Books like Bad Fat Black Girl by Sesali Bowen

Eighteen‑year‑old Layken wrestles with grief and responsibility after her father’s death, but a sudden romance with neighbor Will—whose passion for poetry slams sparks hope—throws her life into turmoil when their fragile connection is shattered.

Janet Mock’s memoir traces her journey as a young, multiracial, transgender woman growing up in poverty, offering candid insight into the challenges faced by marginalized communities and affirming the power of self-realization.

A sharp, humorous collection of essays by sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom that interrogates black womanhood, body politics, and the lived experience of a Southern Black academic.

Sabrina Strings traces how fat black women have been stigmatized from the Renaissance through today, arguing that obesity is a tool of racial, class, and gender bias rather than a health issue.

In Search of Our Mother's Garden: A Collection of Nonfiction Essays by Alice Walker

Spinster is a reflective memoir by Kate Bolick that explores her personal journey as a single woman, examining the lives of preceding bold single dames and the evolving attitudes toward women in contemporary society.

Ain't I a Woman examines the intersections of race, gender, and class, exploring the experiences of African American women and the broader struggle for feminist and civil rights.

Black Feminist Thought offers a foundational overview of African‑American feminist theory, exploring the ideas of key thinkers such as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde.

Jessica Valenti’s memoir, "Sex Object," recounts her New York City adolescence and young adulthood, exposing the everyday and extreme ways sexism shapes women’s lives through stories of harassment, assault, and personal struggle.

Mary Herring Wright recounts her life as an African American deaf girl growing up in a North Carolina residential school for Black deaf and blind students during the Depression and World War II.

Drawing on an impressive body of new research - including Friedan's own papers - Horowitz traces the development of Friedan's feminist outlook from her childhood in Peoria, Illinois, through her wartime years at Smith College and Berkeley, to her decade-long career as a writer for two of the period's most radical labor journals, the Federated Press and the United Electrical Workers' UE News. He further shows that even after she married and began to raise a family, Friedan continued during the 1950s to write and work on behalf of a wide range of progressive social causes. By resituating Friedan within a broader cultural context, and by offering a fresh reading of The Feminine Mystique against that background, Horowitz not only overturns conventional ideas about "second-wave" feminism but also reveals long submerged links to its past.

A collection of bell hooks’s essays from the 1980s that intertwine cultural criticism, pedagogy, and politics to challenge oppression and explore race, gender, and identity.

An autobiography of Angela Davis, focusing on her political activism and feminist perspective on freedom and liberation.