The protagonist of The Handmaid's Tale, Offred, is a poor Handmaid in the Gilead Republic. She is permitted to leave the Colonel and his wife's residence once every day to stroll to grocery shops, whose signs no longer include words since women are not allowed to read anymore. In an era of declining pregnancies, Offred and other Handmaids are only valued if their eggs are still usable. As a result, she must lay on her back several times every month and hope that the Colonel can get her pregnant. Offred can recall the years when she used to live and make love with her beloved husband Luke; played with and cherished her daughter; and had a career, her own money, and access to information. But that is no longer her situation now.

This dystopian book by Margaret Atwood has been universally commended for its unsettling prescience of the current society. In a future America - when women are limited to their reproductive use - harsh patriarchy has dehumanized the female race.

Since its publication in 1985, more than eight million copies of The Handmaid's Tale have been sold globally, indicating that its contents are still relevant.

Author: Margaret Atwood

Year of Release: 1985

Goodread Scores: 4.12 stars (from 1,739,056 reviews)

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf is more like a long argumentative essay that lasts hundreds of pages. The book was inspired by several lectures that she herself presented at two elite colleges at Cambridge in October 1928: Girton College and Newnham College. It was first published on October 24, 1929.

While A Room of One's Own uses a fictitious narrator and storyline to investigate women as "authors" and "protagonists" in fiction, it actually still belongs to the nonfiction category. In a literary culture characterized by patriarchy, this essay book is considered feminist literature due to its demand for a literal and figurative place for women authors.

Curiously, the author herself was never fond of the label "feminist", and yet in this short work, she speaks passionately and eloquently on the exclusion of women from independence, wealth, and education. Her thesis that the secret to female creative liberation is a room - in addition to independence - is as true now as it was then. In a society dominated by males, Woolf established her presence and inventiveness, opening the path for many others to continue on the path she had set.

Author: Virginia Woolf

Year of Release: 1929

Goodreads Score: 4.19 stars (from 156,543 reviews)

In these witty and perceptive essays, Roxane Gay leads us on a trip through her maturation as a person of color, as well as through the culture of our world in recent years and the current status of feminism. Bad Feminist contains comical yet still excellent viewpoints that examine what it means to be a contemporary feminist while still being able to enjoy activities that may seem to be in opposition to feminism - such as being a fashionista or wanting to have children.

The image that unfolds is not just of an extraordinarily perceptive lady who is always learning more about herself and her culture, but also about our own civilization. Bad Feminist is indeed a smart, hilarious, and spot-on breakdown of how the media we consume shapes who we are. It is also an invigorating rallying cry for how all of us, especially women, can always do better. It deserves a spot on our list of the best feminist books to read.

Author: Roxane Gay

Year of Release: 2014

Goodreads Score: 3.94 stars (from 101,239 reviews)

Several years ago, the protagonist of the story (and also the author herself) - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - got a letter from a childhood best friend asking for advice on how to raise her daughter as a feminist. Adichie's return letter is titled "Dear Ijeawele". Indeed, the book presents fifteen persuasive, straightforward, wryly humorous, and astute recommendations for empowering a daughter to grow into a strong and independent woman.

"Dear Ijeawele" gets to the core of sexual and social politics in the 21st century. In the letter, Adichie suggests her friend pick a helicopter for her daughter and not just a doll as a toy. She also advised the mom to have honest discussions with the child about garments, makeup, and sexuality. The letters even go further by refuting the common myth that female individuals are biologically predisposed to be at home making dinner, and that men can "let" women have successful careers. Overall, the book will initiate a much-needed fresh discourse about what it means to be a young lady in modern society!

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Year of Release: 2017

Goodreads Score: 4.51 stars (from 71,641 reviews)

As soon as it was published in 1992, Clarissa Pinkola Estés' pioneering feminist novel - Women Who Run with The Wolves - became a literary phenomenon. It spent a record-setting 146 weeks on the list of NY times best sellers during a consecutive period of three years.

Clarrissa Estés is a Jungian psychologist and poet. In Women Who Run with The Wolves, she addresses the idea that a 'wild woman' has been suppressed by a male-oriented value system that trivializes women's feelings. In the same vein, she argues convincingly that our greatest value as women is our sense of wildness. Those that persevere will be rewarded for their efforts.

Using international myths, folk tales, stories, and fairy tales, Dr. Estes reintroduces her female readers to the healthy, instinctive, and visionary characteristics of the Wild Woman persona. Through each paragraph, she has established a new language for characterizing the feminine mind. Vibrant and life-giving, the book will lend you a deep understanding of women's psyche and spirit!

Author: Clarissa Pinkola

Year of Release: 1992

Goodreads Score: 4.11 stars (from 60,999 reviews)

Mary Beard confronts in this courageous book - for the first time - the misogynists and bullies that viciously insult and denigrate women worldwide, including Mary herself. In "Women & Power", Mary traces the history of sexism to its ancient beginnings, analyzing the traps of sexism and the ways in which history has abused powerful women from the dawn of time.

Beard demonstrates that since Homer's Odyssey, women have been barred from leading positions in civic life, since public speaking has been considered essentially masculine. From Medusa to Philomela, from Elizabeth Warren to Hillary Clinton, Beard draws illuminating resemblances between our social assumptions regarding women's relationship to power - and how powerful female figures provide a requisite example for all ladies who must fight back being scrubbed into a male template.

In "Women & Power", Beard also reflects on her own encounters with sexism to pose the question: If women are not believed to be inside the framework of power, shouldn't we rethink power itself? And for how many millennia are we supposed to wait?

Author: Mary Beard

Year of Release: 2017

Goodreads Score: 4.03 stars (from 29,020 reviews)

In "The Golden Notebook", Anna is a writer who has written one wildly popular novel and now maintains four notebooks. In a black-covered book, she discusses her previous year in Africa and the details of her literary life. In a crimson notebook, she chronicles her political life and disenchantment with communism. Next, she creates a yellow book in which the protagonist of the story relives a portion of her own experiences. Then, in the blue book, she maintains a personal journal about daily events in her life. Anna, attracted to an American author and faced with insanity, attempts to bind the four novels into a single golden notebook.

This ambitious novel by Doris Lessing is regarded as one of the finest literary masterpieces of the mid-twentieth century, and a seminal text of the women's revolution of the 1960s. Passionate, sincere, and innovative in its structure, "The Golden Notebook" is indeed a foundational work that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. It is one of the best feminist books to read.

Author: Doris Lessing

Year of Release: 1962

Goodreads Score: 3.76 stars (from 21,116 reviews)