Moda's LitFest Book Recommendations
By Kate Lawless, Deputy Editor, and Shelby Evans, Lifestyle Editor
Literature is one of the most magical forms of art, connecting us to people and ideas across time and space. This year, WUD Publications is hosting its annual (but virtual) Literary Festival and the theme is activism in the literary arts. Activism looks different for each and every person, so Moda wanted to share our reading list to inspire our readers through women’s stories. We share this book list with you in the hopes that no matter what reading preferences you have, you can find a book that shares in the legacy of smart, creative and powerful women — the women we aspire to be.
Kiley Reid’s debut novel has taken the literary world by storm, becoming one of the more popular books published in 2019. This fictional plot follows Emira, a Black babysitter, and her relationship with her white employer Alix. One day, Emira is seen with Alix’s toddler daughter Briar at a supermarket and is accused of kidnapping after security makes assumptions about a Black woman walking around with a white child. Emira is humiliated and shaken by the allegation and Alix attempts to make things right, opening up the plot to explore a timely commentary on race, family, community and adulthood. Reid’s debut novel is not one to miss and we readers look forward to following along with her stories as her career continues.
2. “Girlhood” by Melissa Febos
Melissa Febos is already a beloved author, but this latest book adds to her feminist commentary on depictions of womanhood vs. reality by drawing from Febos’ own life, sharing her personal revelations with readers. This book is a lot of things: part memoir, part essay collection and part report on the state of women today, with each chapter confronting the invisible structures that prevent women from being truly free.
3. “The Deathless Girls” by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
If you like gothic aesthetics, classic novels and queer stories, you should check out the Deathless Girls by Koran Millwood Hargrave. Based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this book explores the backstory of Dracula’s brides, who have very little agency in the original story. Here, Hargrave introduces us to sisters Lil and Kizzy who are taken away from their Traveller community, all the while haunted by the story of what we readers know as Dracula, or the Dragon as he is referred to here. This story has Romani and queer representation, and also gives a voice to the intriguing brides of Dracula, honoring their culture and sisterhood.
4. “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown
This is an oldie, but a goodie. Published originally in 1973, Rubyfruit Jungle still resonates with readers because Brown’s autobiographical account of coming to terms with her sexuality as she matures from an adolescent in Florida to an adult woman navigating film school in New York. At the time, the book was criticized for its unapologetic portrayal of lesbian relationships and it remains a landmark novel in queer female storytelling.
5. “Rage Becomes Her” by Soraya Chemaly
Female rage is a hot topic, probably because the angry woman trope is being reclaimed by storytellers across media (i.e. Promising Young Woman). Instead of seeing women’s anger as antithetical to their femininity, Rage Becomes Her shows us we have ever right to be angry. After all, women are paid less and expected to take on more work in relationships and in our careers. Instead, our rage is justified, and when we harness that rage, it is a powerful catharsis for change.
6. “Redefining Realness” by Janet Mock
From getting caught in a dress for the first time, to her father forcibly cutting her hair to ensure her masculine presentation, and making her first transgender friend, Mock takes you on the journey of her life. While detailing her personal story of how she survived being poor and transgender in Hawaii, Mock also doesn’t shy away from the big picture of many trans peoples experiences, and how society can do better at accepting the community.
7. “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Walter Kimmer
What does it mean to be a female, indigenous biologist? In her memoir that braids together nature, Kimmer’s life, and indigenous culture, this University of Wisconsin alumnus tells stories that make the world around you even more vividly beautiful. Growing up, she never felt connected to her indigenous nation, but when she pursued her love for nature through studying biology, she learned science didn’t explain plants the way that she had learned through her culture. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmer tells stories of how Western science and indigenous knowledge can co-exist.
8. “If the Oceans Were Ink” by Carla Power
Carla Power grew up in the Midwest and the Middle East and became a successful journalist with a specialty in the latter. Although a lifelong secularist, Power had become good friends with a Madrasa trained Sheikh and in this moving memoir, the Sheikh teaches her the readings of the Quran. Together, they share their families, visit India and Mecca, and Power learns just how little she had understood about Islam before. It’s a crash course for Western readers on how to understand the largest religion in the world.
9. “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This collection of short stories was published in 2009, but you might be familiar with the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from a Ted talk, “the danger of a single story.” All the stories are full of interesting, diverse characters whose moments on the page are so vivid that they end too quickly. Although each chapter introduces a new story featuring unconnected characters in different parts of the world, it’s impossible to put it down.