YFLC Reading List: What the Young Feminist Leaders Council ♥️s

We’re always thinking about what we should read next, so we asked FP’s Young Feminist Leaders Council to recommend their favorite books! Of course picking a favorite book is nearly impossible, so the following suggestions range from lifelong favs to what they picked up this week. We hope you’ll read along with us!

A Black Gaze by Tina M. Campt

A Black Gaze is filled with beautiful images and has introduced me to the work of amazing photographers, directors, and artists. Additionally, it's helped me look at the photos and videos that my friends, family, and myself have taken to catalogue our lives with a newfound appreciation and love. — Ozichi

(MIT Press)

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

Taddeo did such a wonderful job making an unlikable narrator engaging and fascinating. The brutality of the protagonist, and just the depth of detail when it came to her life before the present narrative, is something that has me rereading it over and over again. — Lanesha

(Avid Reader Press)

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother? is formally extraordinary in its innovative use of the comics medium. The way Bechdel engages in “doing and undoing the self in words and images” (to borrow from the astute phrasing of my mentor, Lisa Diedrich) is something to behold. It is a book about investigating the complex relationship she shared with her mother, but it is also about the absence of her father, who she writes about in Fun Home, and how she uses her art to process familial trauma. — Kay

(Mariner Books)

Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

This book is giving me breath underwater, teaching me how to swim through the narrows of empire with integrity, care, and profound reverence. — emet

(AK Press)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, trans. by Alison Anderson

This book is not only the book that got me hooked on reading literature in translation, but also the book that inspired me to begin writing and that made me believe I had words and ideas worth sharing. I'm in love with Barbery's flowery prose and in awe of her characters, whose complexities are rounded and beautiful despite their outwardly mundane appearances. I see The Elegance of the Hedgehog as a reminder that appearances do not capture the enormity of human thought or identity or the beauty of the individual—in a way, I feel that it has also given me permission to be who I am rather than who others may expect me to be. — Lauren

(Europa Editions)

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

I can’t play favorites when it comes to books, but one that I often tell people to read is Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. This wasn’t something I’d usually pick up, based on the premise, but what lay beneath the arresting cover was an outrageously funny, deeply creative, and surprisingly touching novel about found family. Plus, it’s a slim read, so you can tuck into it in bursts of free time! I think my surprise was half the joy of reading it, and it has a unique ability to transcend genre and audience. This is an everybody book! — Maddie

(Ecco Press)

Little Women by Louisa May Allcott

My favorite book is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott! I love it because it’s a local story for me and has strong yet all incredibly different female characters. It’s a beautiful look at a family that loves each other more than anything else and it’s a great comfort read for me. — Michaela

(Puffin Books)