I’ve finished reading Deathless

thesavagesalad:

That’s a lie actually. It’s been 20 minutes since I’ve put that book down. The first thing I did was close my eyes and just breathed. Those final paragraphs left me holding my breath and when it was done I crashed completely.

And in those 20 minutes of breathing, you’re collecting yourself you know? Ok, maybe you don’t because I don’t even make sense to myself right now. But reading Deathless is like having someone build a wall around you. And the person who is building it is this person you have an indescribable love for, and you trust them with how they build this wall. And you’re supposed to feel safe in this wall, but you can’t, and you know why? Because it shatters and your exposed again and you’re left to catch your breath.

That was Deathless for me. When I was reading this, for the whole time I was trying to catch on to this feeling that I couldn’t even describe. And what’s so criminal about this book is that you can feel everything that is happening, and you keep on trying to put yourself together but you can’t.

And now that I’ve finished, I don’t want this feeling to leave and I want to keep it safe so I remember what it’s like to feel like this over a book.

soolagna I hope you don’t mind that I reblogged this because I just finished reading Deathless and uh wow it’s been a long time since I read a book that made me feel that way ugh it was just so stunning in so many ways and while I’m sad that it’ll never be new for me I love that something was able to affect me this way and I can’t wait to reread it a billion times and love it more

/buy everything else by Catherynne M. Valente 

omfg deaTHLESS IS RUINING ME PLZ SEND HELP

Books!

sociolab:

wretchedoftheearth:

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

I Am Your Sister by Audre Lorde

I can’t find Zami or Sister Outsider without DRMon my computer right now, but I will post them here if/when I do.

and I also threw in:

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

Let me know if any of the links/files don’t work for any reason.

This is fantastic! Thank you!

eeeeeee thanks!!

(via diashoni)

Alan Rickman reads Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; 
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
   As any she belied with false compare. 

I came

(Source: tiny-sized, via tequilaflavoredkisses)

crackly:

khaleesi:

A GREAT BIG GIANT ASS LIST OF FEMINIST LIT. Being both a starter kit of sorts and a list of titles that are important to the history of feminism or current feminist movement.  

Please note: The author of this post has not read everything suggested here but has compiled this list based on recommendations, academic courses, etc. Many of these texts are admittedly problematic, but are included because this feminist believes it’s important to know where we’ve come from in order to move forward.

Go forth and read! And feel free to add titles if you reblog!

NEW TO FEMINISM?
Manifesta by Jennifer Baumgardner
Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
Full-Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti

DIG IN!
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
Backlash by Susan Faludi
No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women by Estelle B. Freedman
The Essential Feminist Reader edited by Estelle B. Freedman
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism by Daisy Hernandez
Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
Feminism Without Borders by Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes by Lillian Robinson
The Spiral Dance by Starhawk
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft; BUY IT | READ IT ONLINE
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolfe

FEMINISM AND THE BODY:
Unbearable Weight by Susan Bordo 
FAT!SO? Because You Don’t Have to Apologize For Your Size by Marilyn Wann
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf 

FEMINISTS DO IT BETTER.
Yes Means Yes! Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti 
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Judy Norsigian and the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective
The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti

GET INVOLVED!
Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism by Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards, and Winona LaDuke
Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change by Mary K. Trigg 

Honestly I’m not a big Valenti fan but Full Frontal Feminism is all right I guess as a primer though I think it glosses over most of intersectionality (I’m not really a fan of the purity myth, I think it’s simplistic and ignores a lot of important history).  Also I’ve heard only bad things about Female Chauvinist Pigs (and I’ve heard Cunt can be problematic) but it’s a good list otherwise.

I would add:

Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby.
Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis

and if you’re interested in more historical feminist literature about body and gender I would suggest

Fasting Girls by Joan Brumberg
Holy Feast and Holy Fast by Caroline Walker Bynum

or for the history of the women in the Spiritualist movement and early feminism

The Darkened Room by Alex Owen (Alex Owen is a woman for the record)

probably some more books but I’m blanking right now.

I know Elyssa would recommend some Gerda Lerner, and Emma Goldman as well.

I’m fairly new to feminism, but I reallyreally like Woman: An Intricate Geography by Natalie Angier. 

(via whoistorule)