Recommendations based on Sister Outsider: Essays and Speechesby Audre Lorde

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

    by Audre Lorde
    A powerful autobiographical account exploring themes of gender, race, and sexuality.

    Audre Lorde grows up in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s, a child of Black West Indian parents. Lorde is legally blind from a very young age, isolating her even further from her surroundings and a ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Women, Race & Class

    by Angela Y. Davis
    Examining the intersections of women's liberation, civil rights, and class struggle in the United States.

    From one of our most important scholars and civil rights activist icon, a powerful study of the women’s liberation movement and the tangled knot of oppression facing Black women.,"Angela Davis is ... (Goodreads)

  3. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

    by Gloria E. Anzaldúa
    Exploration of the hybrid identity of Chicana women, navigating between two cultures.

    Anzaldua, a Chicana native of Texas, explores in prose and poetry the murky, precarious existence of those living on the frontier between cultures and languages. Writing in a lyrical mixture of ... (Goodreads)

  4. All About Love: New Visions

    by bell hooks
    A guide to understanding the power of love and changing perceptions of love in modern society.

    All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of ... (Goodreads)

  5. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism

    by bell hooks
    A critical analysis of the intersectionality of race, gender, and class in the experiences of Black women in America.

    A groundbreaking work of feminist history and theory analyzing the complex relations between various forms of oppression. Ain't I a Woman examines the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, ... (Goodreads)

  6. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

    by bell hooks
    Exploration of feminist thought and its applications to everyday life.

    Acclaimed cultural critic bell hooks offers an open-hearted and welcoming vision of gender, sexuality, and society in this inspiring and accessible volume. In engaging and provocative style, bell ... (Goodreads)

  7. Are Prisons Obsolete?

    by Angela Y. Davis
    Critique of existing prison systems and exploration of alternative solutions.

    With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite ... (Goodreads)

  8. Assata: An Autobiography

    by Assata Shakur
    A powerful memoir of her struggles and triumphs in the face of racism and oppression.

    On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

    by Malcolm X
    A gripping account of one man's transformation from criminal to civil rights leader.

    Alternate cover for ISBN 9780345350688 Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his ... (Goodreads)

  10. The Wretched of the Earth

    by Frantz Fanon
    A political analysis of colonialism and its effects on the global underclass.

    A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and ... (Goodreads)

  11. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction

    by Michel Foucault
    Examination of the power dynamics and social constructions of sexual behavior.

    Michel Foucault offers an iconoclastic exploration of why we feel compelled to continually analyze and discuss sex, and of the social and mental mechanisms of power that cause us to direct the ... (Goodreads)

  12. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

    by Alison Bechdel
    An autobiographical story of a daughter's complex relationship with her father and her own journey of self-discovery.

    The narrative of Fun Home is non-linear and recursive. , Incidents are told and re-told in the light of new information or themes. , Bechdel describes the structure of Fun Home as a labyrinth , ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Fire Next Time

    by James Baldwin
    Reflection on the plight of African Americans in a candid and deeply moving essay.

    A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James ... (Goodreads)

  14. Between the World and Me

    by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    A letter to his son, exploring the realities of racism in America.

    “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American ... (Goodreads)

  15. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

    by Michelle Alexander
    Exploring the roots and reality of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system.

    "Jarvious Cotton's great-great-grandfather could not vote as a slave. His great-grandfather was beaten to death by the Klu Klux Klan for attempting to vote. His grandfather was prevented from voting ... (Goodreads)

  16. Black Skin, White Masks

    by Frantz Fanon
    Examining the psychological and social effects of colonialism on people of color.

    A major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world, Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for ... (Goodreads)

  17. The Souls of Black Folk

    by W.E.B. Du Bois
    An exploration of the African-American experience and the struggle for racial equality.

    This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black ... (Goodreads)

  18. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity

    by Judith Butler
    A philosophical exploration of gender identity, challenging traditional notions of binary gender and advocating for fluidity and diversity.

    Since its publication in 1990, Gender Trouble has become one of the key works of contemporary feminist theory, and an essential work for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the ... (Goodreads)

  19. Pedagogy of the Oppressed

    by Paulo Freire
    Analysis of the educational system, advocating a pedagogy of liberation.

    First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished ... (Goodreads)

  20. Citizen: An American Lyric

    by Claudia Rankine
    Poetic exploration of racial injustice, highlighting the everyday experiences of racism.

    A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Year of Magical Thinking

    by Joan Didion
    A woman's reflections on life and death after the sudden loss of her husband.

    'An act of consummate literary bravery, a writer known for her clarity allowing us to watch her mind as it becomes clouded with grief.' From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of ... (Goodreads)

  22. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

    by Marjane Satrapi
    Autobiographical account of a young girl's experience of the Iranian Revolution.

    Note: The summary of the English editions of the novel is divided into two sections, one for each book. Persepolis 1 begins by introducing Marji, the ten-year-old protagonist. Set in 1980, the novel ... (Wikipedia)

  23. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

    by Maya Angelou
    Autobiographical account of a Black woman's journey to find her identity in a prejudiced society.

    Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Here is a book as ... (Goodreads)

  24. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

    by Michel Foucault
    Examines the emergence of the modern prison system and its effects on society.

    Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found, here,. Barely two hundred and fifty years ago a man condemned of attempting to assassinate the King of France was drawn and quartered ... (Goodreads)

  25. Black Boy

    by Richard Wright
    Autobiographical account of a young black man's struggle against racism and oppression.

    A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson. When it ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. Heavy

    by Kiese Laymon
    A memoir of a black man's struggle with weight, trauma, and identity in America.

    *Named a Best Book of 2018 by the, New York Times,, Publishers Weekly,, NPR,, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated,, Library Journal ,(Biography/Memoirs),, The Washington Post ... (Barnes & Noble)

  27. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent

    by Eduardo Galeano
    Historical account of the exploitation of Latin America by foreign powers.

    Open Veins of Latin America has a foreword written by Chilean writer Isabel Allende , followed by a preface by Galeano titled “In Defense of the World” and a series of acknowledgments. The book has ... (Wikipedia)

  28. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

    by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
    A memoir of a Black Lives Matter co-founder, detailing her experiences with racism, police brutality, and the fight for justice.

    A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America—and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free. Raised by a single mother in an ... (Goodreads)

  29. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.

    by Samantha Irby
    Collection of humorous, honest essays exploring experiences of race, gender, and identity in modern society.

    Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. , "bitches gotta eat" blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into ... (Goodreads)

  30. Bad Feminist

    by Roxane Gay
    A collection of essays exploring feminism, race, and gender, and their intersections.

    Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be, cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read, Vogue, and I’m not doing it ... (Goodreads)