I don’t know how to explain to you how important it is that you read this book.

Everyone was talking about this book even before it was nominated for the National Book Award, and it’s easy to see why. I liked it even more than I expected to.

This great book is part examination of current research and guidelines, but also part memoir. Garbes tells us about her experiences, and it’s clear that she’s framing things through that lens, so she never comes off preachy.

Up to Speed is a really interesting, important book. It started a little slow for me because I happened to already know some of the info presented, but that definitely wasn’t the case the whole way through.

Equal Partners is a quick read with useful insights and suggestions to help everyone in a home work toward equal distribution, not just visible labor but cognitive labor too.

When Women Lead is an interesting, hopeful look at what happens when women run companies, from better business results to the existence of more businesses that meet women’s needs.

Play It As It Lays, even 50 years after its original publication, remains an echoing and unsettling novel with lots to chew on. I was glad I read it as part of a reading group.

Still Mad was perfect for someone like me, who didn’t take women’s studies or many English classes in college. I learned a lot, and it helped me put famous writers’ names in context with history’s timeline.

The White Album is an essay collection that asks for your close attention, but Joan Didion’s sentences are worth it. Parts of it went over my head, I think, but it will make a good reread.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is a masterful collection of poems by a master poet on womanhood, trauma, and the refugee experience. They’re heavy, but hard-hitting and moving.

The Once and Future Witches is the best kind of witchy historical fantasy book: atmospheric, feminist, well-researched, emotional. Also, gorgeous prose. I loved every second of it.

Is Rape a Crime? is a scorching, no-holds-barred work that’s part memoir, part investigation into a society that refuses to treat rape like the felony that it is.

On Beauty is a literary family drama that feels simultaneously like comfort food and watching a train wreck in slow motion.

A Thousand Ships is just so good. It’s easy to read and to love, but it also packs a big punch of metaphor and meaning.

WOW. Invisible Women is an unrelenting pop-pop-pop of bruising, important truth bombs. Caroline Criado-Pérez doesn’t hold back. Everyone should read this.

I’m late to the party on this one, but I never doubted that I would love it. So many people have spoken highly of it. Plus, sorta-weird-sorta-spooky-super-speculative feminist short stories? MADE FOR ME.

The Witches Are Coming is straight-up feminist / liberal candy. She’s definitely going to be preaching to the choir — but members of that choir are going to eat. it. up.

This book was FANTASTIC. In fact, I liked it so much that after I finished my library’s audiobook copy, I bought a physical copy so I could loan it out to friends.

I’m not giving this a star rating because Three Women is a difficult book to review. On the one hand, as the hype around this book suggests, the writing is really good, and the subject matter is gripping. However, there’s a big asterisk there: The publicity around this book has been extremely problematic.

Rating: 5/5 | It's common for me to hear about books I want to read. I add them to my list. I see if the library has them. If not, maybe I'll pick them up in a bookstore next time I'm there. But very rarely do I hear about a book and then immediately open Amazon and order that book. Very rarely to I set aside the shortlist of books I'd planned to read next so that I can read that one right away. I did those things for Naamah ... and I was not disappointed. (Click the post to read more.)