books which were written with the intent of showing how society is cruel to women. In each book, Lisbeth discovers herself, her past and finds friends she can count on as she divorces herself from her violent father and beginnings.

6. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (Ballantine Books, 2011): The story is told from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, whom he considered the “good and true” years after he married her. McLain does an excellent job of restructuring their relationship for us.

7. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (Mariner, 2006): Told through the lens of those who experienced the Dust Bowl via journals, newspaper articles and first-person accounts, we read about this historical event from a personal standpoint. We are thus drawn into the lives of those who lived through the “worst hard time” while we learn about this travesty, what caused it and how our government reacted to the suffering of a group of people.

8. The Quants by Scott Patterson (Crown Business, 2011): The Quants is a journey into the world of Wall Street via poker tables in private clubs. It’s maddening, yet important for anyone who wants to understand the inside story of the game of investing. Read this and understand what the “occupy” movement is all about.

9. Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson (Top Shelf, 2004): (Craig Thompson published the acclaimed Habibi in 2011, which you’ll find on my “to read in 2012 list” next week.) Carnet de Voyage is a sketchbook journal graphic novel. It is a gorgeously illustrated and engaging travelogue of the trip Thompson took while researching Habibi. Read this first, and know the story-behind-the-story.

10. Moloka’i by Alan Brennert (St. Marint’s Griffin, 2004): A historical novel, Moloka’i provides a personal look at the controversial history and complex relationship between the United States government, missionaries and the native Hawaiian people through the lens of the leprosy epidemic. This is a good lesson in how people behave when medical science has not yet come to understand an illness, yet told through an engaging story of a young woman who suffers from the disease.

Next week, we’ll share some of the titles from our book lists for 2012. Some of these will be books we’ll cover for inContext, so there will be a preview of things to come for the year. In the comments section, let us know if you’ve read any of these books or have others to suggest. We love hearing from readers!

Related posts: