Books like Our bodies, ourselves
Our bodies, ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective reads as informative, empowering. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.
What Our bodies, ourselves is like to read
A landmark collective health guide that treats women's bodies and choices with candor and practical detail, written to inform and empower rather than to entertain. Best for: readers seeking a foundational feminist health reference and a piece of second-wave movement history.
The Vagina Monologues
V (formerly Eve Ensler) · 1998
A chorus of first-person monologues that swing from raunchy comedy to raw testimony, breaking taboo through direct address.
A New View of a Woman's Body
The Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers · 1981
Both explore women's health
The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir · 1949
A foundational philosophical treatise that deconstructs the social construction of femininity through rigorous existential analysis, grounded in Beauvoir's characteristic introspective intensity.
I, Tina
Tina Turner · 1986
An intimate, candid first-person account of surviving abuse and clawing back to stardom — raw emotional testimony more than polished literary prose.
The second stage
Betty Friedan · 1981
A polemical, argument-driven work of feminist nonfiction that feels like being persuaded by a confident public intellectual rather than immersed in narrative — dense with policy argument and social critique.
STRIPPED DOWN
Bunnie Xo · 2025
A brash, funny, tell-all celebrity memoir that swings from trailer-park hardship to Nashville success, told in an intimate, unfiltered voice with plenty of self-aware humor.
The Sex Lives of African Women
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah · 2022
An intimate, candid mosaic of first-person accounts and conversations about African women's sexuality, read less for plot than for voice and honesty.
All Boys Aren't Blue
George M. Johnson · 2020
A frank, essayistic memoir moving through formative moments of a Black queer boyhood — intimate, direct, and unafraid of hard topics while holding space for joy.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Matthew Perry · 2022
A raw, wisecracking celebrity memoir that oscillates between Friends-era anecdotes and harrowing accounts of addiction and near-death — Perry's voice is intimate, self-lacerating, and darkly funny in equal measure.
This Book is Gay
Juno Dawson · 2014
A frank, chatty guide to LGBTQ+ identity, sex, and coming out, pitched directly at teen readers in an inclusive, non-judgmental voice.
Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell · 1933
A first-person tour through hostels, dosshouses, and hotel kitchens, rendered in plain reportorial prose that lets the squalor speak for itself.
So you want to talk about race
Ijeoma Oluo · 2018
A direct, accessible primer that turns hard conversations into concrete guidance — passionate but clarifying, with flashes of humor that sharpen rather than soften the argument.
About Our bodies, ourselves — what the genome says
Is Our bodies, ourselves a complete story or a cliffhanger?
It's a complete, standalone-satisfying story.
Who is Our bodies, ourselves for?
readers seeking a foundational feminist health reference and a piece of second-wave movement history
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