Hope Is A Good Book
A literary antidote to the world, because, well, you know how it is out there.
by Andrea Klinker
We enter Monday with the weight of this weekend’s vote for SCOTUS on our minds. A bitter conclusion to the constant and heated debate that dominated news cycles, newsfeeds, and social notifications has left many positively downtrodden. And while, for some reason, human nature would have us gravitate toward the negative, to ultimately rule this saga as a tragedy, it wasn’t without its groundbreaking moments. When it comes to speaking out about sexual abuse, fear is still present, but it’s slowly being drowned out by chants of “Believe Her!”. Even if the Senate didn’t hear, the rest of the world did. Keep that fighting spirit alive.
There is another vote coming up in November that gives us all the opportunity to speak up. So in between your bouts of research on nominees, make sure you take time to continue reading about the people that have gotten us this far. Highlighting voices that have shone through the political and social gloom, this collection of books will continue to remind you that it is vital to speak up, not just in spite of, but simply because of the factions that would rather you stay silent.
Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit
“Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once. Some reappear. Every woman who appears wrestles with the forces that would have her disappear. She struggles with the forces that would tell her story for her, or write her out of the story, the genealogy, the rights of man, the rule of law. The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt.” — Rebecca Solnit
Feminasty by Erin Gibson
Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit
Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China by Leta Hong Fincher
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Brave by Rose McGowan
Personal Politics: The Roots of Women’s Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and The New Left by Sara Evans
Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks
Personal History by Katharine Graham
My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsberg
“When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”
― Ruth Bader Ginsburg
