Recommendations based on Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizaby Gloria E. Anzaldúa

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

  1. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

    by Audre Lorde
    Collection of essays and speeches exploring issues of race, gender, sexuality, and liberation.

    A collection of fifteen essays written between 1976 and 1984 gives clear voice to Audre Lorde's literary and philosophical personae. These essays explore and illuminate the roots of Lorde's ... (Goodreads)

  2. 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)

  3. 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)

  4. 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)

  5. 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)

  6. 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)

  7. The Woman Warrior

    by Maxine Hong Kingston
    A personal memoir of identity and culture, told through Chinese mythology and folklore.

    The book is divided into five interconnected chapters, which read like short stories. In the first part of this chapter, the narrator is recounting how her mother once told her the story of the ... (Wikipedia)

  8. 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)

  9. 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)

  10. 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)

  11. 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)

  12. 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)

  13. 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)

  14. Notes of a Native Son

    by James Baldwin
    A collection of essays exploring the complexities of race, identity, and society in America through the lens of Baldwin's personal experiences.

    Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, ... (Goodreads)

  15. 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)

  16. 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)

  17. Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

    by Beverly Daniel Tatum
    Exploration of racial identity and the role of schools in creating and maintaining racial divides.

    Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly ... (Goodreads)

  18. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More

    by Janet Mock
    A memoir of a transgender woman's journey of self-discovery and her experiences of the world.

    In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Those 2300 words were life-altering for the People.com editor, ... (Goodreads)

  19. A Room of One's Own

    by Virginia Woolf
    Examining gender roles and societal expectations with an eye to achieving independence and creative freedom.

    A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Complete Persepolis

    by Marjane Satrapi
    Autobiographical tale of a girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.

    Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed graphic memoir. Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving ... (Goodreads)

  21. The Argonauts

    by Maggie Nelson
    A personal exploration of gender, sexuality, and love, weaving together memoir, criticism, and philosophy.

    An intrepid voyage out to the frontiers of the latest thinking about love, language, and family. Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts is a genre-bending memoir, a work of "autotheory" offering fresh, ... (Goodreads)

  22. 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)

  23. 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)

  24. 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)

  25. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

    by James W. Loewen
    Exposing the inaccuracies in American history textbooks and exploring the forces that shaped them.

    “Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in ... (Barnes & Noble)

  26. Orientalism

    by Edward W. Said
    Exploration of the Middle East through the West's prejudiced lens.

    More than three decades after its first publication, Edward Said's groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic. In ... (Goodreads)

  27. A People's History of the United States

    by Howard Zinn
    An examination of American history from a perspective of marginalized people.

    In the book, Zinn presented a different side of history from the more traditional "fundamental nationalist glorification of country". Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen ... (Goodreads)

  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. 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)

  30. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

    by Isabel Wilkerson
    An exploration of the life-changing journeys of the millions of African-Americans who migrated from the South to the North, Midwest, and West from 1915 to 1970.

    In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black ... (Goodreads)